Badlands, SD

I am writing this blog from a Burger King in Sturgis, SD, I'm in here because we came here for biker week and within 30 minutes of us coming here a crazy thunder storm began, but let me back track a little bit and tell you what we've been up to. We left Chicago at 2 am to make the 14 hr drive to the Badlands. The drive wasn't too bad, but let me tell you I have not seen more fucking corn than I have driving through Minnesota. Corn as far as the eye can see every where and if its not corn its vast fields of soy, the moral of this story don't go to Minnesota. We also saw huge energy windmill fields along the way which was awesome to see, I really don't understand why there aren't more of these around because they actually look pretty cool and I'm sure it could save millions in energy cost. Anyway, on the way to the Badlands we stopped at the 'Corn Palace' in South Dakota, and it's probably the biggest tourist trap is SD. It's this 'Palace' thats made from real corn and theres designs in it. Its free to get in and once inside its like a high school gym with a gift shop in the middle, pretty lame but it made us laugh, we also met some people from NC there. On to the Badlands, which I have never heard of before Nate brought it up to go to. It kind of pops up out of no where and is a cross between what you think the surface of the moon would look like and a smaller Grand Canyon. So once we got there we set up camp at our camp site and went out to explore. We started off on trail and then decided that it was lame and not exiting enough so we were going to make our own. This idea ended up being worth it and we got some amazing pictures and saw a lot that we wouldn't have otherwise. After hiking we ate our dinner of cold hot dogs and trail mix, we have a lot of class. We then hung out and drank some beers until the wind started to pick up. Out in the distance we start to see some insane lightning and the wind is continuing to pick up. Our tent looks like its struggling and the only way we can guarantee it doesn't blow away is if we get inside, so we get inside and proceed to cuddle like fat girls that just got dumped. The wind blows crazy for the rest of the night and it rains a little bit but not nearly as bad as we thought. The next day we go out and continue hiking around the Badlands, making our own better trails of course. This place is like one big rock climbing area, the only thing is the rocks are really soft and loose so you have to be careful where you grab on to. We packed up camp and left the Badlands around 12pm and headed out to see Mt. Rushmore. We see the exit for Mt. Rushmore which is in a town called Keystone, we pull off and my god I have never seen so many motorcycles in my life! Apparently in the town over, Sturgis, there is a week long bike rally and we happened to stumble upon in. Bike week is pretty much a non stop noisefest where bikers come together and well. . . bike. Its kind of like spring break for bikers. Not only do they take over Sturgis they take over any town within 50 miles. So we go up to see Mt. Rushmore, its awesome and everything I thought it would be, we decided we got enough of a view from the road and this 'authorized vehicles only' road we went down so we didn't go into the actual park. After we see the faces in rocks we go back down to Keystone to see what bike week is all about. Its crazy, we go to this local bar and have a couple of beers and shoot the shit with some bikers. A lot of these guys are actually pretty old and have the gnarleiest beards I have ever seen. After our brief taste with biker week we decided we wanted to get biker week wasted, so we headed to the epicenter of it all Sturgis, SD. Sturgis is about an hour or so from Mt. Rushmore and don't ask me why all these bikers picked Sturgis to converge on but they did, and its been going on for like 60 years. So we roll up to Sturgis and the town itself is nice but really nothing special, except for like a million bikers. We park and head into town. We don't get too far in before we stop at this shirt stand with this guy selling homemade shirts, his name is Chad. I notice he is from Humboldt, CA (Northern California), we strike up a conversation and mention where we going and he offers us a place to stay. This guy reminds me of Jack Black so were probably going to have to hit him up when we get there. After talking to him for a little bit we notice the ridiculous lightning going on around us and then it just starts to come down. We then sprint through a down pour back to the car. Now we come to this me sitting in a Burger King writing this, tonight we are leaving for Yellowstone, we have a place to stay, so until next time. . . god bless america.

-mac