Day 5, Friday, August 19, Rapid City, Deadwood

This morning, we checked out of our Rapid City hotel. Before leaving town, we visited the South Dakota State University's O'Hara Museum of Geology on the SDSU campus. It was very interesting.

After leaving the museum, we had lunch at the local On The Border before heading out of town. We took the scenic route west on SD-44 over to US-385 north. Before reaching Deadwood, we reached an elevation of 6,200 feet. Deadwood is at an elevation of 4,500. When we arrived at Deadwood, the temperature was a moist 45F.

One disappointment upon arriving at Deadwood. I had booked two nights at the Historic Bullock Hotel through their web site. Upon arrival, it seems the booking company had instead booked us at the Hickok Hotel and Casino two blocks away. The only disappointing thing about this is that T had been led to believe the Bullock Hotel was haunted and she had brought her divining rods. The Bullock was full so we had to go ahead and stay at the Hickok. Nice room, just not where we wanted to be.

After checking-in, we went for a tour of the Adams House Museum. Again, incredibly interesting. No pictures of the interior were permitted, but this Queen Ann house, built in 1892 with telephones, running water and electricity. This is amazing since it was situated among the shanties and tents that the majority of the residence lived in at the time. They even had a REFRIGERATOR, not an ice box, but a REFRIGERATOR. The electricity was provided by the Homestead Mining Company generators at their nearby mines. I was more impressed than T.

We had popcorn and cocktails at the No 10 Saloon before walking the boardwalk to the hotel before retiring to our hotel.

Bullock Hotel...Where we did NOT stay

Mount Moriah, where Wild Bill in buried

No 10 Saloon

At 6:00 pm I heard a commotion outside our window. Pulling the shades, they were having a street gun fight re-enactment. Not sure what the scene was, but they put on a good show...at least the crowds lining the street seemed to think so.

Around 8:00 pm, we went down to the casino/bar and had a pizza made for us. We took it back to the room and settled in for the night. Tomorrow, we will have breakfast and tour the main drag before visiting the Adams Museum here in town. This is different than the Adams House Museum we visited yesterday. This afternoon, we may drive over to Lead (pronounced "leed") which is just a few miles west. This is a mining town and, apparently, a none too friendly neighbor to Deadwood in the early years.

Day 4, Thursday August 18, Mt. Rushmore, Custer State Park and Crazy Horse

Last night we turned in relatively early. I awoke just before 7:00 am and T was up shortly thereafter. We dined at the hotel and left around 9:00 am for Mount Rushmore. It was a 25 mile trip from the hotel. This was T's first visit to the memorial and my second. My first was at an age of 10-12 years old. I don't remember a lot about it except it was extremely hot. Today however, the weather was very good. It got up to about 81F just before noon with clear skies. Humidity was low at an elevation of around 5,500 feet. A front came through in the afternoon and by the time we got back to Rapid City, it was 57F. The high tomorrow is only supposed to be 60F.

It was not overly crowded. No problem finding a parking spot. We sat through a 20 minute video and only stayed about 90 minutes.

After leaving Mt. Rushmore, we went back through Keystone and took the scenic drive down through the Black Hills National Forest and the Custer State Park. It was only a 67 mile trek, but the roads were so winding, we averaged only about 30 mph. Beautiful scenery. There were several one-lane tunnels carved through rock that made it very interesting.

The CC Gideon Tunnel

Mt. Rushmore seen from the Norbeck Overlook

This tunnel was only 8 feet 11 inches wide

Needles Highway

A needle

The highest elevation we knowingly achieved was at Sylvan Lake in Custer State Park (6,145 feet). It is a man-made lake created in 1881 by building a dam across Sunday Gulch.

Sylvan Lake, Custer State Park, 6,145 ft

The Dam Spillway

The Gulch

Then we proceed over to the Crazy Horse memorial. Started in 1949, it will be impressive if it is ever completed. What is impressive now is the all the commercialization (visitor center, restaurant, exhibitions, etc.) that the Crazy Horse Foundation has spent its money on. I mentioned to T that if they had spent that money on the monument itself, they would probably be much further along.

Tomorrow we check out of our Rapid City hotel. T wants to visit the Geological Museum. Then we will head up to Deadwood where we will stay two nights.

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.