The Van Blog: Fireworks in South Dakota

Saturday we slept in and the McKinney’s treated us to a homemade breakfast, then we headed out of Minnesota and into South Dakota. We knew camping might be hard to find, but we decided to wing it anyway. Minnesota had shut all state parks the day before until the state budget was balanced so we knew camping in Minnesota would be hard to find, plus it was unbearably hot. We stopped at the first state park in South Dakota to find it full with no vacancy. We called a few others with the same luck. So we kept driving… about 45 minutes after we got into the state we saw a sign that said “Free overnight parking”, so we pulled off to check it out. We came across this small building/trading post that had camping supplies, South Dakota souvenirs and a huge fireworks section. We spent a good hour salivating at all the fireworks that they had that are not legal in California and picked a few out. As the man was ringing us up we told him we were trying to find camping and a place we could light the fireworks and he told us we were more than welcome to park there or in the back. At first we were a little hesitant, but it was close to 8:00 and we had been driving for many hours, so we took him up on it and parked in the back. Although not your typical scenic campsite, the place had charm. We got an awesome sunset, had a great time lighting off fireworks and even had a really pretty sunrise in the morning, and we bought more fireworks! Happy 4^th of July!