Day 24 - Badlands to Flatlands

We had an early start as the journey was going to take at least eight hours today. And so when in a rush you end up talking to an incredibly friendly American at breakfast. Twenty four days in and the London attitude of head down, eat, no eye contact, walk, next objective is slowly being filtered out of my being. We exchanged pleasantries and Yellowstone stories and then it was time to leave.

The Badlands National Park is accessible from Wall and we took the scenic route through the park before getting back onto the I90. The peculiar moonscape scenery is all around with a few tufts of grass atop stumpy hills and the occasional tree breaking up the vista. We have seen quite a few different types of mountains on this trip and again this place feels entirely different to what has gone before. A brief and enjoyable detour.

Next up, the I90 for over five hundred miles of straight roads. We were gonna need more coffee!

In that time we crossed a time zone and hit the 4 000 mile mark. We also saw lots and lots of corn fields. Once we reached Rochester, it was dark, not certain what the real time was, buzzing from caffeine and really hungry. We started driving at 9:45am and we reached Rochester by 8:45pm. We needed a lift.

Luckily there was a chicken wing chain called Buffalo Wild Wings nearby. I had a mix of Buffalo Sauce (hot), Asian Zing and Teriyaki and Alice had the Bourbon Honey Mustard, Spicy Garlic and Buffalo Sauce (mild). The mild buffalo was actually my favourite as the hot was so hot I couldn't taste the sauce through my burnt tongue, lips and mouth in general. I'm glad I didn't go for the extreme hot! Alice could not choose a favourite although the hot buffalo was definitely at the bottom of her list. There was another buffalo sauce heat rating that we didn't choose, medium, which might be the one for combination of heat and taste. These wing meals are essentially practice before we reach Buffalo, yeah that's right, the home of Buffalo Wings. The Portland wings are definitely winning at the moment.

Back at the motel, a bit of Saturday Night Live on TV and then it was time for bed.

Song of the Day:
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Roadtrippin'Read more