Road Trips, Sight Seeing, and Camping

Deciding on the spur of the moment to go to South Dakota for a big camping/sight seeing weekend was a great move. We had so much fun, and there was way more to see than just Mt. Rushmore- so much in fact that we had to break our trip in two, one trip this weekend, and a future trip to check out Badlands Nat'l Park when it's a bit cooler. I took pictures of the proper, sit down meals we ate, but I decided to leave room on my memory card for things we were doing/see, instead of eating :) Other than these meals we had standard road trip/camping fare- trail mix, crackers and peanut butter, fruit, fruit smoothies from convenience stores, granola bars, and some blueberry banana whole wheat muffins I made on the way out.




Boca burger at a diner in town on the way out Friday evening- lettuce/tomato/pickle/mustard/ketchup. Fries on the side, water to drink.



After a crappy continental breakfast that I ended up not eating, we checked out Mt. Rushmore and then headed to Crazy Horse Memorial. After exploring around there we took our chances with the onsite restaurant. It was just like cafeteria food. But it was surprisingly not overpriced. I had pasta with tomato sauce and garlic bread, Bobby had the Gardenburger. I had a few bites of his meal, he didn't want any of mine- smart move.



Native American fry bread for dessert. This was not vegan. It also wasn't very good, and probably not worth the calories.



We played around in Custer State Park and checked out the buffalo, and then we made camp on the prairie at Wind Cave Nat'l Park. Bobby cooked, and it was my favorite meal of the trip.



Simple, healthy vegan food. Red beans and rice, stoneground wheat crackers, a banana, and lots of water. We made a fire, there was a full moon, and we could see the stars. The next morning we were 20 stories underground checking out Wind Cave, and on our way out of South Dakota we checked out the Mammoth Site. My battery was dead by the time we hit Wyoming, so no pics of the much relished Indian food upon our return home.

On the food front, I admit that this was not a well planned trip because, well, we didn't decide to go until a day and a half before we went, so really nothing was planned except for the hotel room we booked Friday night. I had the foresight to make the muffins, and I made a huge fruit salad.. which we forgot, whoops! Bobby and I strive for 100% of our diet to be vegan, but we are certainly not perfect. So that means that yes, sometimes we're going to eat fry bread and honey, and sometimes we might eat a BK Veggie Burger on the road when we're traveling- which is not vegan. Then again, we drove a car on our road trip, and tires are not vegan. The pamphlets we received at the Nat'l Parks are not vegan due to the coating of the glossy pages. We paid entrance to Nat'l Parks, who have policies of allowing hunting to weed out animal populations, and the buffalo we were excited to see are auctioned off for slaughter. The important thing, for us, is doing the best we can, and not letting the perfect be the enemy of the good. After many years as vegetarians we switched to vegan last September, and I find it gets easier and easier. A fear of not being able to be a perfect vegan always kept me from trying, and I'm glad I got over that and decided to do it.