May 30, 2018

After spending 3 nights in a Best Western in Rapid City, we had to reload our car. You would think by now we would have learned to pack properly, but as the saying goes “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks.” By 10 AM we finally headed out toward Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, but not before stopping in Deadwood for Starbucks coffee.

It is getting difficult to describe all of the beautiful roads we’ve been on without being repetitive, and we haven’t even reached Yellowstone! My vocabulary just isn’t large enough to properly describe what we’ve seen or properly differentiate between them. Even photos don’t convey what we’ve been seeing. Today we were surrounded by beautiful, rocky canyon walls with the Spearfish River running beside us. One particularly lovely view was of Bridal Veil Falls.

For lunch we stopped in the town of Spearfish. The restaurant was called the Redwater Kitchen and the food was excellent and quite sophisticated. Evidently the town is popular with retirees (there are several golf courses) and it is home of a state university. Later that afternoon we crossed over from South Dakota into Wyoming.

Looming in the distance, well before you reach it, was Devil’s Tower. In 1906 Theodore Roosevelt designated the formation the nation’s first national monument. It continues to be a sacred place for Native Americans and was known as Bear Lodge. Somehow this was incorrectly interpreted to mean Devil’s Tower.

I won’t go into the details of how the tower was formed, because there are at least three different theories. However, it is interesting to note that throughout the entire formation it is composed of symmetrical columns. The tallest are more than 600 feet tall and the widest from 10 to 20 feet wide. The columns are 4, 5, 6 and 7-sided. To me they resembled crystals on a major scale.

Dan and I took a loop trail that wound around the base of the formation, 1.3 miles. It looks a little different from every angle and with the changes in sunlight. The monument itself is surrounded by cattle ranches and grassy plains that stretch far off into the distance. An impressive sight on its own. We also spotted some climbers on the Tower, as well as a snake – not a rattle snake.

Then it was time to get back into the car and head to our hotel in Gillette, Wyoming. The town is in the center of cattle country. We are truly out West. For one thing the number of pickup trucks and large SUV’s in the hotel parking lot and on the roads is incredible. There are hardly any passenger cars. We also overheard one of the guests use the term “dang it” when talking to someone on the phone. In addition, the speed limits in both South Dakota and Wyoming are 80 mph on the interstates; 70 mph and on the county side roads. With the roads twisting back and forth we often found we were uncomfortable driving so fast.

 

Tuesday, May 29, 2018

Another day, another bagel.  This time at a local bagel shop. After breakfast we headed toward the Needle Highway that is part of Custer State Park.  The road was built by Peter Norbeck, a conservationist and former South Dakota Governor and Senator.  His mission to provide the routes with the “grandest views,” was accomplished.  The spires of rocks along this whole route were quite picturesque.

On our way to Lead (pronounced Leed) we stopped for a quick bite at The Hubcap Diner in the town of Hill.   While definitely a tourist town, it is a comfortable place and is located in the middle of the Black Hills.  If ever we visit this area again, we would consider staying there.

Leed was the home of the Homestake Mining Company, and was the largest and deepest gold mine in the North America, until it closed 2002.  First mined in 1876 by a group of mining entrepreneurs, it was taken over by George Hearst (the father of William Randolph Hearst) and two business partners in 1877 for $70,000.

Over its lifetime 43,900,000 troy ounces of gold were removed from the mine.  A huge crater was left behind.  Dan and I hit four golf balls into the crater, thus assuring we would both get to experience a hole in one at least once in our lives.  The mining company carved 370 miles of tunnels some 8,000 feet deep below that massive crater.

In 2007, the Homestake Mine became the home of the Sanford Underground Research Facility.  The main focus of the Lab is on particles called neutrinos.  They are one of the fundamental particles that make up the universe.  It also has something to do with research concerning dark matter and dark energy.  All of this I fully understood for about a micro-second after it was explained to me. We did take a tour of the outside of the facility and saw the huge system they have for raising and lowering people and materials/equipment into the Lab. It was mentioned that it takes 11 minutes to be lowered into the mine; and only approved scientists/researchers are allowed to enter the mine and lab.

