We left our campground at Badlands National Park on Thursday and drove to Mount Rushmore. We decided to visit again in the evening for a “Life-changing Patriotic Experience.” In the meantime, we went to a truck stop where we could take a shower for 14 dollars. Then we spent the remaining afternoon at a picnic place and ate burgers. In the evening, we went back to Mount Rushmore. The ceremony started with a surprisingly critical speech about the USA. Then we watched a movie about the four presidents, which was especially interesting because we knew almost nothing about them. After that, everybody stood up to sing the national anthem, and then the ceremony ended with lots of veterans going to the stage and carefully folding the flag. We slept that night at a trailhead parking lot under a fantastic night sky.
The next morning, we got up very early and did a 2-hour hike to Little Devil’s Tower in the Black Hill National Forest.
After the hike, we continued our road trip along a very scenic route. When we stopped along the way, the automatic car door of the van suddenly broke. Vinz tried to fix it, but we ended up cutting the wires. We then took a detour to see Devil’s Tower. But the heat was so bad that we only went out for a minute and then drove on.
Because of the heat, we decided to sleep at a hotel instead of the van. We reserved a room in Buffalo. That evening I received the expected message that our campground reservations at Yellowstone were canceled. We decided to skip Teton National Park as well and continue to Montana. We reserved an Airbnb apartment in Billings for three nights so that Vinz could get some work done for his company. The apartment was on the lower floor of Penny’s house, and we shared the same entrance. She informed me that she wasn’t home the first night and explained the house rules: We were not allowed to use the upper floor because that is her private space, and we were not allowed to wear shoes inside. Over the next 24 hours, she reminded us 6 times about the no-shoes rule and 4 times about the upper floor rule. She also used many exclamation points in her reminders, making us very uncomfortable.
The following day, we met her in person, and she was one of the nicest people we had ever met. She even offered us the 3rd night for free! She gave us a bag of apples and a hand-made soap when we left and told us we could stay at her apartment whenever we wanted for free.
During our four days in Billings, we were able to get a lot done: We did our laundry and cleaned the van. Vinz was able to work a few hours and attend a meeting, and I looked for new jobs. We played lots of games and went twice for a short run. At the end of our stay, we both agreed that Billings is one of the most boring towns we have visited.
An interesting encounter happened at Walmart where a man heard our accents and asked where we were from. He then wanted to know what kind of guns the swiss army used. Of course, we both had no idea, and when Vinz explained that he did not do military service, the man immediately stopped talking to us and ignored us when we said goodbye.
After we left Billings, we drove to Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area. We went on a short hike and hung out at a free campsite with a picnic table, grill, and hot showers. After dinner, we drove back to Bighorn Canyon to see the sunset and then slept next to a road that belonged to the Bureau of Land Management.
Tomorrow we will have to drive back to Billings to pick up our new camera stand at the post office. Then we will head to Glacier National Park, where we will have definitely escaped the heat!