Saturday, July 18

Today was far hotter than either of the two previous days in South Dakota. Temperatures, which started out on Thursday at around 70-75 degrees Fahrenheit, rose up to about 85-90 degrees over the course of our stay. Temperatures aside, however, we had a fun, if not interesting time today. Getting up at around 6:45, we ate a quick breakfast of cereal and orange juice. Shortly afterwards, around 7:45, we headed towards the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, where we waited for about an hour on the waiting list before we found out that the first tour had already been taken by reserved spots. After that, we headed back to the campsite to make a picnic lunch to take elsewhere on a different trip. By the way, we had discovered at our last site that the Liquid Propane Gas generator had run out of fuel on one side, so Dad and I filled up the tank while Mom made sandwiches for us. I'm not sure when we pulled out, but when we did, we were headed for the city of Wall, South Dakota, and its famous attraction, the Wall Drug Store. For those who don't know, think a "drug store" one square block in area, filled not only with pharmaceutical items, but more paraphernalia and useless items than one could possibly imagine. Ninja throwing stars and shot glasses with state names on them.

However, before we could get to Wall Drug, we had to pass through 29 miles of idyllic Badlands scenery. We saw many beautiful rock formations, as well as two iconic animals of the west: bison and prairie dogs. We stopped at a few overlooks, one of which we had lunch at, and took the Sage Creek Road, along which was supposedly the largest wild buffalo herds in the park. We also passed by Prairie Dog Town, which certainly lived up to its name. Hundreds of the little critters stood up and barked until the air rang with their cries. It was extremely cool.

We reached Wall at about 2:00 or so, and we found a parking place rather quickly. Once parked, we all searched for Wall Drug, which wasn't hard to find, as we used the crowds to guide us. Wall Drug was a monstrosity! One block of ripoffs, in one room after another. In the end, Dad, Philip, and I ended up getting root beer floats, and leaving without any actual item purchases, as everything there was naturally overpriced. After visiting there, we decided to go through a car wash while in town. We got through rather fast, and proceeded to drive to a small grocery store on the way back to camp. We bought some small necessities, and then we went back. I got started on writing the blog post for today almost right away when we got back, so that's really all for today. Mirupafshim! That's "goodbye" in Albanian.