Researchers from all over the world are working on various projects together including the shooting of a beam of neutrinos generated at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory near Chicago 800 miles through the earth to liquid argon detectors underground at Sanford Lab.  All of this is simply mind boggling.

After so much science our last stop of the day was Deadwood, SD best known by most Americans today as the rather bloody Western series found on HBO.  Because it was a rainy day and about 5:00 PM, Deadwood was rather dead.  Dan and I could see that the town would be a lot more fun when the summer crowds come and they can purchase drinks and carry them about town like they do in New Orleans.  We did stop by a few small boutique stores such as Miss Kitty’s Mercantile which sold Indian and Cowboy crafts; and the local Deadwood Distilling Company.

This evening we had dinner and enjoyed the reenactment of the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok at the Deadwoods No. 10 Saloon.  Dan had a bit part in the play as the bartender. He served drinks to two call girls and to Wild Bill.  Afterwards, when Wild Bill was killed; he proclaimed him dead; and took the winnings(chips) off the table into his hat.  I’m a bit biased, but I thought he did a terrific job.

It was another very full day and we were glad to get back to the hotel at a reasonable hour.  Even though it rained all day today, it did not stop us from traversing the Northern  Black Hills. part of the Black Hills.

 

Monday, May 28, 2018 (Memorial Day)

South Dakota is a wonderful state. It starts out in the east with undulating fields and hills of green, turns into the fascinating Badlands, and morphs into beautiful ponderosa pine forests and mountains. There are far too many things to do here for people of all ages. I think it would be an absolutely wonderful place to take a long family vacation; if we had only known.

We just walked in the door at 10 PM tonight after a full day of sightseeing. This morning, after a bagel sandwich at Einstein’s, we headed toward Custer State Park. It was worth the $20.00 fee to get in. The first road we took was called Iron Mountain. The road was filled with hairpin turns that wound through beautiful pine forests. Iron Mountain Road connected with Wildlife Loop Road where we spotted more bison, one of which was almost on top of us, plus other wild life such as burros, deer, etc.

What struck us more than the wildlife, however, was the devastation left behind after a wildfire hit the area in December 2017. At first, we thought we were looking at some kind of tree blight because so many of the pine needles of the trees were brown. We then began to notice their black trunks. Stands of dead trees were being cut down and harvested. We aren’t sure what blackened trunks can be used for, but there were huge piles of them along the road.

Wind Cave was next on our agenda. It was the first cave to become a National Park. The cave features more than 125 miles of caves “decorated with sparkling jewel like calcite crystals.” We took the shorter Garden of Eden Tour, which lasted about 1 hour, because we were pressed for time. The main feature of these caves is fragile boxwork formations. Unfortunately, our tour didn’t feature too many of them and in all honesty wasn’t all that interesting.

It’s the cave’s history that is much more fascinating. The Lakota Sioux believe that they entered this world through the Wind Cave. Back in the 1890’s the cave was first explored by 16-year-old Alvin McDonald by candlelight. Failing to find gold, he and his family began offering tours. One hundred people at a time would go on these tours with only candlelight illuminating the way. You wouldn’t catch Dan or I down there at that time.

Next stop was The Mammoth Site. Over 61 Columbian and Wooly mammoths, plus other animals such camels, llamas, wolves and giant short-faced bears fell into a sinkhole and drowned over 26,000 years ago. Paleontologists are still working the site, which we saw. The sinkhole is estimated to have been 60 feet deep and only 20 feet have been excavated for bones at this time

How can you go and see Mt. Rushmore and not visit the Crazy Horse Memorial? The entire project was undertaken by a Polish American named Korczak Ziolkowski. He was a reknown sculpture and had been working on Mt. Rushmore. Approached by Chief Henry Standing Bear, he was invited to carve Chief Crazy Horse.

