Day 2: The Badlands

I slept like a rock! The room at the Days Inn was OK. The complimentary breakfast was, ina word - AWFUL! Thank goodness I brought my own coffee!
We left around 9AM. The drive was uneventful, except for the many multi-mile, two-way traffice stretches of interstate. It seemed like most of I-90 was undergoing major reconstruction. Oh, the best part once you got through the construction zones? Legal speed limit on 75MPH! I guess I was always a bit of a speed demon at heart.
We crosses paths a couple of times with a guy in a silver Grand Cherokee. He and his Boxer were wrapping up a 3-month road trip. WOW!!! We even gave him one of our LOST-IL business cards - as always, trying to promote LOST Jeeps whenever we can.
We had lunch in Murdo at the GTO Diner. Jan had a buffalo burger - it was overcooked. The service was so slow, we thought we wouldn't have enough time to take in the Badlands.
After a couple more construction zones, we arrived at the National Park around 2PM (we had gained an hour - Yay! for Mountain time) We spent the rest of the afternoon taking in the sights in the park. We even got to see some of the local wildlife: prairie dogs - lots of them, a mountain goat, a couple of bison and even a pronghorn antelope.
We left the park as the sun was beginning to sink lower in the horizon. We made our way to Wall, SD for an obligatory stop at Wall Drug. Yes, it is probably one of North America's biggest tourist traps. Jan had never been there and we needed gas, so we stopped just long enough to pick up a souvenir or two and fill up.
We're spending the next couple of days in Rapid City. We had dinner at the Firehouse Brewing Co. Their kitschy billboards - complete with real fire trucks at each one - lines the many miles of interstate we had traveled today. The food was good and the drink were better *wink*
Tomorrow, it's off to explore Custer National Park, the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse.