The last few days have been fun-filled and exciting for us! For starters, we met up with our Swiss friend, Urs, at a campsite in Badlands National Park.

Here’s some history and background: We’d originally met Urs in March 2004 in Libreville, Gabon, along with Elza, Krissy, Slade, and Vicky — all of whom we had the great pleasure of traveling with for several months through the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, and Namibia. The last time that we saw Urs was near Lusaka, Namibia, in October 2004 and he has been traveling (mostly) continuously since then. His trusty overland vehicle, a blue Pinzgauer (“The Pinzy”) is currently resting in Cambodia during Urs’ short jaunt to the States.

Urs and Elza in the Pinzy in Gabon way back in 2004

Urs, Jen, Witt and Quinn 8 years later

This meet-up was the reason that we’d taken the detour to South Dakota — and we are very glad we did! We had a blast catching up on the past ~9 years of our lives (and introducing Urs to Quinn!) and Badlands served as a beautiful backdrop for our animated conversations. We even got to see an impressive fireworks display for the local 4th of July celebration!

We also met a German family at the same campground — Tanja and Max along with their 2 small children, Carla (3) and Robert (18 months). We shared a really great hike with them and the kids had a great time playing together. Amazingly, they are also on a trip of the Americas so we shared contact info with them and hope to meet up with them again soon.

After we said farewell to our friends, we headed for the Black Hills area of South Dakota. Yesterday we visited the South Dakota State Railroad Museum and took a round-trip steam train ride between Hill City and Keystone. Today we rented a tag-a-long bike for Quinn and went for a fantastic bike ride together on the Mickelson bike trail. Tonight we splurged (using Witt’s frequent-stay points) on a hotel that has an amazing water-park adjacent to it. We are having a blast!

Rain clouds on the horizon in Badlands National Park

Western meadowlark in Badlands

Model train exhibit at the Hill City railroad museum

More pictures…