Badlands, Badass.

Wall, SD - With the sun setting in a water colour of mauves and oranges, we wove through Badlands National Park this evening. It was like driving over the molars of giants. Or on the moon.

Though not my first time there, I had forgotten just how breathtaking its vistas are. Jagged rock, precipitous drops, a blue sky, hundreds of deer, bison and big horned sheep: what's not to love? This was truly one of my favourite road trip experiences of all.

In between, we visited the Corn Palace in Mitchell, which contains a basketball court (and hosted a Joan Jett concert recently, apparently) and is covered in folk art made from - you guessed it - corn. The design changes annually and was introduced as a response to Lewis & Clark's claim that nobody could make a living from the land here. It was first built in 1892.

South Dakota has been fun to drive through: flat, brown earth suddenly gives way to badlands and eccentric 'Wall Drug' signs pepper the landscape, lending it some colour.

Miles of sunflower crops stand, dried like disenfranchised youth out of a Tim Burton movie: once so full of colour, but now dark like running mascara, with heads bowed.

Vitals:

• Time: 12 hours
• Distance: 957 kilometres
  
• Weather: Sun, Moderate
• Provinces/States: Minnesota, South Dakota
• Wildlife: Pheasants, (hundreds of) Deer, Bison, Big-horned Sheep, Prairie Dog

Oh, Deer.

Winona, MN - Behind us, a seam split in the sky, allowing bare branches to take broad brush- strokes, tinting it peach. The break in darkness welcomed us to our drive to Victoria, British Columbia this morning.

Entering Michigan, we were confronted by a sign that advertised, "For all your deer processing needs." Really? Of course, this was soon followed by a woman driving an SUV, talking on her cellular phone with children in the back. And a large deer head sitting, hauntingly, in the passenger seat. I wish I was kidding. And that I wasn't haunted by memories of The Godfather.

We discovered that Wisconsin claims to be the birthplace of circuses. And carnies, one would suppose, though that's obviously less of a claim to fame. Crossing the Mississippi river, and into Minnesota, we were greeted by the beginnings of hills and sky of purple and pink wisps of cloud reminiscent of peacock feathers. Day one was thus complete.

Alas, we got no cheese in Wiscoooonsinnnn.

Vitals:

• Time: 11 hours
• Distance: 1,150 kilometres
• Weather: Sun, Moderate
• Provinces/States: Ontario, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota
• Wildlife: Wild turkeys