Pierre SD, 2021

Last week we were bird hunting outside of Pierre, SD.  Specifically, The Husband was bird hunting (prairie chickens and sharp-tail grouse), I was tagging along and enjoying some bird and scenery watching. We were primarily in the Ft. Pierre National Grasslands, which were amazing. We did take one day to drive over to the Badlands National Park. Unfortunately, because we had the dogs with we couldn't enjoy the hiking trails (dogs not allowed on the trails for park protection and safety reasons).

We stayed in Pierre and I took advantage of our proximity to their newly constructed (re-constructed?) river walk in the early mornings and late evenings as a place to walk the dogs. Weather was decent, several days of wind (to be expected on the prairie), and the only significant rain was on the drive home.

While I packed the majority of our meals, Pierre does host several notable restaurants: The Branding Iron Bistro, The Brickhouse BBQ and Grill, and the Cattleman's Club Steakhouse. This is beef country.

As I noted, I still packed most of our meals and even had a meal plan. The chili I made ahead and froze in containers that I could pull out and microwave. Rice and bean burritos are from the co-op and freeze nicely for traveling. I've learned to freeze the bagels I buy from the co-op as they will get moldy quickly (even at home). Need to keep these frozen and or refrigerated. With a fridge and microwave in the room, I was set!

Thurs (travel day) (L) sandwiches, fruit (S) Chili Jimmy John's (we were running a tich late)
Fri (L) rice and bean burritos, fruit, nut cups (S) chili
Sat (L) rice and bean burritos, fruit, nut cups (S) Brickhouse BBQ
Sun (L) Subway (S) chili leftover BBQ
Mon (L) rice and bean burritos, fruit, nut cups (S) chili
Tues (L) Subway (S) Cattleman's Club
Wed (travel day) (L) Culver's (S) chili

Breakfast - instant oatmeal, bagels with cream cheese. Ate out once at the Branding Iron Bistro, and got breakfast to go from same on Wednesday morning.

Buffalo Gap National Grasslands

The boys are ready to find some birds

Wide, wide open spaces

The Badlands National Park

The Badlands National Park

Buffalo!

A bit of Cold War History

Home, home on the range....  buffalo in the distance