South Dakota Road Trip - The Intro

Seven months ago we cancelled our much anticipated trip to Turkey. Usually I have at least one trip in the planning stage and several more in the dreaming phase but since the world shut down in March I have avoided even thinking about travel. In the interim we have done a few day trips which were enjoyable, but they didn't scratch my travel itch. I had purchased a new set of luggage on Black Friday last year and it was still sitting in the spare bedroom with tags attached waiting on someplace to go. 😞

In mid-August I was already starting to dread the beginning of our long winter here in Minnesota. Once the season changed I knew my mental health would take a hit. Staying home is tolerable when  the weather is nice and I can see the lake out my window and enjoy daily bike rides. It is a totally different ballgame when the temps consistently drop below zero and that lake becomes frozen and snow covered. 

Trying to stay healthy, I have avoided almost all situations where I have to be indoors with other people. In fact I have not stepped inside a grocery store since March 16th. That isn't totally due to fear however. Once I discovered the luxury of doing curbside grocery pickup I was converted. If the pandemic were to end tomorrow I think I would still continue to do my shopping online! 

My fear of catching Covid vs. the want (and need?) to travel was a battle I was fighting constantly. Eventually the desire to travel won out and I started to think and plan how we could go somewhere but still stay safe.

A fall trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota had been on my radar for the last couple of years. But staying in a hotel and eating at restaurants was not something I was comfortable with, especially since SD has been very lax in their fight against Covid. The state has stayed open throughout the pandemic and has no mask mandate. 

I began to search the AirBnB website for someplace to rent and realized that availability for the fall was almost non-existent. But...miraculously I found an efficiency apartment south of the town of Custer that was open for 4 nights in late September. The reservation could be cancelled up to 24 hours before arriving without any penalty so I booked it immediately. 

To get to the Black Hills we would go through the Badlands National Park...Bob's favorite place on the whole planet. I would be happy to just drive through with a few stops at pullouts to snap some photos. Bob on the other hand decided we needed much more time. He has lost count of how many times he has backpacked through the Badlands and not having time to explore on this trip would have made him crazy. (One year he even spent several nights on a backpacking trip through the park when temps reached a low of -10º!)

No snow, but temps were well below zero for this multi-day backpacking trip in 2006.

Cedar Pass Lodge in the park has cabins to rent, but of course none were available for either the front or back end of our trip. The next best option was to book a room at a hotel in Wall, SD which is on the western side of the park. (I was already mentally packing my Chlorox wipes to get ready.)

A couple of weeks before our trip, I just happened to log onto the Cedar Pass Lodge website and there was one cabin available for our time frame. Regardless of which cabin you book, the price with tax was $192. That was quite a bit more than we had planned to pay for our hotel room in Wall so I decided to wait and ask Bob before booking. Bad choice. Within an hour the available cabin was gone. :(

But I had a glimmer of hope and began checking the website multiple times a day. When another cabin showed availability a few days later, I booked it immediately. Yay! I didn't care what it cost. I liked the idea of having our own cabin and being inside the park would be so much more convenient.

So with reservations in place, I began planning menus and making lists. Knowing we would have kitchen facilities, I prepared some food in advance (and froze) and stocked up on snacks and sandwich material for picnic lunches when we were touring. The tags were torn off the new luggage and I watched the long range weather forecast to try and decide what clothing to pack. IT FELT GOOD TO BE PLANNING A TRIP!!!