Thunderstorms

7/21/2018

We woke up around 6 and slowly made our way out of the wagon for a relatively quick 2 hours drive to the Badlands. We stopped on the way at a grocery store to get food for the next day or so. We picked the campsite we wanted based on the fact that there was potable water and a pool. It was right next to a motel, but the view of the Badlands was unreal.

Once we checked in we set up our tent and hopped in the pool. This is the moment we realized that this campsite was the best choice hands down. We hung out by the pool for a bit while we waited for Derek to join us.

When Derek showed up, we all hopped in the pool before exploring the park a bit. We drove through the park and stopped at a number of different stops to take pictures and look at the prairie dogs and burrowing owls. These are both the cutest animals, but they’re tiny, and somewhat far away, so we couldn’t really capture the them on our phones.

We finished the drive and headed back to camp to make black bean and sweet potato tacos, which was a great break from all the meats we’ve been eating. After dinner we made a fire and watched the sunset until a thunderstorm ended our night early. We quick packed all the necessary things into our cars, and quick hopped in our tents.

Sleeping at night was insane. Our tents were actually falling down and hitting us when the wind would gust, then go back up to standing (sideways) when the gust would end. It was actually kind of crazy, somewhat scary, but mostly worrisome that we would get super wet because the fly was pushed against the screen of the tent. fortunately when the wind was at it’s strongest, the rain wasn’t coming down too hard. All three of us actually got out of our tents in the middle of the night because Derek’s tent was in rough shape. It’s a bigger, so more tent to fall on him.

In the end, we were all alright, but it was just a bit alarming for a while.