Homeward Bound

 Today we hit the road to home, and because we’re the Ackerman’s, we did it all. First stop: Madison Wisconsin, which people say is a lot like Ann Arbor. Nah, it’s much cooler. And colder, especially on the windy lake where we played on a playground.

Then we stopped for ice cream outside of Chicago. Then we tacked on another National Park: Indiana Dunes. Maggie sure loves the sand! 

Tomorrow I plan on sleeping, cleaning, going to the grocery store and unpacking. I’m looking forward to spending time with our neighbors, reuniting with our cat Abby, and starting our garden. It’ll also be good to get back into the habits of running and yoga, and to see my church family again. This has been the trip of a lifetime, and as much as I’m thankful for all the places and people we got to see, I’m also thankful for the home we return to.

Oh hey, Indiana - didn't know you had a national park!

Well, it turns out Indiana has a national park, too, and it was right on our way home. Yes, tonight we'll sleep in our own beds, but first we stopped at Indiana Dunes National Park. It was exactly what we expected: lovely lakeshore dunes with lots of wind and sand and water. The temperature wasn't that low (in the mid 50s), but the wind made it a bit uncomfortable. We still managed a quick dune hike and some playing in the sand.

There are a few more stops in South Dakota, Minnesota, and Wisconsin to fill you in on (the "World's Only Corn Palace!"), but it feels momentous to punch in "home" as the destination on the GPS. See you soon, Ann Arbor!

The Badlands

“It’s just like Canyonlands, but made of dirt, not rock.”

“I’d say it’s not bad. Not bad at all.”

“It’s like one minute you’re on the prairie, the next minute you’re on the moon!”

“Ugh. Will someone carry me, please?”

These were a few quotes heard around Badlands National Park on Tuesday. (All spoken by the Ackerman clan.)  What a place! It is so diverse, with open prairies, spots of trees, and looming formations of dirt that have eroded over time to uncover fossils and layers of minerals. It’s stunning.

We entered on the East, taking a miles-long dirt road that shook Samantha and sent things flying. But it was well worth it, as we encountered bison, elk, antelope, and most delightfully hundreds of prairie dogs. One interesting thing about the Badlands is that back country hiking and camping are encouraged, so we parked at a few overlooks and did some trekking, finding animal tracks and spotting incredible formations. We slowly made our way to our campsite, which was on the eastern tip of the park, and set up just as it started raining.

The next morning was sunny with blue skies, so we ventured out to hike some more. A 1.5 mile hike was labeled “strenuous” and we found out why when we came upon a wooden ladder mid-hike. Maggie caught “congratulations” from other hikers as she swiftly navigated the ladder, and the rest of our climb lead to amazing views of the valley.

It’s safe to say the Badlands was one of our favorite parks. I also included in this post some pictures of Deadwood, the famous Western town in South Dakota, and Mount Rushmore, both of which we visited on our way to the Badlands. Deadwood was disappointingly full of bars and casinos (“true to the history” thought Matt) and Mount Rushmore was pretty cool to see, especially since it had a few wild goats hanging around. 

Black Hills & Badlands

We hit the road from Montana on Monday, heading for South Dakota. We passed right by Buffalo, WY and the Bighorn National Forest, where I spent a summer in high school. It would have been wonderful to stop, but we still had a long way to go. We did stop for lunch in Gillette, WY, where Marianne did a quick re-supply run to a local grocery store. She was the only customer in there wearing a mask, and thinks some people even laughed at her for wearing it. We had a similar experience at an ice-cream shop in South Dakota two days later (minus the snickering). When we're at tourist destinations we see a lot of mask-wearing, but not so much elsewhere, very different than what weexperience at home. It's interesting to see the different norms around masks in different regions.

Anyway, it was on to the Black Hills, a region of a lot of beauty and difficult history (we passed right by the Little Bighorn battlefield). These mountains, which are sacred to the Lakota Sioux, were given to them by treaty as a reservation... until gold was discovered there and countless miners took up illegal claims in the hills and begged for military protection. Today there's a lot of tourism playing on the "Western" tropes, and we stopped at what may be the prime example: Deadwood, South Dakota. Marianne: "So, people just come here to gamble and drink?" Me: "Yup. Same as it's been since the 1870s."

But, of course, the main Black Hills attraction overall is Mt. Rushmore. Tuesday morning we went to take a look, and got our presidential head fix. We also saw a family of mountain goats.

That was just a hint of what we'd see that afternoon and the next day at the Badlands, where we camped Tuesday night. We entered the park from the far west side and passed by pronghorn antelope, lots of prairie dogs, (female) bighorn sheep, and (more) bison. And our campsite was serenaded repeatedly by Western Meadowlarks.

The Badlands themselves are pretty incredible, and we had a blast over the day and a half scrambling over formations and enjoying the prairie setting.