Sierra Trading Post, Wyoming and Ft Robinson State Park, Nebraska - August 27-28

After taking advantage of laundry and wifi at Motel 6, we stopped at the nearby Sierra Trading Post outlet. For the uninitiated, Sierra Trading Post is a website that offers discounted outdoor gear. There, we found a super-discounted two-person tent, which we had been hoping to get someday for easier carrying and set-up. It was a returned item, so we had to check if there was anything wrong with it (didn't seem to be, and as of Sepember 5, it's worked out GREAT so far), and we got it for less than half the normal price!

We drove through some of Nebraska on the way towards Wind Cave NP in South Dakota. There were a ton of bugs on the farm roads in NB. The first RV park our GPS indicated didn't exist; then, the first state park we came to was creepy since there was no one there. Another state park didn't appear to have camping available even though the atlas indicated it would. So, we continued on, encountering a herd of loose cattle on the way (which we tried to report via 911 – which didn't work for some reason – scary! – but luckily we saw the owner coming to attend to them).

We finally stopped, late at night, at Fort Robinson State Park, which actually had visitors. We drove through a tent section surrounding a cemetery (weird) and surrounded by corn rows, with tent campers randomly camping wherever. Then we found the other tent section, which was by the highway but had space for us, where we got to try out our new tent. The set-up was so easy, we were able to do it in the dark in much less time than our tried-and-true 4-person tent.

The next morning, after brushing off the slugs from our shoes, we headed out towards Wind Cave.

- Mina