Super Epic - Super Pacific Road Trip - Day 14: Losing Count, Badlands, Recovery Straps, & Warren Buffet

Today is day 14 of this trip, which I thought was a couple of days ago because the days are starting to run together.

That means days 12 and 13 were in the Badlands, not 10 and 11, as previously stated.

When we last talked, Julia and I were sitting in a restaurant in Rapid City, SD. Trust me when I say there is NOTHING in Rapid City but mile after mile of shopping centers.

The only reason we were there was to pick up a bumper for an 80-Series Landcruiser that I agreed to haul back for a good friend. And although I would never say this to her face, dragging that bumper around has been a complete, t-total pain in the ass.

Good thing I shipped all my extra blue jeans home, I reckon.

But we found a pretty decent restaurant that didn't mind us hanging around for three hours, hogging up their bandwidth while we caught up on emails and phone calls.

And, to be fair, my cheeseburger was pretty damn good. It hit the spot before we headed to the Badlands, stopping at the ghost town of Scenic, SD, along the way.

As national parks go, Badlands is small. There are only two campgrounds, and we were set to stay in each for one night. The first was near the entrance, so we rolled through to check it out.

It was a circle, perhaps 1/8 mile long, with about 20 campsites, 2,000 horseflies, one tree, and every last one of the sun's rays. The only redeeming quality was the Toyota Delica, driven by my soon-to-be new friends Mike and Lydia. I considered setting up shop beside them for the evening, but yet another bug bite convinced me otherwise, and we headed north to the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands.

There, we found a long, steep cliff overlooking the grasslands with a stiff breeze that cleared out most of the flies. Due to an upcoming electromagnetic storm that will make the Northern Lights visible from there, there were tons of people, including a bunch of RVs that looked a little out of place.

After supper, a young guy came named Piotr ( hard to pronounce. P-oh-tra with a kind of rolled r) over to ask if we could spare some water. He is from Poland and is biking across the US from New York City to Seattle.

So we let him use our shower and then talked for a while, watching the rain come in from a distance. It was late by the time we got in bed, and I was happy to see how well the not-rooftop tent performed in what turned out to be an all-night storm with howling winds.

The following day, things were a muddy mess, and I was glad I'd taken the time the night before to pack everything up. Piotr came over for coffee and breakfast, and we packed up to leave for the rest of Badlands.

Then the driver of one of those out-of-place RVs came over and said he was stuck - wanted to know if I could pull him out.

Now, y'all, I love that sort of stuff.

Like, when it snows back home, I ride around licking my chops, hoping to find someone stuck.

It never happens.

And here, in the Badlands, was my chance!

But could my 6,000-pound Tundra do anything with a 30,000-pound RV?

You'll have to watch the video to find out.

We headed up toward the other side of the park - which is incredibly beautiful. But when we drove through the other campground, it was unanimous that we were not staying.

"I'm having a hot flash!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Julia said.

Ten minutes later, we had the wind at our backs and headed to Sioux Falls. We checked into the hotel around midnight, finished the laundry by 2:00 AM, and were back on the road at 10:00, headed to the Ozarks in Arkansas.

There's not much to see along the way, but I insisted we stop by Warren Buffet's house. It's interesting to see that one of the world's wealthiest men lives in a regular house in an ordinary neighborhood in Omaha.

I'd hoped he'd want to come out and take his picture with me, but he must have been at the office because we never saw him.

Oh well, maybe next time.