Our Wander Years

Theodore Roosevelt National Park (South Unit)

Posted on September 9, 2017 by Sparky

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Buffalo

I got a quick look at Theodore Roosevelt National Park (South Unit) yesterday. It was quick because we had guests coming to our RV for drinks at 5pm and because I was low on fuel. I entered the park with a plan: drive until the “low fuel” light appeared or 17 miles, whichever came first. Well, the 17 miles came first, so I turned around after driving about a third of the loop around the park.

This plan was necessitated by my belief that the nearest refueling location was 17 miles away from the RV park. So I drove to that location, got 29.4 gallons of fuel (in my 30-gallon tank) and returned to the RV park. Along the way I tried to find wine and cheese for our little party and finally found some at the one-and-only convenience store in Medora. And I was surprised to discover that they had diesel fuel. Yes, it was 17 cents per gallon more expensive than where I filled up, but it would have saved me 34 miles of driving. It would have been a wash, money-wise, and would have saved me 45 minutes of travel. More importantly, I could have done the entire park loop. Dang!

Anyway, what I saw of Teddy’s park was impressive. Not as impressive as the Badlands National Park and not quite what I was expecting (I really thought it would be more wooded), but very interesting nonetheless. Most interesting was the wildlife: besides two very large prairie dog towns, I saw a coyote romping through the prairie dog community (which they didn’t like very much) and two American bison (aka buffalo), one of which was in a location where I could get a photo.

The park has a north unit and a south unit, 68 miles apart. I visited the south unit. I also visited the “Painted Canyon” scenic overlook off of I-94. That was a small version of the Badlands.

Rugged landscape

Painted Canyon

Distant peaks

Categories: Adventures, ND, Places, STW | Leave a comment

STW Hop 7: Spearfish SD to Medora ND

Posted on September 8, 2017 by Sparky

STW2 Hop 7

212 miles via US 85 and I-94. Cumulative tow miles: 1149. Truck miles: 316. Cumulative truck miles: 1578.

This was a straight shot north through some very desolate landscape. If it wasn’t for one construction site where we were stopped for a minute, we would have made the trip non-stop.

The purpose of the hop was to get North Dakota on our map. I regard ND as “the state I am least likely to revisit” so it was important to get here once.

We were in SD for a full week and we really enjoyed our time there. It is a beautiful state. Our last two nights were at the Elkhorn Ridge RV Resort in Spearfish. It is a spectacular RV campground – huge, flat pull-through sites with concrete pads, a beautiful pool, two huge dog parks, tennis courts, a well-stocked camp store. We liked everything about this campground. We would most definitely return.

Our free day in Spearfish was planned for a day trip to Deadwood and Lead, two wild west towns just south of Spearfish. It turned into a longer road trip than originally planned when Jett needed to refill a prescription at the only CVS in the area – 40 miles away in Rapid City. But we combined that with a trip to Walmart and Petco to get some dog food and coffee, plus we came back on US 85 through some very pretty Black Hills scenery.

We loved Deadwood. It is filled with some great restaurants and old-fashioned casinos. We dined at Mavericks Steak House and then went downstairs to the Gold Dust Casino. Both were excellent choices. I had a ribs and pulled pork combo that was excellent, accompanied by a very tasty tequila chicken soup. Jett had a sirloin steak which she also rated “excellent.”

Because we dined at Mavericks we were given $5 credit each for Gold Dust. I lost $11 but Jett parlayed her $5 credit into a $120 win.

Grass at sunset

She wants to return to Deadwood. That would be fine with me.

We also stopped in Sturgis, ground zero for Harley-Davidson owners. We just had to stop at the HD franchise there and get a pin.

If we had had more time we would have visited both Lead and the Mt Moriah Cemetery in Deadwood, where the graves of both Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are located. Just another reason to come back to the area.

Our site

Elkhorn Ridge Resort

The view at sunset

Pool

Sturgis Harley-Davidson

Deadwood

Ribs and pulled pork

Categories: Adventures, Places, Routes, RV Parks, SD, STW | Leave a comment

Mt Rushmore National Memorial

Posted on September 6, 2017 by Sparky

My postcard shot

As I mentioned in my previous post, Jett and I visited the Mt Rushmore National Memorial on the evening of Labor Day. It was a beautiful night and I thought I got some really nice photos. But I was wrong – they were fuzzy and washed out. I guess I need to learn more about taking photos at night.

I couldn’t leave SD without at least one good Mt Rushmore photo and we were close enough that I could make a second trip there (and for free – the parking pass was good until the end of the year!). I got lots of photos and most of them were pretty darn good.

I walked the entire Presidential Trail which is not very long – maybe a mile or so – but has a lot of up-and-down. I got some good exercise to go along with my good photos. The trail takes you to the base of the sculpture, so I got some great up-the-nostril shots.

The other thing that the trail offers is a number of “isolation points” where only one of the presidents is clearly visible. These points have displays highlighting the accomplishments of the individual.

At the base of the sculpture

I have to give credit to the weather. It was an impossibly beautiful morning with crystal-clear azure skies. Couldn’t ask for better conditions for photography.