Ziolkowki took on the entire project on his own, including purchasing the mountain. No federal funds were accepted because he felt that the government couldn’t be trusted given its history with Native Americans. Eventually his wife and 7 out of ten children worked on the project along with him. Only a 15-person crew is working on the project today, including two of Ziolkowski’s grandchildren. Based on work done to date it will take another 75-100 years to complete. His saying was,” never forget your dreams.”

While at Crazy Horse Memorial we saw more deer, wild turkeys, and marmots.

We ended our day dining at Firehouse Brewing Company and had a nice dinner; tuna steaks. Dan enjoyed their Smoke Jumper Stout and I had the Nice Pear Cider.

I would write more, but it has been a long day. We have another full day tomorrow in the northern part of the Black Hills of South Dakota.

 

Sunday, May 27, 2018

We said our goodbyes to Wall, population 818, and headed to visit the site of a deactivated Minuteman Missile Launch Silos, Delta-09. Through a glass window you could look down and view the tip of what is now a Minuteman II training missile. It is the same size and specs as the original missile housed there. I don’t know how many of these things were scattered across the South Dakota prairie, but in order to make them difficult to target they were situated at least 3 miles apart.

The park ranger on duty happened to have been one of the Air Force officers (missileers) who worked on 24 hours shifts at this very missile site. He always worked in tandem with another officer and was responsible for 10 missiles. If the correct codes and commands were given, he was trained to launch the missiles. Once launched the missiles were armed and unstoppable.

After our Cold War experience, we headed back into Badlands National Park. This time we were on a dirt road that wound through interesting landscapes, but this time we spotted our first buffalo. Yes, it was a singular bison far off on the horizon, but we did see many more before existing the park, as well as other animals such as big horn sheep , prairie dogs, etc. One interesting fact we learned was that at the time of the Lewis and Clark expedition there were millions of bison roaming the plains. Within 70 years of their visit the bison were almost totally decimated.

In order not to squeeze too much into a single day, we actually forced ourselves to slow down and had a very nice lunch at the Firehouse Brewing Company in downtown Rapid City. Alcohol wasn’t in the cards so we enjoyed their homemade root beer instead.

A few doors down from the restaurant was a lovely store called Prairie Edge Trading. The store carried high end souvenirs, along with magnificent Native American Art and custom-made furniture. Dan purchased a cute yard decoration.

While in the store two people came through pushing carts full of bison skulls. As they disappeared behind a closed door I knocked and asked if I could take a photo. It turned out that the skulls were from animals that had been raised for food and were used by a well-known local artist who decorates them for wall hangings. We met the artist and his assistant, but of course I forget to get his name.

All of the above would have been enough for one day, but no, Dan and I drove on. This time to Mount Rushmore, located about 30 minutes outside Rapid City in the Black Hills. It is called the Black Hills because the numerous Ponderosa Pine trees give the hills a dark appearance.

As you drive along a winding road all of sudden, there they are: Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. The idea of carving a huge sculpture actually came from Doanne Robinson. His idea was to carve several Old West heroes, including a Native American. He had approached Gutzon Borglum to take on the project. It was Borglum who proposed carving US presidents. The work is impressive with each subject 60 feet tall, but it is hard to comprehend its scale when viewing it from below.

After a few hours of taking the same photo over and over, we finally left Mt. Rushmore and headed back to our hotel. We unpacked. Not being very hungry, ate leftover pizza from the night before.

Saturday, May 26, 2018

 

This morning we headed to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.  Essentially it was a museum reviewing the development of the nuclear bomb and the Cold War.  Some of you will remember how we were instructed to “Duck and Cover” in order to survive a nuclear attack. That would have worked wouldn’t it?  Unfortunately, we were unable to visit the control center.  When we had called to make reservations before leaving on our trip reservations were being taken for 2019.

Badlands National Park literally rises out of the endless green prairie.  The badlands were basically created from sediment from an ancient sea and jungle.  Every time it rains more sediment is washed from the buttes creating canyons, towering spires and flat-topped tables.  About 1” washes away annually and in 500,000 years it will be gone, so you better visit soon.

