It was only a 2 hour drive to Custer state park from badlands and as usual we took the back roads.

At Custer we drove the wildlife loop and got stuck in a bison jam. We stopped to let a bison cross the road and he just stopped right in front of us. In the middle of the road! Then another one joined him! Then another! Next thing, we’re sweltered in our car in 40 degree heat and there’s a traffic jam behind us.

After about 20 minutes, a ranger came along and barged his way through, and we quickly followed him before we got stuck again.

Then we saw some prairie dogs. I just love these guys so much. I really wanted to take one with me.

We finished the wildlife loop and found a lake with a nice sandy beach, put on our togs and cooled off.

Feeling refreshed we continued through Custer where the scenery changed from prairie lands to pinnacle shaped rocks jutting up all over the place. The scenery was stunning. There were also some tight tunnels to go through, the narrowest being only 8 feet wide. I got out and filmed Mike going through.

Then we found another stunning lake surrounded by funky rocks and took a stroll. We met Carissa (from badlands) again here. But she is now heading south and we are heading north.

We drove past Mt Rushmore and saw the presidents heads carved in stone, but we didn’t bother stopping.

We navigated towards the Theodore Roosevelt national park in North Dakota as that will be our next national park to visit.

It was already 6.30pm, an hour from sunset, and we needed to find somewhere to camp as all the state park ones were full.

As we were driving along, two separate families of deer tried to jump out in front of us. It wasn’t a safe time of night to be driving. By chance, I saw a turnoff to a lake in the national forest with a very small camping symbol.

We headed down there and found a camp right beside the lake but there was a campground full sign up. But… they had one campsite left and it was overlooking the lake. How lucky was that? And only $14 for the night.

What an incredible day. It started with an amazing sunrise right from our campsite. We hadn’t known what our view would be this morning as we parked up in the dark last night. I don’t think it could have been better. We were right on the edge overlooking a lunar landscape.

We drove back into badlands national park to see the bits we missed in the dark last night. The first thing we saw was a massive bison on the side of the road. We gave him a wide berth as he looked pretty scary.

Then 100 ft later were the prairie dogs, popping their heads up calling out to Alan. It was it Steve.

The scenery here is incredible. We’d been here before in 2008 and I remember loving it then.

We headed back to the same spot as we camped the previous night and spent the afternoon sleeping, and marvelling over our fantastic views.

We met a nice girl who came in the camp last night just after us. She is driving across the country from Maryland to go to grad school in Portland. We kept seeing her throughout the day and tonight she bought a friend she’d met. So we hung out with them for a bit, they were good fun.

Tomorrow we go to Custer state park.

Today we stopped at the worlds largest ball of popcorn. It was behind glass and a little underwhelming. But there was a cool old fashioned village there to look around.

The rest of the day was spent driving through the corn fields of Iowa. When we got to Sioux City it became really hazy. We thought it may have been smog but it’s more likely from the Canadian wildfires.

We drove through Nebraska and the scenery became more rolling hills and less cornfields. Then we crossed into South Dakota and the badlands began, like a lunar landscape.

It was 6pm by the time we got to a fuel stop just outside the badlands national park. We were both really hot and bothered. We’d been driving in 40 degree heat all day, with the sun streaming into our windscreen all afternoon.

We had a little break in the air conditioned gas station, had a free coffee, then decided to continue into the national park even though the sun would still be setting.

What a great decision this was. The sun setting over the badlands was a magical sight, the different layers and colours coming to life.

Then we had to drive 40 minutes to the boondocking site I’d read about. It’s free camping overlooking the badlands but just outside of the national park.

We passed two campgrounds on the way there, but they looked crowded and horrible. So we continued on in the dark, putting our trust in Google to get us there.

After 40 mins the road turned off to a rutted gravel path and we drove in it. Caravans and campervans of all shapes and sizes lined the edge. We drove to the end and found a spot, careful not to drive off the edge.

There was a super moon up, a blue moon and there was plenty of light from that.

We were both excited to see what we would wake up to in the morning.

We stayed 16 hours at the world’s largest truck stop! It was really cool, a big shop with everything you could imagine for sale. Even jandals shaped like fish!

We had a good night sleep and browsed the truck museum this morning, which had trucks dating back to 1915. It was really cool, my kind of museum.

We were back on the road at 10.30am and are off the freeways again and heading for South Dakota.

It was a fairly boring day of driving with lots of corn fields. Field of dreams was filmed around this area but we didn’t bother going to the movie set location as I’ve never seen it. I tried to watch it once but it was the boringest thing I’d ever seen.

Today we saw a fatal motorcycle accident which was pretty sobering and dropped our mood considerably. We didn’t see it happen thankfully, probably due to me taking a toilet break. But it had just happened and a guy was bringing out the plastic sheet to cover him.

Tonight we are camped at a camping ground in sacs city, which has a population of about 2000, so not really a city. It’s only $17 a night and it was nice to have a shower.

We had a nice quiet nice parked outside the visitor centre michigan city. I admit I was a little worried about the close proximity to Chicago, but apparently its a safe town. We’d met a few people who have moved here from Chicago to escape the violence there. So we felt quite safe parked up overnight, but driving out today was a different story. More about that later.

This morning we explored the Indiana dunes national park. It’s an interesting one as it’s not a contiguous area, having industrial parts in amongst it. But they created the national park to protect it from future development.

Indiana dunes has a whole lot of white sandy beaches on the edge of Lake Michigan, and it really is like being at the beach. We could see the Chicago skyline in the haze in the distance.

