August 17, 2024: Badlands National Park, South Dakota to Fort Pierre, South Dakota
After enjoying chocolate pecan kuchen for breakfast at Cedar Pass Campground, we broke camp and headed eastbound on Interstate 90. During the first few miles of the drive we exited the eastern side of Badlands National Park with its surreal landscapes. Then, all of a sudden, we were out in regular old prairie.
We crossed from Mountain to Central Time today and we arrived at RiverView RV Park in Fort Pierre, South Dakota, a little after 1230 PM.
The owner, Lila, asked me to call ahead so she would be ready when I entered, but she wasn’t in the office when I arrived. I waited for her and she drove in her Polaris Ranger UTV to lead me to Site 17. (I think I missed out on the whole UTV trend. Growing up, off-road motorsports primarily involved dirt bikes and 4-wheelers, but on this trip, I’m seeing UTVs / side-by-sides everywhere with nary a dirt-bike or 4-wheeler to be seen.) Site 17 sits overlooking the Missouri River and as I pulled in Lila said, “You picked a site that has a helluva view! I gotta go, but get settled in and then you can come to the office and get checked in.”
I checked in and met Lila in the RV park office. Lila had Dexter drop a pin in her map of the hometown of guests who have stayed at her RV park. She has hundreds of pins in her map from every US state, every Canadian province, and a world map with many pins from all over the world. Idea for a second career after retirement: own an RV park and meet interesting people from all over the world.
After supper, we did some additional trip planning, and then Heidi and I headed to WalMart about 8:30PM for a grocery run. We are headed off the beaten path tomorrow and we want to start our day with full water tanks, empty waste tanks, clean clothes, and a full pantry. We are also staying at a location that doesn’t permit reservations so we are hoping a site is available when we arrive. It feels risky to head somewhere without a definitive parking spot, but I’m sure it’ll work out in the end.
Tomorrow we depart South Dakota and travel to Ellendale, North Dakota which is near where Heidi’s ancestors lived after they immigrated from Germany. We’re only making a brief visit to North Dakota since we already spent quite a bit of time in Montana, Wyoming, and South Dakota. When you have less than 400 days to visit 48 states, you definitely have to pick and choose where you spend your time.
South Dakota has been quite enjoyable and Heidi keeps talking about how much she likes it here. I think it is the solitude that is appealing as well as the absence of urban blight.
August 18, 2024: Fort Pierre, South Dakota to Ellendale, North Dakota
Today we awoke at our campsite with a beautiful view from the bluff of Fort Pierre, SD overlooking the Missouri river and the Pierre, SD capital building. It rained a bit last night so things were a little wet outside, but I’d already put away most of the items so it was fine. Our trip plan for the day included driving approximately 204 miles Northeast from Fort Pierre, South Dakota to Ellendale, North Dakota.
As we navigated out of Fort Pierre, Waze tried to send me under a railroad bridge with a height of 11’3”. My RV has a height of 11’7” so this would be a very bad idea. I don’t want to end up on YouTube for one of the “can opener” videos. Prior to the trip, I’d been warned that trusting Waze is a bad idea when towing a trailer, but this is the first time where following Waze’s directions would have actually harmed me. Fortunately, our Garmin GPS routed me around this bridge so we stayed safe.
We headed generally north and east today with our goal to reach Ellendale, North Dakota. We stopped for fuel in Eureka, SD and found a quiet neighborhood street nearby to park where we could eat lunch. After lunch, I took Ranger on a walk to a nearby lake and we found some extremely small apples to pick. The apples are about the size of cherries and were completely adorable.
We pulled into Ellendale about 3:30 PM and made our way to Oster Park. This park reminds me a lot of the way Goodspeed Park was in Tillamook when I was a boy. Oster Park has a gravel parking area with room for up to 3 RVs to park each night. There is a single hose spigot and 3 different electrical pedestals. There is a single dump station across the street. No reservations are available for this place, but Ellendale, North Dakota is not a tourist spot, so I was pretty sure we’d get a spot. We were in luck and took the site right next to the water supply. For the low low price of $20, we had a place to park for the night. This was the least expensive campsite of the trip thus far.
After we unhitched, we took a 15 minute drive to Monango where we headed west to St. Paul’s (Lutheran) cemetery. Annalise and Dexter’s 3rd great grandmother (Christina (Reule) Vix) was buried in the cemetery next to the St. Paul’s Lutheran church in 1913. That church burned down in 1915 after a lightning strike and a new church was built closer to the town of Monago. The “New” church still stands, but it was abandoned over 25 years ago and is in terrible shape.
St. Paul’s cemetery is a beautiful spot and someone formed a nonprofit to care for it back in 1991. It has continued usage with a burial as recent as 2024.
We looked at the cemetery directory and found Grandma Vix who was buried there in 1913 at the age of 47. She has a beautiful marble tombstone that is in row D of the cemetery. Christina was Wolgadeutsche and was born in Southern Russia before immigrating to the United States. Her daughter, Emma was the 3rd of 5 children. Emma married John Ensminger and was the mother of Art Ensminger, Heidi’s paternal grandfather.
Fun fact: Grandma Vix has a mistake on her tombstone. Psalm 4:8 (in English) reads, “In peace I will lie down and sleep, for you alone, Lord, make me dwell in safety.” In German, Psalm 4:8 reads, “Ich liege und schlafe ganz mit Frieden; denn allein du, HERR, hilfst mir, daß ich sicher wohne.” According to her tombstone, this is Psalm 4:9, which is a verse that doesn’t exist.
