Friday June 19

Today we slept in a little as this might be our last good nights sleep for a week or so as the fun starts soon. I finished up my Blog from yesterday and then started to pack up thr car. In that we were in the same place for two nights I took more out of the car then usual, plus we had Mary’s Aunt and Uncle in the car yesterday so needed more room.

We had a quick breakfast at the hotel then headed to Mary’s Aunts house to meet up with her cousin Cindy who drove down from Sioux Falls this morning. We sat around on the back porch and spent time catching up, since we hadn’t seen Cindy since we went to Mary’s Uncle Bobs 80th Birthday about 4 years ago. About an hour after we had arrived, Cindy’s brother Mike who we met up with yesterday stopped by knowing his sister was visiting. It seems that several of Mary’s Aunts family members including kids, grandkids, and siblings were converging on Yakton to celebrate Maxines 80th Birthday (even though she won’t be 80 until November. Had we have known sooner I am positive Mary would have planned to be there at least through Friday night, but we already had reservations and plans.

Mary’s Uncle Bob who had gone to The Elks Lodge to do his Treasurer duties arrived and with that we said good bye and headed north to The Badlands!

The drive from Yankton to our cabin at Cedar Pass at the bottom of the Badlands Loop took us about 5 hours, with a quick stop for gas and a bathroom break. We were a bit concerned about the road heading into the southern end of The Badlands, as the website had indicated the road had been washed out and they were unsure of the reopening date. When Mary contacted the Cedar Pass Lodge, they said not to pay attention to the internet that the road was open. We did however run into about a 20 minute wait as the road had been reduced to one lane.

As we entered the Badlands National Park, the scenery was spectacular! The colors on the rock formations appeared red, which we later discovered was brought out by all the rain. We made a quick stop at the visitors center to get Mary’s book stamped, then sat and watched a very interesting movie on the Badlands, including the wildlife we might see and the constant changes in the landscape.

We had dinner at The Cedar Pass Lodge, the only game in town, but food was decent. We couldn’d decide between the Indian Taco and the Buffalo Burger, so we got both and shared. Indian Taco was what you would expect to find in a taco except that it had Buffalo as opposed to Beef, and it was served open face on Indian Fry Bread. It was actually very good. Buffalo Burger was good as well, much more lean then beef and a great flavor.

After dinner we walked around the grounds and took a few pictures until it was time to go see the Ranger Program on the Park. At about 8:45 we made our way to the Amphitheater arriving in time to get a look at the moon through a large telescope prior to it going behind the clouds. The Ranger originally from Charlotte North Carolina was a seasonal ranger here in the Badlands for his third year. He had a prepared slide show that talked about the best spots to see certain animals as well as the best places to view the sites.

The program ended about 9:30 and we made our way back to our cabin as the sky was getting ominous and even treated us to a light show!

We drove about 360 miles today, and 95 on Thursday (I forgot to enter that number).