Trans-America Roadtrip IV: Mani-beerfest Destiny Day 2-3

Another 1000 miles later and we’re back. So we’ve now completed the Minneapolis and Badlands legs of the journey. Aside from getting pulled over and snaking our way out of a ticket it’s been smooth sailing (well there also was that old man with the deathwish who was just walking across a 75 mph highway and that city in South Dakota that apparently is where all of the state’s population descend to celebrate the country’s independence by crowding the streets and making passage nearly impossible.  Fun fact about South Dakota: state slogan -  “yeah, we don’t know why you’re here either”.)

Corey, you're missing all the excitement of Montana.

Minneapolis was actually a really cool city; Very clean and apparently more women than men. If it wasn’t for the fact that it gets unbearably cold in the winter it would probably be a cool spot to live. While there we got to see the monumental collapse of the Twins in the 9^th inning to the Brewers. Afterwards we naturally explored the town in the only way we know: via its pub scene. Went to a place that had lawn bowling on the roof but, unfortunately, it was closed. Ended up drinking at an Irish pub for most of the night. Late night we went with a group of locals to a pizza place. First time I’ve ever had to pay a cover to get into a pizza spot; very strange.

We stayed at a hotel called the University Inn. It wasn’t too bad but did not end up being the best nights sleep. This is due to the fact that at 7 am the fire alarm goes off throughout the whole building. This was quite the confusing event for me. At first it was part of my dream, then I thought it was Corey’s alarm and he was somehow sleeping through it. I was in that state where you try to force sleep through the noise and hope your friend wakes up soon and pushes the snooze button. There doesn’t appear to be a snooze button for the fire alarm.

The alarm had been set off by the hotel manager who had that look about her like she probably dabbles with methamphetamines or something. She had apparently set the alarm off because the clothes dryer was smoking. This berserk woman pulled a fire alarm at 7am at a hotel and hadn’t even seen fire (and then turned the alarm off 3 minutes later realizing it was nothing). The worst of it all is that right after we left our room the alarm stop ringing and when we tried to reenter our room the key did not work. We went to get another key card but the berserk woman was not at her desk. However the local fire chief was there looking for the manager to see what the issue had been. She basically ends up being a dick to this guy even though he’s only there because this tweeking woman pulled a fire alarm. Anyway, we eventually got back in to the room and got another 2 hours of sleep to add to the 3 we had gotten before the alarm went off.

We set out for Badlands national park the next day. Side note: great thing about driving after a night of drinking, your dehydration level is high enough that you can go through a 6 hour drive without having to make a bathroom stop. Badlands is one of the coolest parks I’ve been to. It’s lawless. You can go where ever you want in the park; we were actually told this by the ranger at the main office. So naturally we wandered all over the place- climbing random stuff and trekking through high grass to stalk deer. All in all it was a really great place. It’s almost ominous in how little people were hiking – we so 3 other people during the 3 hours of hiking we did. It was as if we were exploring the moon but with higher gravity and air and beef jerky.

Roadtrip essential. Tried to get sponsored but didn't do it in time.

We are now currently en route to Yellowstone. Pictures and what not to come later. Happy 4^th. AMERICA!!!  Enjoy the song below expressing my patriotism.