We've had much less consistent internet access than anticipated, and I've greatly enjoyed being disconnected from the rest of the world, but I apologize nonetheless for the lack of posts here lately. On the whole this has been a wonderful trip and a great time for Christina and I to be away from hospitals and all that cancer involves. We're in the Denver area now and won't be home for about a week or so yet but we also won't be in any remote areas from here on out so this seems like a good time to catch people up in where we've been and what we've done.
The first couple days were pretty straightforward, driving through the Midwest to get to our first destination. We made the requisite stops at Culver's of course, and we went for a brief hike in a state park in the Wisconsin Dells, but there's not a lot else to report, other than we discovered our dog has grown considerably since we last stayed in a tent with him, and we realized we needed to upgrade to a bigger one. Oh, and we forgot several items of clothing we had been counting on, as well as our folding camp chairs. It was a bit of a comedy of errors at first. But at least it was a comedy!
Soon we reached our first national park, Badlands in South Dakota. I'd been there several years ago and the place helped inspire the Ramshead Plains region of Rythka, so it was especially great to experience the unique area again and imagine new ways to discribe it in my writing. More than one prominent character will spend time in the Ramshead Plains in the Legacy of Rythka series, and multiple Verten hideouts exist in the narrow ravines there, but I'll say no more so I don't spoil anything. One change I did notice was the explosion in the prairie dog population. Over a mile of the scenic drive we did there bordered a single prairie dog colony, and it seemed they'd become somewhat of a nuisance within the park..
After a stop at Wall Drug for free ice water, we headed on to the Black Hills. Mount Rushmore was busy and not as pretty as the rest of the region, so we didn't spend long there. We really enjoyed Custer State Park though, camping for a night before the snow moved into the area. On the Needles Highway we saw some mountain goats in the distance perched somehow on a cliff face, along with our first bison in a meadow.
I'm writing this on my phone so I'll edit this later to catch typos and add pictures when I have a chance to get out the laptop, but I wanted to get a start on recounting our trip here. A huge thank you to everyone who donated to us so we were able to enjoy his much-needed time on the road together.
More updates later....
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