21 May ‘08

Wednesday

Tuesday was going to be our last fully sunny day for the next couple of weeks so we jumped into the car and headed over to see the Badlands National Park. 

 We were about 75 miles west of them so making this drive was going to be an all day affair. 

Badlands National Park consists of nearly 240,000 acres and made up of some of the most beautifully eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires that blend with the largest mixed grass prairie in the country. 

In 1939, the government designated this area as the Badlands National Monument, and then in 1978 it was established as a National Park.  The Badlands are a type of “arid terrain” where softer rocks and clay rich soils have been extensively eroded by wind and water.  Fact is, these softer rock/clay soils on the buttes, pinnacles and spires, lose about an inch of soil each year.  Louise and I have had a chance to hike a number of canyons, ravines, gullies, and hoodoos in the last few months, but the canyons and all here are very difficult to navigate by foot.  The soils just will not hold…it’s just like hiking on a soft sponge while on flat surfaces and the sides they just crumble at the touch.  The Badlands don’t have the colors of those down south, but they definitely are mesmerizing as they stand there before you.  They have their own beauty… 

Today we spent the day searching out and finding the DMV Office so that we could apply and pick up our new drivers license.  It took no longer than 40 minutes and $8 a piece and we were officially licensed for the state of South Dakota.  Next stop was the courthouse.  There we were directed to the 2^nd floor and the vehicle licensing department.  Just like the first stop this morning, we were in and out in 30+ minutes and had written a $180 check for the motor home and the “toad” registration and plates.  OK, time left over so what do we do now???  Geesss, a movie…  we took in Baby Mamma.  It was just “good”, you know, a movie that you would pick up at Safeway or someplace like that for the night.

The rain has finally caught us…I mean REALLY caught us…  We are just about ready to pull up stakes, but with the water rushing all around us, we just might put up “sail” and hope for a trailing winds.  Now it’s onto Coeur d’Alene, Idaho for Trev’s graduation.

18 May ‘08

Sunday

Our stay here in the Rapid City area has given us a little time to stay close to the coach.  After our travels through Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah in which we seemed to be on the go 24/7, it feels pretty good.  Now that’s not to say that we haven’t been out.  As I wrote the other day, we saw Mt. Rushmore, the Needles, and Custer the city and the State Park which we totally enjoyed even though it was our second visit in 2 years.  We have spent more time close to the “couch” but just about every other day we also found ourselves heading down the road as well.  Most of those trips were to Safeway, Wal-Mart, or Lowes, and with quick stopover at Starbucks (yes I know, I’m selfish and want my coffee…).  Well with the weather being so wonderful, we decided today was going to be a great day for a “Sunday Drive”…  Our route took us west to the end of Hwy 16 and then a large circle route back to Rapid City via. Hwy 44.  One thing that we have found that really has surprised us…they, South Dakota, have a lot of water.  That is, water as in lakes, rivers, ponds, and large reservoirs.  One of those bodies of water that we saw Sunday was Pactola Reservoir.  This reservoir seemed to go on forever and the fishing must have been pretty good as there were fisherman all over it.  The setting was pretty nice with Pine trees lining the shoreline, covering the rolling hills and continuing all the way up the surrounding mountain sides.  Further down Hwy 44 we came across a site that we had been reading about…”Chapel In The Hills”.  The chapel is an exact replica of the 12^th century Borgund Stavkirke (stave church) in Laerdal, Norway.  It is adorned with intricate woodcarvings, beautifully hand split cedar shake roofing, and clear cedar siding that we all would love to have surrounding our home.  A beautiful piece of architecture, a copy or not… 

15 May ‘08

Thursday

Yesterday we got right at the reason that we came to Rapid City.  We are here to establish “residency”.  We’ve lived most of our married lives in Washington, set up an LLC in Montana, and feel that this is the best route for us…South Dakota.  Actually I was born here, but that was many, many years ago.  We met with the people that will help us establish our needs and then spent the rest of the day checking out Rapid City.  Rapid City is very clean, has a good selection of stores for all our shopping needs, and is easy to get around in.  It also offers a ton of options for those wanting to explore hiking trails, kayaking, or sightseeing some fantastic sites, natural or man-made.  Today we went exploring…  a couple of years ago, we were here but we still wanted to re-visit a site or two and visit some new.  As we left this morning we had in mind to do a little hiking, but as the day went on, hiking soon became something we would be putting off for another day.  Our drive took us on one of the most twisting and winding roads we have been on.  At a couple of the curves, we found ourselves facing a single lane tunnel that had been carved out of solid rock.  Directly through and at the other end were the faces of Mt. Rushmore in the distance. 

Over the next 20 miles of hills and dales, we saw Mt. Rushmore from 6 or 7 different angles. 

