Stormy Times - But this time for real

I'm already back in Canada, but the last time I left off in Chicago. What happened then?
First of all, not much happened. We took a day off somewhere in Iowa and drove through a lot of Iowa. By using the term 'Iowa' here, I'm not just referring to Iowa itself, but it symbolizes most of Illinois, the majority of South Dakota, and a small part of Wyoming and Montana where it just looks like this:

So it's not really worth looking out of the window.
Our biggest attraction was the Amish, simply because we had never seen real-life Amish people before and we were always excited when we were slowed down on the road by a carriage.

Then it was already mid-August and we were somewhere in the Midwest on a Walmart parking lot. We went shopping and brushed our teeth, came back to the car and the sprinklers were spraying like crazy around us. Which was bad because we wanted to put up the tent on that small piece of lawn. So we waited. Actually, Walmart doesn't have the money to water the lawn all night long, only for 15 minutes, and then we were able to set up the tent. However, Eva was afraid that the sprinklers would turn on again at night, so she slept in the car with Lea. So I slept alone in the tent. That was okay. Until half past three. Then I was rudely awakened by the fact that the tent was being lifted at the corners and it was raining like crazy against the tent wall. I looked at my phone and the weather, and it said 'Tornado Warning'. This warning is one of the weather forecasts that I had never read before. We don't have those at home. After a brief assessment of my situation, that my tent probably doesn't stand much chance against a tornado, I decided to quickly get out of the tent and knock on the car. While trying to wake up the other two with my right hand, my left hand held the tent steady. And yes, all the pegs were in the ground. Actually...

Eva and Lea woke up and after a brief description of my situation and a look at the flying tent, we quickly packed up the tent and my stuff into the car and then we all squeezed onto the mattress in the car. Actually, it continued to storm and rain a lot, but fortunately we didn't see a tornado. The next morning, Eva noticed that she had put my flip flops under the car and only one was left. The other one probably swam away. A tolerable loss.

This is what it looks like when we have nice weather:

The next day had several surprises in store for us. Not only had we finally made it through the Iowa part of South Dakota, but there was finally something else to see. We had reached Badlands National Park:

After taking about 3 million selfies of Eva and Lea, we continued to the Visitor Center and finally to a campsite. With a shower!!! It sounds strange, but at that time I didn't know that I wouldn't see a shower for another 2 weeks.

We also had to do some laundry again

But the best part was that we would spend my birthday here and we even had internet at the campsite! So the next morning, I called my family and enjoyed all the birthday wishes, and then we went hiking in pleasant 33-degree weather.

It wasn't very pleasant, but the landscape made up for it. It really felt like stepping onto another planet.

A flower :)

I think the little frog got lost

About 20 minutes passed between the two pictures above

To get back to the car, we would have had to walk the same 8 kilometers through the heat again, so we decided to hitchhike instead and I immediately approached the first people with a van who were heading in our direction. It was an elderly couple from Ohio who were on their way back from a vacation in Canada. It was their first time in another country and they were very afraid of crossing the border into Canada. Canada.... I was afraid the other way around that they would shoot us because we had illegal onions with us that we had to declare. Anyway, in the 15 minutes until we reached the car, we told them half of our life story and then they wished us a safe journey and drove off.

Here's a selfie in the van:

I made grilled cheese sandwiches for everyone in the evening and then we played some games. All in all, a very nice birthday :)
The next day, we left the Badlands behind and drove to Custer State Park, which is located in the Black Hills National Forest.
When we arrived, we were very excited because we saw something else that we hadn't seen in a long time:

Trees!

Oh my god, after seemingly endless Iowa and the, admittedly very impressive, but still only made of sand and rocks, Badlands, finally a larger collection of trees. Not just individual sad specimens that you would like to plant a friend for. Here's an example of the wonder:

Oh yeah, and we also saw bison :D

A whole lot of them, because there are about 1500 bison in Custer State Park. You can say bison or buffalo, but bison is more correct. Bison live to be an average of 15-20 years old, unless they eat grass near the bubbling geyser landscapes in Yellowstone Park in the winter, because that shortens their life by almost 5 years. Their teeth become softer and in general, life in Yellowstone is dangerous:

Lea was very excited because we had already driven through Buffalo Gap National Grassland and hadn't seen any bison there, despite the name. Of course, bison don't make appointments and stand ready for photographs by the roadside, but the bison we saw did us that favor and I was very happy to be able to admire them from up close while sitting in the supposedly safe car.

What I like best is that they can roam freely in the park and if they happen to be standing on the road, you just have to wait. Bison aren't really familiar with the concept of roads, although they use them in winter because it's easier to walk on cleared roads than on snow-covered grass.

In Custer State Park, we also went hiking and Eva found a wild Louisa:

We hiked up to 'Little Devils Tower' and had a great view of Saxon Switzerland. Haha. Well, 'Needles', as the sharp rock formations are called, reminded me a lot of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. Well, almost like at home, but somewhere else:

Then we spent the night with the cowboys. Well not really, but the campground was like a horse camp for adults. Everyone brought their own horse and the people went on horseback rides together. The best part was that I woke up at 7 in the morning again (well, that wasn't the best part because it's actually quite annoying, since everyone is usually still asleep and I can't stay in the tent because I'm rummaging around too much, nor can I go to the car because Lea locks it at night) I walked to the registration office and chatted with the 'cowboys' there.

Toasting in the bathroom

They all had funny American accents and tried to outdo each other with their stories. Here's an example: a woman told of her childhood on a farm with a lot of milk cows and how her family made a living from selling milk. But in the winter of 1978, it snowed so much that it was impossible to clear the snow before the milk they had stored went bad. So, dynamite was used to clear the road! The other option would have been to blow up the bridge and drive across the ice, but the local administration was against it and thought it would be cheaper to rebuild the road. A new bridge would have been more expensive.

After Custer State Park, we went to Deadwood. Deadwood is not very exciting. The story of Wild Bill is told in several performances throughout the day, but I didn't find him particularly 'wild'. He just shot 7 people in his life and then got shot himself. Nothing new for the USA. Deadwood is just a tourist trap and besides the fact that I was very hungry there but everything was ridiculously overpriced, I don't remember much. I just continued reading 'Brave New World' (Sorry Jan). As if that wasn't bad enough, we then went to Mount Rushmore, and I only took one picture from a distance for my sister and was reluctant to be in the selfie. A woman at the cowboy campsite had given us her entrance ticket for a car for Mount Rushmore because she no longer needed it, since I had mentioned it. Well, at least we sort of smuggled ourselves in with that and I liked it a little more again. After the pompous entrance gate, I went straight to the café and used the free internet to distract myself from the march music that was playing in the café.

We also visited the 'Crazy Horse Memorial', or rather what is already finished of it, because it will be under construction for another 60 years until it's completed.

Then, we finally headed into the mountains. Trees are really great, but mountains are simply amazing!

First, we went to Grand Teton National Park and first hiked around a smaller lake, Taggert Lake, and the next day we did a longer hike, we went halfway around Jenny Lake, Eva took the boat back, and Lea and I (haha) continued up to Cascade Canyon and then took the boat back as well.

Memories of a forest fire