June 1 - 4

Wednesday, June 1 was our 43rd anniversary. We drove from Rapid City, South Dakota to Sturgis. Then we took scenic route Highway 14A in a loop through Deadwood, Lead and through Spearfish Canyon. It was a very pretty drive.
After getting back onto I-90 and right before the Wyoming border there was a buffalo jump.

The Plains Indians depended upon the buffalo for many of their material needs - food, shelter, clothing, tools, fuel and ceremonial objects. Tribes joined in communal hunts by driving herds of buffalo over a cliff where animals were killed, butchered and processed in mass. There has been archeological digs here and because of the shape of this particular hole much has been preserved.

We went to Devil’s Tower National Monument after eating lunch in Hulett.



What an unbelievable awesome mammoth piece of rock. We walked the 1.3 miles around the foot of it and even saw some climbers who were about half way up. (The climbers are not us.) The shape of the rock was fascinating.


And we found more prairie dogs. I am sure that folks who live in the areas where there are prairie dogs find them pests but I loved watching them.


We even saw some babies.

We stayed the night in Hulett, Wyoming at a very nice Best Western.

Thursday we drove to Billings, Montana and stopped at Little Bighorn Battlefield on the way. The weather was in the high 70’s but there was quite a wind. The Battlefield was very well marked and it was quite interesting. It stretched over about 5 miles. The white markers are U.S. soldiers


and the red are Indian.

We listened to a cell phone tour as we drove to see the different spots.
There is also a National Cemetery here.

Friday was a drive day and what a day. We drove from Billings to Conrad, Montana which wasn’t that overly long but it was raining with a very, very strong wind most of the day. It was flat grassy land with a few rolling hills and almost no trees. And there was nothing. We ate lunch at a fork in the road restaurant that was extremely busy as there was nothing else around. But the food was delicious.
Saturday we headed west to the east side of Glacier Park and then along the southern end of the park. These are the snow capped mountains we saw as we drove.

We went through Columbia Falls and Whitefish and then north into Canada. We were only at the border crossing for about 10 minutes or so. When we crossed in 2009 we had a fully loaded van. This time it is not loaded to the ceiling.

May 27 - 31, 2011 - Traveling

On Friday May 27 we left Warren at 7:45 am to drive through Chicago and across Wisconsin to Rochester, Minnesota. This was just a day of driving. We didn’t do any sightseeing.

Saturday we drove for 4 hours and stopped at Pipestone, Minnesota to see the Pipestone National Monument. It is where the Indians quarried the soft red stone for their peace pipes. Quarrying is still done today but only by Native Americans. There is a 5 -6 year waiting list and they must prove their ancestry. Then they have to work the quarry each year or they lose the right and someone else will be able to then use it. It was very wet in the area and the quarries were flooded. We were able to watch two carvers work on the stone.



As we walked the trail through the area we found the leaping rock. The Native Americans used it for proving prowess.

This is from the ground level.

This is from above where they would jump from one rock to the other.


We traveled on to Sioux Falls, South Dakota for the night. It was the first time either of us had been in South Dakota and now I (Coleen) only have one more state to get.

Sunday we left Sioux Falls and drove to Mitchell, South Dakota to see the Corn Palace. It was unbelievable to see all of the beautiful murals made with ears of corn. There are 12 different colors grown. Here is an example of how they put the design and then the corn on the "paint by number".



The murals on the outside are redesigned and changed each year.



There are murals inside also but these are never redesigned. They do replace the corn about every 10 years or so.




It was interesting to see the drastic change in the terrain when we crossed the Missouri River southeast of Pierre. Instead of flat land and prairie it became rolling hills, many which were quite large rolling hills. Then we came to the Badlands.

We stayed at Badlands Inn on Sunday night. We toured the Minuteman Missile Historic Site. There were two parts. Both were located about ½ mile off of the interstate on very muddy dirt roads. The first we looked at was the missile silo with a mock up of a missile in it.


The second was an actual tour of the command/control center of Delta 1. This was the launch control for 10 individual missile silos. Above ground were the living quarters for 6 security personnel, a cook and one officer.



Below ground was the launch control center.




The tour was very interesting and informative. Only 6 people are allowed on each tour because of the size of the elevator. These were very important jobs but I am sure it was very boring. There were 2 men down in the center for a 24 hour shift. Up top they worked 12 hours on and 12 hours off. They were from Ellsworth AFB in South Dakota.

We then drove the road through the Badlands National Park. It is easy to see why the area was call “badlands”.




We enjoyed the colors and striping of the rocks. We were also able to see prairie dogs along one stretch of the road

as well as a few big-horned sheep.



Our next stop was Wall Drugs in Wall, South Dakota. This drug store (and much more) has been open since December 1931. It covers almost an entire city block has so many items to purchase that it was really overwhelming. We did eat our lunch there and bought some post cards. From our perspective most of the items were very unnecessary. It is a genuine tourist trap but fun to see.





We continued west and arrived at Rapid City with enough time to see Mt. Rushmore before checking into the hotel. It was spitting rain and only about 54 degrees. We learned that about 90% of the carving was actually done with dynamite. It is quite a beautiful site.




Tuesday, we drove to Wind Cave National Park via Custer State Park in which we were able to see many bison and their calves.



Then we saw a lone pronghorn antelope.


We arrived at Wind Cave just in time to join a 1 ½ hour guided tour.


We have seen quite a few caves recently and I am amazed at the difference in each one. In this one the formations were called boxworks.

It looked like brown vellum. It was named Wind Cave because of the strong wind at the entrance. You do not notice it in the cave. It is third longest cave in the country and fourth in the world and has only been explored for 135 miles.

We then went to Jewel Cave National Park and passed this cattle drive (moving from one field to another) along the edge of the highway.


Jewel Cave was a bust. We weren’t ready for their strenuous tour so thought we would learn from the orientation video. But they apparently only have one copy and it wasn’t working. From the displays we did learn that the cave has many crystal-like rocks.
On the way in I saw a deer laying in the woods. When we left the deer was still there.