The road through the park that we were on today is 35 miles long, but it took us 5 hours to travel that distance.  This is only a small section of the park.  There were countless stops for hiking or overlooks along the way.  We took several mini hikes and took a million photos as well.  Mini hikes were all we could manage since temperatures reached 98 degrees.

Our day was made up of viewing some fantastic landscapes, spotting a few Bighorn Sheep, and trying to photograph lots of very uncooperative Prairie Dogs ( they like to lie down for their picture rather than stand up).  Tomorrow we will travel another section of the Badlands Park on our way to Rapid City.

Friday, May 25, 2018

 

This morning we managed to be on our way without a hitch and on schedule.  Our first stop was to Duluth Trading in downtown Sioux Falls.  We had received their catalogs and were curious to see what their retail stores were like.  It was similar to an Eddie Bauer or L.L. Bean, except for their incredibly large section of men’s underwear under the signage reading BUCK NAKED. We bought a pair.

The next stop was the Porter Sculpture Park created by a local artist Wayne Porter.  Some of the pieces were incredible, including a 60-foot-tall bull’s head that was visible from I-90 near the town of Montrose.  Accompanying many of the sculptures was his poetry.  His artwork was impressive both in terms of its creativity and cleverness, as its swell as the sheer volume of his creations.  His most recent work is a giant horse made from pieces of metal each weighing 30 LBS each.  South Dakota public TV is going to cover the moving of the horse once all of the arrangements be made.  Unfortunately, we weren’t able to see the work in progress since the artist is working on it near his home rather that in the open field Porter Sculpture Park sits on.  This sculpture park has been in Time Magazine, USA Today, on PBS, and more.

The Corn Palace was next on our itinerary.  Located in Mitchell the building itself is used for large events.  The first Corn Palace was built in 1892, just 3 years after South Dakota became a state.  The current building is the 3^rd built on that sight, and like all of the others, is decorated with murals made from various types of corn providing different colors.  Much of the work is done by hand and is replaced and redesigned every year.

After a quick bite at a local pub, we headed further into the Dakota plains and spent time at the Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center located on the campus of St. Joseph’s Indian School.  The name of the museum means “to honor the people,” which is what this museum did.    The museum wasn’t large but was filled with artifacts from the Lakota people, along with information regarding their spirituality and relationship with nature.  Of course, the museum touched on the sad treatment native peoples received by the encroaching white man.

Next on our adventure we came upon Al’s Oasis, the largest resting spot in SD located in Oacoma.  The place was huge, but we just stopped for a cold drink.  They are famous for their $.05 coffee.

Now we finally crossed the Missouri River on our way to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center.  Unfortunately, the Center was closed, but we enjoyed standing on a bluff overlooking the river at the same location Lewis and Clark supposedly camped.  The most impressive part of the visit was the gigantic sculpture of an Indian woman entitled Dignity.  She was built in 2016 commemorating the 125^th anniversary of SD statehood.

It would take us another 2 hours to drive to Wall, SD which was 150 miles away; but the speed limit in SD is 80 miles per hour; road signs and places fly by pretty fast.  It was amazing to drive mile after mile and only see incredibly green grasslands.  Our windshield became so covered with bugs that it was getting hard to see.  What was a bit comical was that we left the highway to follow a sign for a scenic overlook.  The overlook was basically the same landscape we had been seeing for the past several hours.

One does start to see changes in the landscape once approaching Wall, SD.  Wall is famous for the pharmacy which advertises not only along the highway in SD, but apparently all over the world.  It is certainly an amazing place in that it offers something for everyone but would be especially fun for families with children.  We took a quick tour of the place, and then enjoyed a buffalo burger and beer at the Badlands Bar. On to the Badlands tomorrow.