Taking another route that would take us through the Needles we came upon the Lodge at Sylvan Lake.  The original lodge was built in the early 20’s, but with a little remodeling and enlarging, it has still maintained its true character.  It sits above Sylvan Lake and is shadowed by the highest peak in America east of the Rockies.  We were hoping for a place to have lunch, so having the lodge in front of us we ventured in.  As we walked into the entry of the lodge, we were met by the General Manger.  Now it was either that we looked like we were VP’s or maybe it was that they haven’t started their “season” yet, but he was there to take care of us PERSONALLY. 

He gave us a lot of information on the area and answered all of our questions like we were family.  When it came time to head into the dining room, he escorted us to the entrance and introduced us to the hostess…nice huh???  Yep, we had a very nice lunch and will go back again.  Following lunch, we headed for the Needles. 

These rock formations are really unbelievable and have been worth our while to make it back again. 

 We ended our drive with a coffee break at a restaurant/bakery in Custer.  It was a very full day and when we got back to the coach we were more than ready to just crash…

13 May ‘08

Tuesday

Leaving Moab, Arches and Canyon National Parks behind, we headed north.  The roadway north was on secondary roads but we found that they had less traffic and the scenery was wonderful.  We left with the sun shining and ended the day with the sun setting.  Our first stop north was actually east (of Moab that is).  We stopped at Grand Junction, Colorado.  We had been camping without hook-ups for over 8 days and we just wanted to “plug-in” for a night.  In doing that, we were able to charge the batteries, do some laundry, and find some reasonably (I hate to use that term) priced diesel fuel at $4.12 p/g.  Just after 10am the next morning we pulled out and headed north again.  We took 10 east to Rifle and then turned due north up 13.  About the time we passed Craig we encountered rain mixed with snow and carried that with us all the way into Wyoming.  About Rock Springs, the weather changed to heavy clouds so we decided to hit Rawlins and stay the night.  We knew the night temp was going to get into the 20’s so again we opted for plug-ins again.  When we woke the next morning we were somewhat surprised to find 3 to 4 inches of fresh snow covering the cars and trucks around us.  We were fortunate to have cable at this campground so we got the local weather stations.  They told us that the weather pattern was going to be more of the same, but as we looked north on their map, it showed that we would most likely have it better traveling north than if we were to stay another day…so off we went.  What we saw was it was even better than “advertized”.  Again the roadway was a nice 2 lane road, but we also found that this was a passage way for the big trucks…oh well.  Our route was to take us to Casper and from there to Rapid City, South Dakota.  We normally don’t travel the long distances, but we decided if we were going to stop in our “normal” day of travel time, we would only be 60 miles from our next day and final day destination of Rapid City.  Fortunately it wasn’t dark yet when we got to our campground, but they had already closed the office.  We had a great drive, although a little longer than I like, but traveling the roads and scenery to get here were great.

5 July ‘06

On the 3rd we left Hot Springs and headed off to see Wall, South Dakota and from there we would run down into the Badlands. The weather had cooled enough so that we thought we might have a chance to see the Badlands without “sweltering”. We did find that the wind was blowing pretty good, and it just happened to be blowing in our face all the way. It is amazing just how many more times the coach shifts into lower gears when you have that wind pushing against the front end. When we arrived in Wall, after setting up, we walked up to see just what the home of “Wall Drugs” is all about. First of all, the town of Wall would be nothing but a dust bowl if it weren’t for Ted Hustead and his wife needing to do more marketing to make it a go for their drug store. Dorothy came up with the idea to place signs out on the highway (which is now I-90) promoting a “Free Glass Of Ice Water”. This turned out to be more than anyone could ever have imagined…fact is, the rush started to their “drug store” even before Ted got back from installing the signs. It could take you a full day to see the whole complex of stores that surround the drug portion if you were inclined to let it. We did spend about 2 hours looking around and having our lunch. Then it was back to the coach for a little rest, dinner, and then about 7 we left for a sunset tour of “The Badlands”. After traveling about 8 miles down highway 240 and seeing nothing but flat farm lands all around us, we were all of a sudden stunned as the land dropped away from us and exposed those Badlands before us. Amazing site, amazing colors… some of the hills were mounds of light green going to soft red, some of the high peaks were streaks of red, pink, light brown and purple. These streaks were so straight that it was like looking through some type of special filter that would only let you see the horizontal…it was freaky but yet absolutely beautiful. Our drive back home was on the same road, but now it was dark and with a half moon above us. The speed limit was 45, but we found out that we safely could only do about 30-35 max because of the animals that seemed to come out of no-where…deer, wild goats, and coyote. This morning we awoke to the day that we will start heading back to the Pacific Northwest. There is no hurry, but we want to take our time. Right now, we have landed in the “Legendary” Sturgis, South Dakota. We stopped here to see what brings the motorcycle crowd each year. This is the 66th year, and they have started to arrive already. Sturgis is expecting about 70,000 bikers here by the end of the month. The sounds around here are deep and throaty. Tonight, Louise wants to head off to Deadwood tonight and do a little gambling, so wish her (and me) luck…