I decided to break my vacation recap up into several posts because we saw so much stuff, and did all the things. But before we were actually camping, we were driving…

When we decided to take our 2nd trip out west (the first was in 2018), we got out our Atlas and placed a few post-it notes at parks. Due to time constraints with my job, we had to narrow our choices down to something doable in 18 days. We chose four National Parks: Badlands (South Dakota), Grand Teton (Wyoming), Glacier (Montana), and Theodore Roosevelt (North Dakota). We started booking travel in February 2020, before the coronavirus officially hit the US. You can say it was a really great year to be planning a trip like this! Due to the size of our camper, and my interest in having full use of our water/electric/septic features of our camper, we booked private campgrounds. We prefer state campgrounds usually, but I don’t mind a bit of extra features when we are away from home for so long!
Our trip came at a really good time. We were social distancing and distancing from social media! I’m usually pretty well out of touch with the latest news, but our lack of nonstop screen time was a huge help in disconnecting from the world. Even though we were wearing masks when needed, and staying apart from people, we wondered if the whole coronavirus quarantine and all the other bad stuff was even going on when we returned! It was wonderful to be so far removed from it all.
We split our first leg of the journey into 2 days of driving. On our first day of travel we got to see Antique Archeology, the shop for the TV show American Pickers! We watch that show a lot, so that was fun to see where it all happens. As you can see, the shop was closed when we got there, so we peeked in the windows 🙂


Our first night was spent at a Walmart parking lot. For those not familiar, a few businesses (Walmart, Cracker Barrel, Cabelas) allow campers to spend the night in their parking lot. It’s called “boondocking”. Walmart is a good location because there is always something to buy in the morning. On this trip we happened to forget the drill for cranking up/down the stabilizers, to it worked out perfectly.

As you can see, we certainly didn’t forget any food. Our fridge/freezer/cabinets/storage bins were cram packed with food and snacks. I like to be prepared!

On our second day of driving we got to see the huge Jolly Green Giant!

We had to stop at two major attractions – the Corn Palace (the World’s Only Corn Palace!) and Wall Drug store. The Corn Palace is always an interesting and amazing site. The mural on the outside, and inside are made of corn!!

And some corny merch.


Wall Drug was a quick stop, but we did the required poses on the Jackalope. You haven’t seen one before? They claim it’s real!


Well, that’s a wrap on the highlights of the drive out west. Stop back again to follow our trip… or subscribe to my blog. It’s a link on the right side! Next up – the Badlands!
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Q: Have you ever been to Wall Drug or even heard of it?
Q: How about The World’s Only Corn Palace?
Amazing what art can be made from corn!