#22

The years have passed quickly and the travelers continue to change, but today marks my 22nd trip to Pine Ridge. I haven’t blogged in several years, I guess that I will chalk it up to an extended pandemic hiatus and an overall individual reset. With this time passage, changes, and reset, I have given in to the need to fly instead of taking the 18-hour one-way drive that would allow me to pack so much more. So with that, I left the Louisville airport to fly to Chicago and on to Rapid City with 7 energetic and somewhat anxious students and one overweight suitcase (mine). We nearly missed our connection in Chicago-thankfully a brisk walk rather than an OJ Simpson Hertz commercial sprint through the airport was enough to make it before the plane’s doors were closed. We made it! Our rental SUV barely fit all of us and our luggage even though I was the only one who overpacked so we had to drive to our lodging (new digs this year-cabins at the Badlands KOA). A quick offload and perusal of the surroundings, and we were off again for the big Walmart shop. I gave the students the option of staying behind to relax rather than another 1.5 hours in the car each way to Walmart, but they all wanted to go. A great sign for the group that they will be able to go with the flow. 45 minutes of tag-teaming the Walmart shopping, and we were packed to overflowing and ready to head back to the campground. Also worth mentioning was the harvest of some quills from a road kill porcupine near the campground. A very full and interesting first day as always!