South Dakota - Wyoming - Montana Travels

August 31, 2010
Little Bighorn National Monument, Montana

Today was an OK day for me and a boring one for Geri. She's been a real sport about this year's cross-country trek, which has been interesting in some ways but, hey, how many corn, soybean and hay fields can you see before you go nuts? I've been breaking it up with Halls of Fame and the odd historical monument. She's still searching for a good mani-pedi.

So, we survived the thunderstorms last night at Rocky Point SRA in South Dakota. The morning started out clear and cool, and we were on the road early, heading northwest. We crossed through the extreme northeast corner of Wyoming and made some good progress through Montana.

We stopped for lunch at the Little Bighorn National Monument (previously known as the Custer Battlefield National Monument, but renamed in 1991), and I spent a couple of hours walking through the National Cemetery and the Memorial, and listened to the Ranger Talk.

Click here for pictures.

Late in the afternoon, we continued our westward travels, stopping for the night just short of Billings on I-90. We did see the largest "Oversize Load" ever, along the way, though...

This thing was two flatbeds wide and had about 15 axles on the trailer.  120 tires on the ground!  No idea how much it weighs or what it was; thought they moved all the nuclear waste by rail.  As you can see, everyone had to pass on the right shoulder (we were next), as it was traveling about 20 MPH down I-90.

The Center of the Country

August 30, 2010
Rocky Point SRA, Belle Fourche, SD

Today was the first cloudy/rainy day in a while, but at least the heat has broken. We had a relatively short driving day, heading out just before 10:00 and arriving at our destination, Rocky Point Recreation Area, just east of Belle Fourche, SD, right around noon. This is a nice Park, with about 60 long back-in sites with electric (20-30-50 amp) service. Although the sign at the entrance gate said they were booked for Labor Day Weekend, we counted two other rigs here, and a few more arrived late in the day.

Once we were hooked up, we took a ride into Belle Fourche (geographical center of the 50 States) and over to Orman Dam, which was built between 1905 and 1914, and was one of the first project of the "Reclamation Service" (now the Bureau of Reclamation). At the time, it was the largest compacted earthen dam in the country. It's primary purpose is irrigation, not as a water supply for communities.

Belle Fourche has a monument celebrating the Center of the 50 States...

...complete with a "walk of flags".

"Take that, Kansas"!

Hmmm.  Thanks for worrying about my convenience!

We were surprised to see the low reservoir level, given all the rain the upper plains have gotten this summer.

Many of the German POWs held here during WW-II actually stayed in the area after the war, bring a bit of diversity to the communities.

Late in the day, a front roared through, bring a short burst of strong winds and horizontal rains, but we were rewarded with a nice double rainbow and sunset.

A relaxing few days with more sightseeing mixed in

August 29, 2010
Rapid City/Hermosa, SD

After a couple of nice days of touring, we needed some "down time". And the hot weather returned with a vengeance (102°F at the peak), so it was pretty easy to stay home in the A/C-cooled coach for the most part.

We did get out for a bit, though. On Thursday, we headed into Rapid City for dinner at the "best" place in town, The Corn Exchange". The chef used to work at Henry's End, one of our favorite places in Brooklyn, among other place. We ate there in 2006, and we might have had excessive expectations, as it didn't seem as good this time. Good but not great. Oh, well...

Friday, I did a solo expedition, since Geri wasn't keen to visit the South Dakota Air & Space Museum. She'd been here in the early-1960s, visiting her sister whose husband at the time was stationed here in the Air Force. This facility is located on the edge of Ellsworth Air Force Base, currently home of a B-1B Bomber Squadron. After viewing the large array of planes on display (including a B-29, B-52, and B-1B - talk about a historical sequence) and looking at the inside exhibits, I anted up the $7 to take the bus tour on-base. The primary feature of the tour was the descent into a Minuteman II missile silo. With a pair of B-1B's doing touch-and-gos on the Ellsworth airstrip in the background, it was a nice tour, especially for those of us who remember air raid drills and crawling under the desks in elementary school in the early-1960s.

After a quick stop at the local Cabela's to check out options for personal protection (liking the Taurus "Judge", small 380 Rugers, a 38 Special with laser sighting for Geri and a very interesting Springfield "9") and Wal-Mart for prescriptions (actually two trips since they under-delivered the first time), it was back home for a nice evening with my Honey.

Yesterday, we made out a meal plan and headed back to Rapid City for shopping. On the way, we stopped at Memorial Park, which I recently learned has two actual sections of the Berlin Wall on display. Together with the Cold War-era items on display at Ellsworth, this was another interesting trip back down memory lane. It's a bit of a shock to the system when "historical" things are from when you were growing up. I used to think that "history" meant things up through the Revolution and maybe the Civil Wars. Hmmm.

Anyway, click here for Ellsworth pictures and here for Berlin Wall photos...

How could I forget...

August 27, 2010
Hermosa, SD

...the excitement we had near the RV Park today? Old age, I guess...

Anyway, we had some thunderstorms pass by this afternoon, and ended up with a brush fire on a ridge about a mile away from the Park. We watch a lot of TV from Los Angeles as we travel, so we're probably more sensitized to the impact of fires. The wind shifted a few times during the afternoon, but didn't drive the fire in our direction. They brought in firefighters from as far away as Black Hawk and Wall late in the day, and there was a water-dropping helicopter circling at dusk, so it's probably all right now, but the smell of smoke was disconcerting to say the least...

