Even Ripley was shocked

So, wow, today. Where to begin? After the post this morning, we began the final leg of the drive to Wind Cave. Now at this point, we had already abused the advantage of one time zone switch. Unbeknownst to us however, there were actually two time zone switches between Jersey and Wind Cave, so we cheated time once more. After making the unscheduled stop at Badlands National Park (surprisingly made of mud, not stone), the pictures of which should be immediately prior to this post, we stopped at the famous Wall Drugstore. I cannot begin to describe how frequently this place is advertized. In the barren landscape of South Dakota, Wall Drug is like the mecca of bison country, and billboards slathered with praise and kitschy family-fun-fueled enthusiasm appear more frequently on the side of Route 90 than dogs on the sidewalk in the Village. This place is a complex, with about 50 different running themes, about as many employees as live in this state, and a plastic T-Rex that we unfortunately did not have time to see.

Time was running out, we were still a couple hours away with incorrect directions and an iPhone with not a drop of signal. Our only hope was the GPS, and after crossing our fingers and blindly choosing 1 out of 3 Wind Cave options offered to us by the search function, we set sail.

The good first: the drive through Custer National Park was stunning, speckled with antelope and bison literally inches from your car door. I wanted so badly to reach out and make friends, but Adam was vehemently against it. Something about "all the warning signs" somesuch or other.







The bad next: the ups, downs, twists and turns took their time carefully turning my stomach in on itself until I was green in the face. To make a long story, well, less long, we finally made it to Wind Cave after having to ignore the GPS a couple times and acting on hunches at speeds not ranger-approved. The check-in time for the candlelight tour was 1PM sharp, and I kid you not, we hustled into the Wind Cave Tour Center at exactly 12:59:48, according to their clock. Leave it to us to drive halfway across the country and almost miss the tour by a matter of minutes. But all that aside, WE MADE IT!!

The tour was (and I fear this trip will antagonize the effectiveness of this word in my vocabulary) stunning. Holding nothing more than small, well- worn tin buckets with wax candles lit inside of them, Ranger Geri lead us through the caves for a solid two hours on a tour route that has remained unchanged since the 1890's. At one point we all had to blow out our candles, and we sat in complete darkness as our ears stayed tuned to the ranger's story while our eyes sought out the sources of the imaginary flares our minds kept producing as a vain attempt to fully understand pure, inky, complete darkness. At one point she had us sing "happy birthday" to a room of stone to test the acoustics, and pointed out the insanely complex spiderwebs of delicate stone on the ceiling (95% of the WORLD'S boxwork formations!).

After we left, my stomach finally did succeed in turning itself inside out, and I passed out while Adam got us safely through the bison cavalry and out to flatter grounds. The evening was clear, with nothing but a beautiful chiaroscuro sunset over the horizon in Wyoming. Now we get our first actual night's sleep at an old western saloon in Buffalo, WY, and my spine is already celebrating at its first chance to be horizontal since Thursday.




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