Day 3, Wednesday, August 17, De Smet, Kimball, Badlands and Rapid City

We awoke at our De Smet Bed and Breakfast and got ready to head out. We had a good breakfast, got our ice packs out of the freezer and headed over to where they start the bus tour of the area. Unfortunately, they started the morning tour at 8:30 am and we did not arrive until 9:00 am. The next one did not start until 2:00 pm, so we decided just to go out to the Ingalls homestead, south of town. It comprised 160 acres. It was starting to get warm, but not too bad. The elevation in De Smet is about 1,500 feet and it was relatively dry. The homestead offered a walking tour which covered just over three miles. It was a good tour.

Gift Shop. T bought The Annotated Pioneer Girl

Sod Dugout

Shanty (not much of an improvement over the dugout)

Barn

Final Homestead Residence (three phases)

Stable

 There was a horse-drawn wagon to ferry people around the property, but it started about the time we had finished our walking tour.

On the far back of the property, was the original West Bethany Lutheran Church. The Ingalls were not Lutheran but devote Congregationalists. We walked back to the church and found (from a black board inside) that it had been moved there in 2009. Why, we don't know. It appeared to be an active church, but we don't know what denomination.

 We then went to the Johnson School #20. Laura Ingalls never attended or taught in the school or had anything to do with the school. So why was it there? We were told to show what a school of the period might look like. AND, T noticed that one of the teachers of the school had been one of Laura Ingalls students!

We sat through a class session

I must publicly congratulate T on her conduct during our tours in De Smet. On several occasions, the guides made statements that I knew were contrary to her beliefs. She never corrected them however. Not even when they mispronounced the name of their own city. I was so proud and thought this demonstrated a remarkable degree of constraint on her part.

We departed De Smet around 11:00 am and headed west on I-90. Around 1:00 pm we approached Kimball and decided to get lunch at Ditty's. T had a burger and I had, what I believe to be, the worse Philly Cheese Steak sandwich of my life. But, the ambiance was worth it. Lots of bikers going to or from Sturgis. Last week was the 76th annual bike rally in Sturgis. I guess these guys were just now sobering up.

Back on the road, we crossed the Missouri River at Chamberlain. Very impressive! Much more so that the Mississippi flowing through St. Louis. Of course the Mississippi we passed when we crossed over from Wisconsin to Minnesota was also much more impressive than the Mississippi flowing through St. Louis. On the west side of the river, we quickly climbed about 500 feet in elevation. By the time we reached Cactus Flat, SD (where SD 240 and I-90 intersect) the elevation was 2,500 feet.

We took SD 240 south into the Badlands National Park. I successfully used my senior park pass and saved enough to pay for that miserable Philly Cheese Steak sandwich I had at Ditty's. We drove through the badlands on SD 240. This was T's first exposure to the Badlands and she was impressed. It is kind of like the Grand Canyon however. Every time you look, it is impressive, but after awhile, it gets a bit old and pictures do not do it justice. We stopped at the visitor's center and watched a short film on the park.

We saw no rattlesnakes

Visitor's Center

Then we went on into Rapid City. We easily found our hotel and checked in. Today is our 43rd wedding anniversary, so we dined on sushi and sparkling sake at the local Fuji Japanese Steakhouse. We had a nice time.

Tomorrow we start touring the Black Hills.

Day 2, Tuesday, August 16, De Smet, SD

We got to bed early last night and awoke around 6:00am. Not fully rested, but better than yesterday morning. We actually had an adequate breakfast at the Hampton Inn. My previous experiences with Hampton Inn's breakfasts was confirmed. We had egg omelets and bacon. Not fancy, but not powdered eggs either.

We got off from the hotel about 7:15am, expecting an eight hour drive to De Smet, SD (not counting any stops). We quickly were distracted by the Wisconsin Dells. We got off Interstate 90 and drove through the area including a Wisconsin State Park. The Dells is "the water park capital of the world". Surely, they have a lot of water parks, both inside and outside. It is a very elaborate tourist area. The State Park was very quiet and pleasant. Lots of camping sites.

We got back on I-90. The weather was good, mostly clear and no rain. We stopped once for lunch and once when we crossed over from Minnesota to South Dakota, to get a SD road mop. We arrived in De Smet around 3:00pm and took a quick drive-through tour. We found our B&B, checked in and then went to the Ingalls home for a guided tour. We had a great guide who knew the Ingalls family very well. We then went to the cemetery to view their resting place. All except Laura who is interned in Mansfield, MO. We visited there a few years ago.

Then it was time for dinner. T had found some good reviews for a local's main street dive called the Dugout. It was good. Gary (owner, bartender and driver of the Winnebago) was very nice to us.

Then, back to the B&B to relax and prepare for tomorrow which is Rapid City.

The room has a spa which I wanted to photo with T in it, but NO!

Update on the leaking roof in St. Louis. Bret called today and said they had determined that the torrential rain we experienced Sunday night had compromised the flashing around the southeast dormer and additional flashing was needed. He said they would install it tomorrow. I hope he is right.

Day 1, Monday, August 15, Madison, WS

We arrived in Madison, WS a bit later than we expected, around 6:00pm. Our plan was to get up at a leisurely time and hit the road around 9:00am. It is a six hour drive to Madison, which would put us in around 3:00pm.

What actually happened was around 2:00am Monday morning, during a torrential rain (we got 3.5" overnight), I woke to a strange "popping" or "dripping" sound. I got up and found that we had water dripping out of the electrical box in the ceiling of our master bedroom to which the ceiling fan hangs. To make a tediously long story short, we had a massive roof leak in the eave above our bedroom. Water was running across the ceiling, between the 2nd and 3rd floors, and exiting through the electrical box in our bedroom ceiling. We spent the next several hours with buckets and towels trying to minimize the damage. Around 5:00am, we had the situation, more or less, under control but the leak continued. I caught a couple of hours of sleep while T monitored the situation, with the aid of some Champagne. At 8:00am, I called our insurance agent (Devin). He advised me to contact the roofer (we just had the house re-roofed last year) and have him cover the area and then determine whether the leak was due to poor installation or weather damage (any bets?). Based upon my previous experience with the roofer, I was a bit doubtful I would even be able to contact him. However, the stars were aligned for us and Bret's (the roofer) wife not only answered their phone, but promised Bret would get back with me shortly. He did and arrived around 9:30am. I showed him the leakage on the interior. Exterior, nothing was obviously wrong. Bret assured me he would find the problem and correct it and I should go ahead and leave town. He said he would call when he found the problem.

T got a couple of hours of sleep and then we packed up. We finally got off around noon. We drove north through light and heavy rain for the first 175 miles. Then things got better. We are now chilling out at our Hampton Inn in Madison. Tomorrow, we head west to De Smet, SD where we will visit the Laural Ingalls family homestead. We will be staying in the Prairie House Manor B&B for one night before moving on to Rapid City.