Go West, and we shall....

Badlands

Deals @ Badlands

You are probably wondering "Where in the world are the Deals?"  I am here to tell you that we have been to the Badlands and are thrilled to be living in 2010 not the early 1800's when wagons filled with one's meager belongings endured the heat, dust and climbing elevation to reach greener valleys and gold below and beyond this vista.

Mike -inside Wall Drug

We also dragged ourselves to, wait for it: Wall Drug, SD....yes, and we did not endure the very long line for .05 cent cup of joe....no, no! And I resisted the Fudge Shop (left)....by merely watching the customers load up on what appeared to be a never ending display of fudge and other "homemade" goodies. (AKA, "TurboTouristTrap x10" - for the uninitiated....this place consumes a full block under one roof").

We also drove through Sturgis, SD....just to say we had. It was a week after the 700,000 visitors for 70th Sturgis Harley Rally, and only 1 day after the Mustang Rally....




In addition to the normal prairie dogs that we have encountered in
South Dakota, we also saw white prairie dogs (specifically bred in 1966) on the land
of one of South Dakota's early homesteader's land (1854) and now on the

White Prairie Dogs

National Historic Register....the sod hill home is intact along with
some outbuildings left and is now a museum. We did not pay
the $8./ea fee to walk amongst the buildings, but viewed them from
the visitor center - aka: gift shop.   There are now areas of SD that
have land posted with signs: No shooting! Prairie Dog Study Area
...acres and acres of prairie dog land  (towns and tunnels)
saving them from gun slingers.

 

This herd of bison in Custer State Park as we drove the scenic route to tour the Wind Cave. This small herd was just 1 of the 3 that we viewed on our drive. The park manages about 1500 of them and each October there is a round-up, followed by branding of the calves, and auctioning off of 450 of the more mature ones to wholesalers or small ranchers. Your next bison burger just may be one of these fascinating creatures. They literally stopped traffic for a good 30 min. before allowing traffic to continue....meantime the humans were capturing as many photos as possible....us included.

A bit later in the drive we nearly drove into this

group of burros, which were totally unafraid of the humans and would walk

right up to the car window....of course there are always people who live outside of the requests and signs that ask us "please do not feed the wildlife" and so these cuties expect to be fed, from each and every driver that slows down. One white burro we passed walked right into the oncoming traffic, stood in the middle of the road as if to say to that car "you will feed me or not pass GO". It was hilarious.

We pushed on, as we were merely taking the historic and the more scenic route to Wind Cave National Monument....the Indians actually named this cave, the 7th largest cave in the US, because of the natural hole that wind emerged from and continues to so today, as I experienced while posing for this photo...inside the visitor center it was listed as a 60mph wind (they have a digital display that provides ongoing information about the gusts, and whether it is outgoing or incoming - we were lucky this day for is was coming out of the cave)

Deals in Wind Cave

Yep that's us, inside the cave. It sure was pretty inside...very different from other caves we have been in...different with Boxwork, a unique feature of this cave and very fragile. No touching....looks like honeycomb and is thought to be shattered levels of limestone, spaces filled with gysum and that was then submerged with water (during the earth formation) and replaced by calcite leaving this 'boxwork' formation.

Deadwood, South Dakota - extreme Western gold mine town....noted for

where Wild Bill Hickok was murdered...they have hourly Main Street shootouts....

and is now a town built around tourists spending every dollar they might have on

every conceivable trinket .... we have learned the art of not shopping and are richer for it.

We also drove through Lead, SD which has one of the largest open pit mines

(non-operational now - but under 'scholarly study) for iron and silver. 

Originally, gold was the ore mined in the area.

We had a great time in the Rapid City area of South Dakota...our RV spot was off the freeway, we met some really wonderful and down to earth travelers who like us are enjoying the many venues and natural attractions that are available for the price of a tank of gas and good eyes. Just outside our parking spot was a gateway of sorts for the nightly trek of deer and wild turkeys...both captured by Mike and his ever present camera.

                                                        

Bullet ridden sign

 We had lunch at this sign today...it is bullet ridden, which gave us pause to discuss why - simple conclusion:  this is southwestern Wyoming, 18 year old boys with guns, a bit or alcohol and an a need to shoot something. Scary and hilarious at the same time.

Currently we are sitting in our RV listening to the rain pelt us in Dillon Wyoming...we are on our way home.

Last night we murdered the TV remote... it was an accident, as the slider does not discriminate....so the remote which fell to the floor during our drive southwest from Laurel MT yesterday, went unnoticed as we engaged the sliders out and what with the corner and force the remote didn't have a chance. Regrettably I was unable to capture it's demise on film before Mike tossed it's lifeless remains in the trash. I miss her, Mike is just very grateful that the slider is functioning as it is designed to do and we were able to motor on towards home today. We don't need it...onto Virginia City tomorrow.

The rain continues, and so the weather.com page indicates our low tonight will be 33 degrees so our recent purchase of not 1 but 2 fleece blankets will be a warm welcome as we retire for the night.

Until next time friends, ciao!