Oct 24th-28th

I left my tale in a motel in Luverne, MN. In my last post I had mentioned a call from my friend Bill. Well after that call, I saw a news story about a virtual reality interactive video game system in Empire Mall in Sioux Falls, SD. So the next morning, before heading to Badlands National Park, I made a short detour to the Mall to try it. The owner explained that there are only three of those machines in America and two of them were there which allowed two people to actually play against each other, making it a truly unique experience. The machine allowed you to control the pitch and tilt so it felt like you were in flying. It had 3d glasses and sprayed mists of water when the game story went near water. The most unique thing was that it allowed you to do a complete barrel roll. Most games just have you pitch to a side and the screen will roll. The entire machine rolled as you did a barrel roll. It was incredible. I had mentioned to the owner that I had seen it on the news so after my round, he let me play a second round for free.
After a bite to eat at Applebee's, I hit the road for Badlands National Park. I made another small pitstop in the town of Wall to see Wall Drug since there were hundreds of billboards for it. I got there around 4:45 and was surprised to see that practically everything was closed. I did a little shopping and walking around and by the time it was 5pm everywhere was closed. I got back in my car and backtracked to the eastern side of Badlands National Park so I could drive through the whole thing. It was getting dark by then so I took a few pictures before heading to the primitive campsite to set up for the night. On my drive, I saw a few deer and then got a huge surprise when I saw a bison on the road. Obviously I had to stop and that's when I noticed the entire herd on either side of the road. I got to the campsite and camped out in my tent.
The next morning I woke up and saw some bison in the distance when I opened my tent flap. Then I turned around and saw two in the campground area. They were no more than 50 yards away. After a quick breakfast of Chef Boyardee, I packed up my car and decided to drive the whole loop through the Badlands. I turned my GoPro on and attached it to my dashboard to video the landscape as I drove through it. I made a lot of stops at overlook views and took videos from them too. Then I found a place to park and climbed up one of the formations with my GoPro strapped to my head. I also took a hike around one of the paths and saw a deer, a herd of bighorn goats, and an eagle perched at the top of a formation. After my hike, I was getting tired and decided to finish the drive and head to Mt. Rushmore.
I got to Mt. Rushmore and decided to take my Where's Waldo costume out again. This time I remembered that I had binoculars with me which made the costume even better. I took some pictures of the monument and snuck in the background of other people's pictures. The monument was incredible and learning about how it was made was amazing. I then went to Crazy Horse Monument. The monument is far from completion but there were scale models of the finished monument. Only the face was completed and an outline of his horse drawn on the mountain. When completed, the monument will be absolutely massive. For scale, all of Mt. Rushmore would fit in Crazy Horse's head!
I left the monument and headed to Belle Fourche, SD to see the geographic center of the nation. It was dark by the time I got there so I only took a few pictures before finding a bar to get some food before heading to my hotel room. I ate at Stadium Bar & Grill and talked to the owner Chris about my journey and about where he's from. The food was delicious and it was a nice environment.
The next day I headed into Wyoming to see Devil's Tower. I took a walk around the base and badly wished that I was a skilled enough rock climber to climb to the top of it. Sections of the forest around the base were smoking from the fire that is needed to help rebuild and renew the landscape around it. I then started my drive towards Yellowstone. Fortunately for me, my drive took me through Bighorn National Forest. The winding road up and down the mountain through the forest was a bit nerve-wracking but it had beautiful views allowing you to see for miles to the east and amazing rockfaces on the way back down. I didn't make it to Yellowstone before the sun went down, so I pulled over  outside of Buffalo Bill City at a campground on Buffalo Bill Reservoir. Unfortunately the ground was gravel so I couldn't stake my tent down. Instead I opted to stay the night in my car.
The next day, I made my way into Yellowstone from the eastern entrance. With many stops for pictures, I made my way to Old Faithful and the geysers surrounding it. When I got to Old Faithful, I stopped for some lunch before walking around to see all the smaller geysers and pools. About 10 minutes into my walk, I saw one of the larger geysers blow. A few minutes later, I saw Old Faithful going off in the distance. So I headed back to the visitor center to see the museum and find out when the next eruption would be. They also had a movie about Yellowstone and the different aspects of the park. After the movie, I headed outside to sit and wait for Old Faithful to erupt. It was only a short wait before the geyser began blowing. The main eruption where the water was at its highest lasted about 10 seconds and then continued on for another minute or so.
Next, I started making my way to Mammoth Springs to camp out for the night. I was hoping to see a bear at some point, so I continued to make quick stops for pictures and sight seeing. Unfortunately I did not see any bears by the time I made it to the campground. Before setting up my tent, I went for a little hike to the top of the hill, still hoping to see a bear off in the distance. Safety lesson, never hike alone and when in Yellowstone carry bear spray just in case. I was lucky and had no encounters but it truly can be very dangerous hiking alone. I hiked back down the hill and set up my tent for the night. It was unbelievably windy and I was worried my recreational tent wouldn't hold up but I made it through the night with no problems.
I woke up on Friday and broke down my tent. Before heading off for the day, I went to the bathroom to brush my teeth. On my way back to my car, my path was cut off by a huge male elk. I decided to walk a little out of my way to get back to my car but he was walking down the path that led to my campsite. He ended up stopping for a food break 10 feet from my car! If I had woken up 30 minutes later, he would have been right outside my tent! After he moved to the other side of the path, I snuck into my car. Only after I was sitting down did I remember that I needed to grab my campsite slip from the post next to where my tent had been. So I had to slip back out of my car, get the slip, and get back into my car while the elk was only on the other side of a one lane pathway. As I was driving away, I noticed a second male elk sitting down in one of the campsites right next to the pathway. There were numerous females as well but they stayed on the outskirts of the campground for the most part.
Well, although I'm still very behind on my posts about my journey, I'll leave my tale here. As always, if you want to follow my journey, I do some tweeting on @nyknicks167 and I'll continue posting pictures on here. Eventually, I will post my videos somewhere but I still haven't figured that out yet. So stay tuned for the next installment!