Now that Kim and the girls are flying back to NH, it’s just me, Murphy, Crystal and Peggy. Not going to lie… it’s really weird to be all by myself after spending 1.5 months straight with other humans.

After dropping off the family, I returned to where we parked Crystal and did some provisioning. Back to Badlands KOA! The 2(ish) hour drive was uneventful, and it was easy since I knew where I was going. After getting setup, I raced to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site (and forgot my mask as you can see in the picture at the top of blog).

It is a small building off the same exit as the Badlands that has a museum and a 30 minute movie about the Minuteman Missile program, the Cold War arms race, and Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD). It was terrifying, fascinating, and left me wanting to do the 2 other tours of a Launch Control Facility and a missile silo (you have to get reservations for these tours and they book out immediately).

The scariest stories are the numerous close calls to nuclear Armageddon. The Cuban Missile Crisis is well known, but there were other stories that I hadn’t heard. Stanislov Petrov, a USSR soldier, is known as the “man who saved the world,” when he defied orders and refused to report that his radar showed missile launches from the US. It turned out to be sunlight reflecting off high altitude clouds that triggered his radar. If he had told his superiors, I’m not sure we would be here today. His military career was ruined, but he knew that it was a false report. Then there’s the story of NORAD seeing simultaneous ground and naval missile launches from Russia, only to find out that a technician had mistakenly played a training video.

I can’t imagine being a missileer in the military. Pulling 24 hour shifts in a buried capsule with 10 missiles at my fingertips that can eradicate a country in 30 minutes is beyond my comprehension. I also can’t imagine growing up with a missile silo in my backyard. Well worth spending 90 minutes to check it out.

After the missiles, I cruised (get it?) back the campground and took Murphy to the dog park, where he sniffed around for a while. I wanted to take a bit of a longer walk, so I returned him to Crystal and walked the perimeter of the campground.

The KOA is right on the White River, so braving the long grass, I walked to the middle of the mostly dry river bed. I walked down a bit, checked out the bridge from underneath and watched the sun set. It was peaceful and beautiful, but made me wish that I could share it with Kim and the girls.

I grilled up a burger and some tater tots, and played some Mario golf on the Switch. Look out Emmy, I’m getting good!

Off to Sioux Falls tomorrow.