Another Day Trip - Deadwood/Sturgis

August 25, 2010
Deadwood/Sturgis, South Dakota

Since we had another beautiful day (second day in a row I wore jeans instead of shorts!), we decided to take a ride over to Deadwood, about 45 miles northwest of Rapid City. It was a fine day for a drive. Deadwood was relatively quiet (dare I say "dead"?),and the "main drag" was primarily bars and "casinos" (aka, "places with a few slot machines" here). We walked a bit and window shopped a bit, but when you've been to Vegas this is a little tame. Maybe if we'd stayed for the staged gunfight in the middle of the main street?

We did a "drive by" in Sturgis on the way back, since that's where we needed to get back on I-90 to get to Rapid City. We intentionally timed our stay here in the Black Hills to be after the peak of the biker rally traffic, so it was interesting to see the town in its "natural state". Life is, indeed, good.

Click here for some Deadwood/Sturgis pictures...

Sights and Wildlife

August 24, 2010
Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore, South Dakota
Sights and Wildlife

Today was a beautiful, cooler day - a great time for a day trip. We decided to make a return visit to a couple of places we visited when we were here four years ago: Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore.

Custer State Park dates back to 1912, even though Custer's Expedition found gold in the Black Hills as early as 1874. It represents the vision of then-Governor Peter Norbeck, who mapped the whole area out as a park and preserve. In addition to the varied topography, from grasslands to rocky formations, it's home to numerous species of wildlife. We managed to see six different kinds of animals during the day: Pronghorn and whitetail deer, prairie dogs, burros, wild turkeys, and - of course - buffalo.

We made a quick stop at Mount Rushmore, which was somewhat crowded (to be expected in late-August) and a little late in the day for the best photographic exposure. We made a few pictures and hung around a bit watching the other tourists, then headed home after a nice day.

Click here to see a photo album from today's drive.

A slow week - for us...

August 22, 2010
Hermosa (Rapid City), South Dakota

It's been a slow and relaxing week for us here in the Black Hills (compared to my friend, Dave, who completed a 1,600 kilometer (~1,000 miles) bicycle event in Italy in under 120 hours). Whew!

Tuesday, we gathered up all Geri's documents and headed for the DMV Office in Rapid City, about 20 miles away. We've heard all sorts of horror stories about people being refused a driver's license renewal because they don't have the right documents. It seems that since the Patriot Act was implemented, renewals require proof of citizenship, Social Security Number and residence. Fortunately, there's a special rule for us RVers where a RV Park receipt and an affidavit on residence is accepted. The big issue for many people seems to be the other documents. Hospital (not certified) birth certificates, expired passports and especially name mismatches for the ladies have been a real problem. For example, who thinks to get a new Social Security Card after a marriage? Apparently, not everyone. Then it becomes a matter of providing documents to trace name changes (certified marriage certificates, divorce decrees, etc.) that many people might not think to bring to the DMV.

Fortunately for us, we did get Geri a new Social Security Card many years ago, and we had all our paperwork lined up. I even had the RV Park print off a new receipt showing her name just to be safe. We were in and out in about 20 minutes, including the time required to fill out the application and wait for our number to be called.

After a celebratory brunch at the local Perkins, we did a bit of shopping at the local Wally World before heading home. This being the primary reason for our stop here in South Dakota, we knew that we could now relax. And that's essentially what we've done this week. On Wednesday, we did make out a more comprehensive grocery list and made another run into town for shopping (Sam's, Wally, Farmer's Market, Safeway) and to pick up our accumulated mail at the mail service office. I saved a stamp and brought a check for our annual renewal at the same time.

Other than that, it's been very relaxing - and it's turned from warm to hot. After several days in the upper-80s and lower-90s, it was 97°F yesterday and aiming for 101-102°F today. And we thought we'd beat the heat by leaving AZ! On the other hand, it's supposed to break tomorrow and we'll have lower-80s and even 70s mid-week. And, it's been cool enough at night that we've been able to turn the A/C off and open the windows. It's also pretty buggy, mostly locust/grasshoppers (still not sure which, just not crickets) and no-see-ums (vicious little things), but they're not getting in the way as it's been too hot to spend much time outside anyway.

We've eaten pretty well, with Hot Dogs (I know that doesn't sound special, but Geri made her Famous Sauerkraut - woo-hoo!), a Beef Tenderloin Roast, Veal Parm, and Slow-cooked Baby Back Ribs on the menu. Tonight, I'm making some of our version of Philly Cheesesteaks; who knows, it might even be another Margarita Night.

Once the heat breaks, we've got some sightseeing planned. We'll make another stop at Mount Rushmore (probably hasn't changed much since our last visit in 2006) and tour Custer State Park (buffalo and donkey haven). We'll make the trek up to Deadwood for the tourist traps (last time, we had the pups with us so were somewhat constrained from walking around town) and I've got a reservation at our favorite local restaurant, The Corn Exchange, for Thursday night. We've had a few other recommendations on places to go, so we'll look to fit those into the schedule as well.

Life is good...