Days 30 & 31: Badlands National Park -> Madison, WI

- Powwow at Rosebud Indian Reservation, SD

Sunday morning we went on a hike in the Northern Unit of the Badlands, where Anna’s fear shifted from bears to poisoness prairie rattlesnakes, joy! We hiked along the dry mountainous ring on the periphery of our campsite, passing many a’ Buffalo patty and prickly pear cactus. Afterwards we drove on route 240 through the park, and kept driving through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and east where we didn’t pass a single car in nearly a half hour. The sun was shining as we drove past one remote farm after another, and we were in great spirits. We wound up at the Rose Bud Indian Reservation in South Dakota, on the border of Nebraska, where, as two of only a handful of non-Indians, we experienced our first Native American Indian powwow behind the Rosebud casino. We also ate our first Indian taco and funnel cake! As we arrived early in the day and dark was still hours away, we decided to hit the road and catch fireworks in what we expected to be some small town as we progressed eastward. We’d passed through some pretty serious weather as we had begun our drive and, although we noticed it was getting darker, we figured this was due to the heavy cloud cover, as the clock only read 8:30pm and we’d heard most displays weren’t until about 10. After witnessing several fireworks shows in the horizon, it dawned on us that we had probably crossed over another time zone. Doh! Who knew there was a difference between Central and Mountain time?? Needless to say we missed celebrating in the usual 4th of July way. We wound up at a campsite in the Newton Hills State Park in eastern South Dakota.

Now on the road in Iowa, we spent the past couple hours finishing a book we started before we left Boston, entitled Mountains Beyond Mountains, which we read aloud. The book is primarily a biography about a doctor named Paul Farmer, who travels the world offering modern medicine and his personal expertise to diseased people who need them most. Although the book raises some difficult questions about world equity and human rights that are, justifiably, a bit unsettling for two healthy westerners vacationing across America, it is a great read and Paul Farmer is a special person who deserves to be read about. Providentially, it was just the fuel Anna needed to jump right back into Summer school the week we get back…

We’re planning to make it to Madison, WI tonight.