The graveyard itself sits back from a gravel road and the site of the old church in front is nothing but a grassy field. The original church bell has been left there for posterity and Annalise and Dexter rung the bell. Here’s to 3rd great grandma Vix!
After supper, Dexter and I played Frisbee golf at the course set up at Oster Park and then we took turns to see who could jump the furthest from a swing. I won the contest (barely) and we had fun filming slow motion videos of each attempt.
Tomorrow we have a 3 hour drive down to DeSmet, South Dakota where we are staying at the Ingalls homestead. The plan is for Annalise and Dexter to start their homeschool after visiting the 1-room schoolhouse in DeSmet.
August 19, 2024: Ellendale, North Dakota to De Smet, South Dakota
We were up bright and early this morning in preparation for a big travel day (235 miles). To get from Ellendale, ND to De Smet, SD, you either travel South and then East or East and then South. The highways around here pretty much run North/South or East/West. Both Waze and Garmin told me to Drive East and then South so that is what I did. De Smet is relatively well-known since Laura Ingalls Wilder lived here for 13 years and memorialized this location in her books “By the Shores of Silver Lake”, “The Long Winter”, and “Little Town on the Prairie”.
About 2/3 of the way into our journey, we came to the intersection of Hwy 212 and Hwy 25 and learned that they were doing construction on Hwy 25, which was closed about 10 miles ahead, and we would have to take a detour. There was a very helpful “Detour” sign which made us head West (the opposite direction we wanted.)
We kept driving and driving and driving, and about 45 minutes later we came to another detour sign that let us turn south again. After another 45 minutes of driving we were able to turn East. When we finally got back on track, we had taken a 75 mile detour!
We eventually arrived in DeSmet where I had made a reservation to stay at the Ingall’s actual Homestead. After making camp, attending some online meetings, it was time to explore.
We had about 3 hours to see the sights at the Ingall’s Homestead. We started at the Welcome Center and arranged a covered wagon ride. We proceeded to climb the look-out tower which gives panoramic views of the 160 acre property. We learned that the Ingall’s do not have any direct descendants and that the area we are visiting is privately owned and operated.
We then entered a small building which summarized all of the travels of Laura Ingall’s over the years. It had an authentic 1800s covered wagon for exploring also.
We then went to visit an original shanty / log cabin built nearby in 1878 that was moved here for visitors to enjoy. Nearby was a dugout shelter. The dugout was smaller than the shanty, but much more comfortable inside as it was hot today and in the dugout it was comfortably cool. The sides of the dugout had visible grass roots and it was impressive to see the roots go down 8-10 feet. That prairie grass is serious stuff! On the way out of the dugout I saw the largest bee I’ve ever seen in my life. The body was about 1.5 inches long and it had a 2 inch wingspan. I eagerly pointed it out to the kids and they were not nearly impressed enough for my tastes.
We proceeded to visit the Hayroof barn which had chickens and 6-day-old chicks, a baby cow (calf), and 3 kittens. 2 of the kittens were very friendly and 1 of them followed us around for the next hour. We then went to the water pump area to try the hand-pumped well.
Next was “Ma’s Little House” which is an exact replica of the original Ingall’s house in the original location. Inside there was a sweet old woman who was hosting the area and she helped us make 1800’s era fidget spinners with string and a button. We admired the pump organ in the back room before going outside to try doing laundry. They had a washboard and rollers set up and each kid had the chance to do some laundry.
Dexter then tried out the push lawnmower (rotary style) and found it to be enjoyable.
We then stopped by the livestock barn where Annalise and Dexter had the chance to drive a pony-driven cart as well as ride on a horse. Neither of our kids have much equine experiences, but they both seemed to enjoy themselves.
Next we headed to the garage area where we did rope-making, corn-cob doll making and wheat grinding. The rope-making was quite interesting and the kids used strands of twine and a turning machine to twist the twine into rope.
By the time we finished, it was nearly 6PM, so we headed back to the barn to ride the covered wagon. This covered wagon was extra large and had modern tires, so it wasn’t quite like the experience our ancestors would have had in the 1880s, but it made for a reasonable facsimile. The destination was the “Little Prairie School” which is an authentic school from this area that was active for over 70 years.
This was a 1-room school that taught up to grade 8 with 5-20 students in the classroom at a time. They had another sweet lady there who told stories and let the kids pull the rope which rang the school bell up in the roof.
We rode back to the stables in the covered wagon and Annalise and Dexter each got a turn holding the reins. The horses pretty much do their own their own thing and the kids don’t do much, but whenever they tugged too hard, the horses would slow down.
We departed the wagon and then walked to the far corner of the property to visit the West Bethany church. This church was built in 1905 and was used for many years, but then abandoned. Several years ago they moved this church building about 10 miles here to the Ingall’s homestead in order to preserve the building and share for future visitors. Back in the 1800s and early 1900s, church was an integral part of life for the average American homesteader. Times have certainly changed.
We walked back to our rig and made it back around 7:15 PM. Heidi made supper (haystacks) while I finished setting up the rig (mostly getting the water system set up).
After supper, Annalise and Dexter did their first homeschool science lesson. Annalise and Dexter are taking the same science class this year. It’s designated as a 9th grade class and it’ll probably be a little too easy for Annalise and a little too hard for Dexter. We thought it was quite appropriate to start the first day of homeschool at the Ingall’s Homestead right after visiting an ancient school house.
SAOTD: Tim, who had to take a 75-mile detour when the highway was closed.
August 17, 2024 to August 19, 2024
Trip days 41-43
Published on November 26, 2025