Sheri and Randy Propster (Brand Ambassadors for Backpacker Magazine’s Get Out More Tour presented by Woolrich) packed a few life list locations into their commute to work today.  To say the Get Out More Team doesn’t have a typical commute would definitely be considered an understatement…

Our commute is unique for many reasons, one of which is the fact that our commute is never to the same place twice.  Today’s commute was in South Dakota, two days ago it was North Dakota and the day before that it was in Minnesota.  Since the beginning of April we’ve enjoyed commuting through 30 different states.

While many people dread their commute to work, we embrace the time in our Subaru.

We certainly understand why many people don’t exactly enjoy their commute.  It is certainly justifiable to associate the daily commute with stop and go traffic congestion, red lights, and honking horns.  We experienced all of those things during a commute into the big apple two weeks ago (we should point out that our respect for taxi drivers on Broadway in downtown New York City has been elevated to an entirely new level).

Today’s commute had a few (ok, very few) similarities to the typical commute.

 For starters todays commute involved stop and go driving.  The stop and go wasn’t in bumper to bumper traffic congestion though, it was to stop and take in the awe of the landscape and observe the unique wildlife along the Wildlife Loop and the Needles Highway in South Dakota’s Custer State Park and NorbeckWildlife Preserve.

We didn’t get stopped by a single red light, come to think of it we can’t seem to recall seeing a single traffic light all day.

 There were road blocks though, if you consider a herd of buffalo or a pack of feral burros (the Jacks and Jennies are not shy, if you’re not careful you might get a lick through your open window) standing in the road, a road block. 

We didn’t hear the honking of horns either, but we did hear plenty of barks and rhythmic chirps while driving through the densely populated “Towns” of Prairie Dogs along today’s route.

Actually and more accurately, today’s commute was absolutely nothing like a typical commute.

 Unless, of course, your typical commute is similar to the commute we enjoyed today. If your commute starts after enjoying breakfast and tea while watching a few hundred of the 1500 free roaming Bison in Custer State Park graze past your campsite then so far our commutes are similar.  If your typical commute involves a drive down the Needles Highway through the unique geology of the high granite “needles” and the narrow granite tunnels before exiting Custer State Park and the Norbeck Wildlife Preserve for a presidential-style detour to the Mount Rushmore National Memorial in route to the grasslands of the Great Plains as you continue toward the Devils Tower National Monument, then our commutes are thoroughly similar and you are more than welcome to call our commute typical, but only today, because tomorrow our commute will once again be unique.

 Tomorrow our commute will lead us into Wyoming, and while we can’t say for sure what we will encounter on the drive we can say for sure that the commute will be anything but typical.

Please help us keep our commutes anything but typical by suggesting the detours you think we should take.  We invite you to check out our Tour Schedule to see where our commute will take us next and let us know with your comments where we can find the “must-see” destinations. 

See You Outside,

Sheri and Randy Propster

Tags: Backpacker Magazine's get Out More Tour, Black Hills, Commute, Custer State Park, Devil's Tower, Needles Highway

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 19th, 2010 at 5:05 am and is filed under Advice From the Experts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.