Besides the mountain, I also enjoyed the walk through the Ponderosa pines. It was strongly reminiscent of the forest scene from Hitchcock’s North by Northwest, which, of course, was filmed in this area.

Stairs on the trail

One of the isolation spots

Rubble

Ponderosa pines

Peeking over the trees

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STW2 Hop 6: Rapid City SD to Spearfish SD

Posted on September 5, 2017 by Sparky

STW2 Hop 6

61 miles via US 16, I-90 and US 85. Cumulative tow miles: 939. Truck miles: 144. Cumulative truck miles: 1262.

This was a short hop – just over an hour – to get to Spearfish, from which we will do a loop tomorrow touring Deadwood, Lead and Sturgis. It was an easy hop, mostly on a very flat I-90 through beautiful countryside on a beautiful day. An easy trip. Good thing, because Jett wasn’t feeling well.

But she felt well enough to trek to Mt Rushmore after dark. It was a quick trip; I stayed just long enough to get some photos while Jett stayed in the truck. Then back home.

Unfortunately, the night shots didn’t turn out very well so I returned this morning. I will post the day shots separately.

Moon

Our one night in Rapid City was at the Rushmore Shadows Resort, a very nice newish resort about 12 miles from Mt Rushmore. It isn’t the closest RV park for someone who wants to visit Rushmore and it isn’t in Keystone which looks to be a pretty fun town. But it was a nice park that was well positioned for both a trip to Mt Rushmore and a resupply trip to Walmart.

Yesterday was a day of transition, weather-wise. It was over 90 when we left Interior and dropped to near 40 last night in Rapid City. The haze, due to wildfires in Montana, also cleared. The nearly-full moon was spectacular

Sunset

Mt Rushmore at night

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Badlands National Park

Posted on September 5, 2017 by Sparky

Near the entrance

We drove most of SD 240 on Saturday – about 25 miles of very scenic roadway through the Badlands National Park. We ended up in Wall, home of Wall Drug, which I have already described. This is to record some of the beautiful photos that I took in the Badlands.

Saw some hikers on top

Great colors

Rugged valley

Yellow mound

More yellow

Spires

Majestic

Three sisters?

Overlooking the plains

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STW2 Hop 5: Interior SD to Rapid City SD

Posted on September 4, 2017 by Sparky

STW2 Hop 5

87 miles via US 44 and US 16. Cumulative tow miles: 878. Truck miles: 163. Cumulative truck miles: 1118.

This was a “bonus hop” – a hop that was added to our original plan. I had planned to spend 3 nights in Spearfish SD, using one of the days to visit Mt Rushmore. But when I saw how far Rushmore was from Spearfish – almost 70 miles – and how close we would be as we passed by, I decided that it would make more sense to make a one-night stop near Rushmore, then move on to Spearfish for 2 nights.

I hadn’t booked any of these stops, so I didn’t have to change any reservations. But I was a bit surprised to discover that the campgrounds were still pretty full after Labor Day. I couldn’t book my first choice in Rapid City and I also had to take my second choice in the stop after Spearfish, in Medora ND. I might have to rethink my “no need to book early” policy.

The trip was very scenic. US 44 is a lonely, wide-open road through Badlands-type terrain (including a short stretch through the Badlands National Park). Then, as we approached Rapid City, the Black Hills appeared. The last 10 miles on US 16 had some serious upgrades to deal with, including a 3-mile section at 6%. Good practice for the diesel engine before we get to the mountains.

Our home in Interior was the Badlands/White River KOA. This is a large (over 200 sites) KOA campground about 4 miles outside Interior (population 88). As Interior has one combination general store/gas station, two bars and not much else, you could say that the KOA is in the middle of nowhere. This view is reinforced by the almost total lack of Verizon cell phone and hotspot service (except to the JetPack hotspot – see the earlier post). The appeal of the location is its proximity to the Badlands National Park (which I will describe separately). Because there isn’t much available nearby, the campground has a well-stocked campground store and has a grill that offers tasty meals for breakfast and dinner. We ate there last night – Jett had a hamburger with potato salad and I had a buffalo burger with cole slaw. Both were very good. I believe that was the first buffalo burger that I every had. It probably won’t be my last.

Spooky sunset

The campground also supplied free WiFi which was mostly very good, except for late night when everyone was surfing.

Our site was a sufficiently-large pull-through site adjacent to both the dog park and the campground owner’s site. It was also just a few steps to the campground laundromat which we also used last night. Clean underwear!

Western South Dakota has experienced severe drought this summer, so the grass was burnt out and everything was pretty dusty. There were also wildfires far to the west, in Montana, which gave us a haze both days, particularly yesterday. The sun, as it neared sundown, was blood red. Very spooky.

We liked this campground a lot, despite the communication challenges. We would return.

Dog park

Our site

Grill

Teepee

Mini-golf

Categories: Places, Routes, RV Parks, SD, STW | Leave a comment

Wall Drug

Posted on September 4, 2017 by Sparky

Wall Drug

If you travel anywhere near South Dakota, you will see signs for Wall Drug in Wall SD. Lots of signs. As you get within 100 miles the signs appear about every quarter mile. I don’t know how many billboards Wall Drug rents, but it must be thousands.