There’s a big sand dune which is on the move, trampling big trees in its path, moving 4feet a year.

There were also some futuristic houses built in the 1930s which had been placed there from a trade fair in Chicago. The houses were ahead of their time with dishwashers, automatic garage doors and one was solar heated. They thought in the future everyone would have their own plane, and one house had its own hangar. It’s crazy considering most people didn’t even have cars back then.

Around 2pm we continued on, and found ourselves in the slums of south Chicago. I really didn’t feel safe so we decided to swallow our pride and drive on freeways, at least until we left Chicago behind.

So the rest of the day was spent on boring motorway driving.

Tonight we’re camping at the largest truck stop in the world! And it’s free! And there’s a cool museum we will explo

Since we left our housesit we haven’t paid for camping so we’re slowly recouping our costs of solar panels and batteries. As well as that, it’s just so convenient to stop at these free places without needing electricity. So far, so good.

We had a quiet night at the rest stop and were able to get some laundry done this morning before heading off.

We weren’t sure how much the toll road was going to cost us and we’re pleasantly surprised is was only $1.75. Money well spent to get a shower, laundry and sleep done.

We’re continuing our drive west. We have about 4000 miles (6300 kms) to travel on the route we’ve chosen to Las Vegas where we’ll be storing our campervan when we head back to nz.

We passed a classic car meetup and stopped and browsed around the neat old cars. We almost though about parking Rodger in amongst them.

The rest of the day was spent driving through Ohio and Indiana. There was lots of farmland and it was cool seeing all the Amish out and about in their Sunday best.

There wasn’t much to do along this route so we thought it best to make up some miles.

We stopped at 6pm at a casino in south bend which had free overnight parking. It was a nice new casino with a no smoking rule, and I think they were pumping oxygen in as we both came out feeling really refreshed.

The sun was still high in the sky and it seemed too early to stop. Then I realised we would be gaining an hour today as we’re heading west. So we continued on.

We arrived at another casino on Michigan city but neither of us liked the idea of staying there. It probably would have been fine as they have security patrolling every hour, but it’s best to listen to gut instinct.

We then tried the national park at Indiana dunes but it was fully booked. But the ranger said we could park at the visitor centre for free.

But first we headed to Lake Michigan where there is a distant view of the Chicago skyline and the sun starting to set.

We were the only ones at the visitor centre to start with, but other campervans arrived to stay the night. We had a quiet nights rest.

We had another nice quiet sleep in the casino carpark. I much prefer it to a crowded camping ground, and the fact it’s free is a bonus.

Today we spent the day exploring the Cuyahoga np in Ohio. We started with a 2.5 hour bike ride along a rail trail. It was a nice flat ride alongside a river. We saw a giant turtle with barnacles on it.

After the ride we visited a waterfall and did a rocky walk.

By the time we’d finished it was 6pm and we still needed to find somewhere to sleep. I’d seen a free place on our iOverlander app with free overnight parking, free showers, and toilets and Burger King open 24 hours. There was a catch though. We’d have to drive on a toll road to get there.

After our bike ride we were both hot and sticky and the thought of a shower won us over. We swallowed our pride and drove on the toll road. We’ve done such a good job of avoiding motorways so far, but thankfully it was only about 5 minutes on the toll before we arrived at the services.

We headed straight for the showers then had Pizza Hut for dinner.

The facilities here are better than some $60 campgrounds. And quieter too!

We’ll see how much the toll was tomorrow when we exit the motorway.

We had a nice sleep in the casino carpark. It was just a 2hour drive this morning to the Letchworth state park, also known as the Grand Canyon of the east.

It was a rainy ole day, but it mostly stopped by the time we got to Letchworth and we were able to explore. There was a drive through the park with overlooks and sheer cliffs dropping into the canyon below. At the end we’re a couple of waterfalls.

We spent most of the day exploring then headed to another casino carpark for the night.

We tried to get a meal in the casino but it was an hours wait being a Friday night. And the casino stunk of cigarette smoke. They still allow smoking in Pennsylvania.

We headed for the over night parking lot which was away from the casino. It was very quiet, and we had another nice night sleep.

We were so excited to get on the road again. Housesitting is great for a little rest and to get things done on the van. I also managed to get some videos finished but not as much as I would have liked. 3 days of “flu” didn’t help.

Today was a big driving day. The weather was yuck so we just fast forwarded towards letchworth state park, which is known as the Grand Canyon on the east.

It would take us 6 hours to get there taking motorways, or 9 hours avoiding them. Guess which option we chose?

I’ll give you a minute, let us know if you guessed correctly.

Today we saw a sign that got me very excited. Hamilton to the left, morrinsville straight ahead. I mean, what are the odds of that? There was even a cow sign in morrinsville.

We also drove through some English towns, Leeds, Norfolk, and even drove through Scotland and Ireland! This part of the country seems to be having an identity crisis!

We drove through many charming villages, some with massive houses.

We made a couple of stops. Walmart for a warmer blanket and some supplies, and a coffee pit stop beside an ice skating rink! Okay, at this time of year it’s just a lake, but still cool to think they ice skate on it in winter.

There were a few free places to stop overnight and we chose the del lago casino and resort. It was 6pm by the time we stopped so that was about 10 hours travelling fort the day. We had a look inside the casino but weren’t tempted. The restaurants looked bland too so we opted for a salad wrap back in the van.

We are still about 2 hours from the letchworth state park.