Jake's Journey: Day 43 – Saturday, June 11

Today we drove to the Badlands. First, we stopped at the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. Mom and Dad learned that there were 150 Minuteman missiles around South Dakota during the cold war. They toured a launch facility, including the underground command center. They said that it was very interesting to see.

After the tour, we went to Badlands National Park. I’m not sure why they call them the Badlands. It didn’t look very bad to me. There was lots of pretty green grass and cool rock formations. At the hottest, it was only about 70 degrees today. Part of the day, Mom wore a jacket. I found out that this time of year is usually in the mid-80’s and that in summer it gets even hotter. Sometimes more than 110 degrees. Now that IS BAD, particularly, if you always wear a black fur coat. Also, they tell me that rainfall is pretty rare, usually only about 15 inches per year. Yeah, right! When Mom and Dad went into the Visitor Center to watch the film, it POURED down on me in the motor home. Even got some hail! Yikes!

When it stopped raining, we took the drive through the park and stopped at several of the view points. The rocks are really pretty. At the last view point, Mom and Dad got to see about 25 Big Horn Sheep. They were Mamas and babies, so their horns were kind of small, but they thought that it was really neat to see.

When we left Badlands, we went to Wall Drug. I only got to see the outside stuff, but it is a fun place. Tonight we are at a campground in Wall, South Dakota. We have a light show here. There isn’t any music, just some booming in the distance. Mom says the booming is called thunder. She says that she heard that there is something called a tornado warning for tonight.