Calling an audible is typically a hero or zero play. You’re ready to run your best offense but something on the other side spooks you. When your spidey senses are high and that pivot works in your favor you’re dictating game flow. But when uncertainty checks your confidence sometimes a pivot turns into a wasted time out. And that’s how we wound up in Wind Cave National Park.
After an un-relaxing day of completely emptying out the T@G attempting to chase a leak that left the mattresses damp, Sheri’s alarm went off alerting her that the window had opened to book St. Mary’s Campground in Glacier National Park. Eric was watching the weather in Wall – a meme city on the edge of the Badlands with billboards 200 miles out trying to entice visitors with 5 cent coffee. On our last visit we camped on the Wall of Wind and Rain – an overlook that nearly took our tent, our spirits and our sanity. Taking a mulligan, we were prepared this time with a T@G.
Let the wind and rain come, we said in rush formation – hopeful that we would keep the water out this time. But the defense was formidable. 100 degrees. 40 mph winds. No shelter or shade. No toilets or water. How would we cook food if we were roasting in the oven ourselves? How would we sleep in a fiberglass hotbox? So Sheri hit up the route from Palisades to Wind Cave to Teddy Roosevelt. It was 80 miles longer, but the temps looked cooler, the site advertised shade, there were flush toilets and water. Why not revisit one of the least visited NPs in the system?
I-90 is two 80 mph lanes across the state. There are rest stops every 60 miles or less and 325 miles of flatland prairie. We did the crossword, listened to XM, and stopped for gas way too many times. The highlight was an 80 foot statue named Dignity. It is a monument to the Lakota people who used to roam and own the land. Crossing into the Dakotas we tried to picture more than a million Bison spread across the rolling hills; the same rolling hills that are the setting for the post-apocalyptic game/series, The Last of Us. The land is equally beautiful – past, present and 2D future.
There is no better place to contemplate alternative histories than over a Lord Grizzly scotch ale at Rapid City’s Lost Cabin Brewery – which we did. Anticipating that we needed to make room in the Dometic, we scooped up a $5.99 bottle of rail vodka at The Liquor Cabinet in an attempt to use up the cans of V-8 which were not moving based on their vitamin content alone. By the time we were 30 miles outside Wind Cave, we were regretting our audible. It was 100 degrees, the extra miles produced extra aches, the sky was rumbling and there was no shade in our site. The former charm that we had remembered at Wind Cave was gone. We made the best of it in the shade of the T@G’s rear hatch under a broiling sky. Even the added health benefits of those V-8’s failed to lift the feeling that we got spooked by the D, and called the wrong play.
Sheri was feeling remorse and to Eric’s credit he laughed and said, “At least we have a real toilet.” What we did not have was a shower. We were wheels rolling by zero six thirty the next morning, back tracking the way we had come. Stuck in the Bad Lands loop. Arriving back in Rapid City we blasted our favorite song, Break the Loop, over Apple Car Play. We needed to Clean the Slate.
A slight detour, and our “You’re In The Club” DoD Card, brought us to Ellsworth Airforce Base’s Bellamy Fitness Center. The desk attendant greeted us with “Are you here for the pickleball?” Say what? Well, yes we are! 90 minutes of pickleball and two showers later, we knew why we had come this way. It was an audible that had taken a long time to develop. For the record, pickleball is soaring in the Dakotas. Also for the record, if you can play well in Florida, you can rule the court on Ellsworth AFB.
Life on the road is a hundred decisions a day with insufficient time, information and connectivity working against you. Reflecting on the three major pile-ups on the highway we’d witnessed since departure, we concluded that it’s all perspective. A little heat, a sleepless night, and extra unplanned time in the front seat of Boss is fair trade in the adventure game. Read the D. Call the play. Win or lose. Enjoy the game.