Thursday, May 24, 2018

We attempted to get an early start, but as usual our best efforts were thwarted.  We hadn’t realized that a small cooler we had was not meant for ice cubes.  In the morning Dan discovered that the water leaked out of the cooler onto lots of our belongings. This could have been avoided, but like most people, did we bother to read the directions that mentioned only use ice packs?  Of course not.  Since temperatures reached the low 90’s today, everything dried out by the end of the day.

Yesterday we had passed by Tampico, IL where Ronald Reagan was born, and today we passed by the presidential library of Herbert Hoover in West Branch, IA.  It would have been interesting to stop there, but we had a long day of driving ahead of us.

Today we crossed the Mississippi River as we entered Iowa (see photo below) and later followed the Missouri River as it made its way into South Dakota.  Across the way was Nebraska.  Along the highway we started seeing signs for the “famous” Wall pharmacy, which we plan on visiting tomorrow.

This evening we spent a little time exploring Sioux Falls, SD.  One of the towns highlights is Sioux Falls Park.  The Park surrounds the town’s waterfalls, part of the Big Sioux River.  The remains of an old mill sits on top of a hill.   We didn’t spend too much time there because it looked like a storm was brewing and it was time for dinner.

 

Downtown Sioux Falls is quite charming and consists of several blocks filled with stores and restaurants.  We had dinner at the Phillips Avenue Diner.  Phillips Avenue is the main street downtown.   There was also a sculpture/statue competition taking place in town (it is the largest city in South Dakota) and the streets were lined with fantastical and beautiful works of art.  As you can see in photos below a few of them caught our attention.  The bear shown below was by an Ohio artist named Hovey.

Wednesday, 5/23/18       9:45PM Central Time

It has been a long day of driving including several unnecessary slow downs in Indiana for non-existent construction. We also got our bumper damaged by rubber debris that was flying off a truck. We’re just lucky it hit the bumper and not the window.

The countryside was pretty with all the new green growth of Spring, but unexciting. The usual flat farmlands of Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. We stopped for our first picnic lunch at a lovely spot — a gas station. Picnics can only get better from here.

The highlight was when we were approaching our destination of Moline, IL we followed along and eventually crossed the Mississippi River. We traveled 498 miles today; and we are about 7 miles from Iowa. Tomorrow we will travel through Iowa to Sioux Falls, South Dakota; which is 450 miles away. After this we will be ‘stopping along the way as we traverse the USA’. (dermeresque haiku)

Cats forgive us for not leaving you any dry food, but we hope that you had a purrfect day…. or maybe not.

PS Can you tell when Dan contributes to the blog?

I know that it may sound a bit crazy, but I spent a good part of the last day home cleaning the house. I can only imagine how “furry” it will be upon our return.

The other part of the day was spent dealing with unemployment. I was laid off last Thursday. I admit that it was unexpected, but business had been rather slow. While I wasn’t the only one given notice, I was probably the only one that was happy about it. It was time for a change and I’ll have the Summer and Fall to figure out what do I’ll do next. Did you know you could collect unemployment if you were a part time employee?

All appears to be ready. Dan worked all day yesterday and then finished his list of to do’s which included such pleasant tasks as changing the cat litter and taking out the garbage.

Now the car is packed and it is time to be on our way. As usual we are a little off schedule, but only an hour this time.

PS This is for Jessica and Jonathan. We washed the car yesterday.

If you have gotten to the point where you can read this, it appears that we’ve been at least marginally successful of creating a blog and adding photos.  For the first time, instead of writing in a daily diary after a long day of exploring, we’ll be “blogging.”  We aren’t promising that we will post things on a daily basis — it is a vacation after all– but we will do our best, because it will serve as a record of our travels.

We are getting quite excited now that most of our preparation is done.  Dan and I aren’t known for being light packers, and it isn’t easy packing for a trip where temperatures could be in the low 20’s in Wyoming and Montana and over 100 degrees in Arizona.  However, we are driving and that makes packing alot easier.

Below is a photo of our cats Quigley and Rascal.  Whether they will miss us or not is  questionable, but they will be well looked after.  Actually we just wanted to practice inserting another photo.