Eventually your curiosity will get the better of you and you just have to go see it. And we did. I was braced for disappointment, like I had experienced just a few days before at the Corn Palace in Mitchell SD. Or like the disappointment we felt last year at South of the Border, a sad relic from a pre-Interstate past.

Arrow in rig

But we weren’t disappointed in Wall Drug. It occupies a full city block (if a block in a town of 800 can be called a “city block”). It is mostly a souvenir shop but, yes, about 2% of its floor space is still a drug store. It also has amusements for the kids and a huge café (capacity 540) offering “free ice water” (which is how it became a tourist destination) and 5 cent coffee (“not bad” according to Jett). We ate lunch in the café and had excellent open-face roast beef at a very reasonable price. And some delicious donuts for dessert.

Wall Drug is surrounded by other tourist-oriented businesses which were also interesting. Jett bought an authentic handmade arrow at one which we have hung as a decoration in our rig.

Jackaloo photo op

Free water park

Flowers at Wall Drug

Categories: Adventures, Places, SD, STW | 1 Comment

Things I don’t understand, wifi edition

Posted on September 3, 2017 by Sparky

We are staying in a place (Interior, SD) with almost no Verizon service. It takes minutes to get or send a text message. If a call is received (and Jett’s phone did ring once), the call is immediately dropped. I can’t use the internet on my phone. My phone’s hotspot is 100% dead. So why does my other Verizon hotspot – my old JetPack – work fine? It actually works better here than it did back in IA and MN. Quick page loads, never a dropped connection. I am using it now to post this. I just don’t get it. No cell phone service but the hotspot works great. Why?

Categories: Commentary, Places, RV Living, SD, STW | Leave a comment

STW2 Hop 4: Mitchell SD to Interior SD

Posted on September 2, 2017 by Sparky

STW2 Hop 4

217 miles via I-90, SD 244, SD 370 and SD 44. Cumulative tow miles: 791. Truck miles: 227. Cumulative truck miles: 955.

This hop revealed the full drama of the South Dakota landscape. The first 80 miles, from Mitchell to the Missouri River, was flat and boring. Then, suddenly, a big dip to the river and, once across, the landscape simply bubbled up: sharp hills, a change from corn to wheat and sunflowers. Then an exit off of I-90 and suddenly the jagged, jarring Badlands appeared like a slap in the face.

The hills west of the Missouri really put a dent into our mileage and I got concerned that we would run short of fuel. I decided to make an impromptu refueling stop in Murdo SD. It was expensive ($2.90 per gallon), but it bought me some peace of mind. As it turned out, that was a good decision. Interior SD (population 67) doesn’t have much to offer, including places to get diesel fuel.

We will be staying near the Badlands for 3 days, so I hope to get some great photos.

Our overnight home in Mitchell was the Dakota Campground. This is a very small (about 55 sites) campground with basic facilities. It was just for a night, so we didn’t need much. But we liked it. If we ever find ourselves in Mitchell again we would stay there.

But why go back to Mitchell? The main attraction in Mitchell – and the reason I wanted to stay there – was so see the Corn Palace. I had moderately fond memories of this strange building from when I was 12 and traveled with my parents to Denver, with a stop in Mitchell. This was a building that was covered with corn – cobs of corn, corn husks, corn stalks. Murals made out of corn decorated the interior. Odd, but strangely interesting.

#39 – South Dakota

Well, at some point the city fathers of Mitchell decided that the turn-of-the-century (the 20th century, not the 21st) Corn Palace needed to be replaced and thought that they would combine the need for a new Corn Palace with a need for a new sports arena. So now you have this modern building that looks interesting on the outside, but the corn murals on the inside are high above a basketball court and are covered with championship banners. Anyone who actually wanted to see the corn murals would be as disappointed as I was. A huge letdown. If you are thinking of visiting the Corn Palace, my advice is: don’t bother.

Our night in Mitchell allowed us to add South Dakota to our map. Our 39th state.

Corn Palace interior

Corn Palace exterior

Categories: MN, Places, Routes, RV Parks, SD, STW | Leave a comment

STW2 Hop 3: Fairmont MN to Mitchell SD

Posted on September 1, 2017 by Sparky

STW2 Hop 3

192 miles via I-90. Cumulative tow miles: 574. Truck miles: 207. Cumulative truck miles: 728.

It doesn’t get any simpler than this: get on I-90, go almost 200 miles, get off. A straight shot west. Boring, but very efficient. No stops whatsoever, until we got close to the destination and got lost for about a minute. Easy peasy.

#38 – Minnesota

Our one-night stop in MN (which gave us our 38th state) was at the Flying Goose Campground and Resort, a converted chicken farm in Fairmont MN. One of the old chicken coops has been converted into a public building containing showers, a laundromat and a small meeting room. It sounds worse that it was. The whole campground, in fact, was quite nice. Very well maintained. It seemed to have a lot of seasonal campers, most of whom were not there that night. But, overall, we liked the park a lot – especially our HUGE pull-through. And the price (under $29) was very nice, too. We would come back here.