We are sitting together in the car,  driving for hours, cross country from East to West. Since we left NY, we have experienced so much and traveled many miles into the Northwest. We are rushing the 60 hour drive from NJ to Seattle for a work-related commitment. We could have gone on a faster route, but we chose to stop in beautiful destinations.

About an hour ago we crossed the border from Wyoming to Montana. We are on our way to spectacular cliffs that we will probably describe in the next post.

These are the events since we wrote last: We left NY to Ohio, where we camped one night near Cleveland and another in a “hole in the wall” on our way. Not a lot to write about from there, but the fun fact we met Elan’s niece which we love and haven’t seen for a while.

From Ohio we drove and spent two nights with family. We left the rig in their neighbor’s garage and received a 5 star experience in their house, with great warmth and the most beautiful garden. We spent a lovely afternoon on the beach of Lake Michigan. It felt like a sea or the ocean with white sands and an endless blue horizon. Then we drove around the lake’s south shore, down to Indiana. We spent a night in a little farm literally in the middle of nowhere. We arrived just before dusk and managed to find very little air between the mountains of mosquitos, not allowing any living creature to stay outside. We shut everything, fell asleep and ran for our lives as soon as the sun came out. We then drove through Illinois, without stopping, and made it to Wisconsin to yet another Harvest Host farm in a beautiful green area not far from the Mississippi River.

Part of the fixing and upgrading of our rig in Tampa included adding Lithium batteries. Combined with the built-in solar panels, they are supposed to allow us many days out in nature without hook-ups. But… what happens if the fridge stays a bit open, you have a fan working, and you charge your laptop? Great question! We ran out of electricity, surprisingly, right after night fell.

Long story short, we connected to one of the farm’s outlets inside a building crawling with bats, covered the connections with plastic bags, and finished in perfect timing for a cloudburst and pouring rain. Power was back, the rain stopped, and we all were back inside safely watching  thousands of fireflies outside our windows.

Next morning we left the green valley and crossed the Mississippi River into Minnesota, crossing the whole state and stopping a few times for lunch and walks with the dogs.

We arrived in South Dakota sometime in the afternoon, to the small town Sioux Falls, left the rig at the state park and went to see the falls. It was actually a small park in the center of town, with waterfalls running down rock formations. The next morning we took our kayak for it maiden paddle in Palisades Lake. It was fun and adventurous. We left the area with mud on our feet, heading towards Badlands National park. We got a recommendation to spend the night in a place called – Boondocks on The Wall. 

Boondocking means camping out in nature without any hook-ups. This place was on the rim of the cliffs overlooking the whole valley of the park. The recommendations proved accurate: it was a beautiful place and an exciting experience. We drove up to the rim through the park, where there are endless grasslands from which huge rocks and cliffs in all sizes emerge upwards, and saw plenty of undisturbed wildlife.

We arrived, set our outdoor kitchen, and cooked with the most amazing view. When the preparation was done, we transformed the cooking table into a dining tackle and had dinner, watching the beautiful view and the colors of sunset. The sunrise on the following morning rose from the valley below and left us speechless. I don’t think the photos will be able to show the magic.

We were debating between staying another day and leaving, but we saw the weather forecast was for 100 degrees Fahrenheit that day, and again – nature showed us the way. Away from there. Continuing to another recommended place – Custer State Park. 

We camped near Custer for two nights, went to see the huge carved heads of the presidents in Mount Rushmore, the beginning of the rock carved for Native American hero, “Crazy Horse”, and drove down Needles Highway. The most impressive of the abundant wildlife we saw were the Bison. We drove through a herd of hundreds of bisons – big males, moms and calves, young ones and old ones. So many of them!

This long journey stretched through ten days and as I said I (Michal) am writing while we are driving long hours through Montana. Once in a while we share the wide expanses of the open road with another vehicle. There will be a hill or a mountain here and there. You can drive a whole hour without seeing the smallest of towns.

Lunch was a picnic at the foot of Devil’s Tower in Wyoming, a huge rock with a striped texture, emerging from the ground, surrounded by red sandy soil and greenery. We laid our rug by the rig, feasted, rested and headed on our way.

We will update soon, probably from Seattle

Thank you for being with us on this journey,

Elan & Michal