Making the Most of the Last Days of Our Trip - Part 3 of 3 - Sioux Falls, A Wedding, a Scare, the Jolly Green Giant, and Home

We are home; just a week ago we were in South Dakota!

We left the Badlands Tuesday July 27th in the afternoon and spent the night in a campground on the Missouri River

That drive along Route 90 in South Dakota was the most boring I have ever driven. Hundreds of miles of absolutely straight road with little traffic and monotonous fields with some occasional construction to relieve the tedium.

Ya think?

Wednesday morning, we stopped for what we thought was going to be a 15 minute photo op of Sioux Falls, ended up staying for an hour and a half, and could easily have spent the day in the area.

Remains of the old mill

Later that day, we randomly stopped for gas in Blue Earth, Minnesota and saw this down the road. It was hard to miss. 

So glad we got to see the Jolly Green Giant and the Giant Museum! Not quite as good as the Potato Museum, but close!

That night, we were in sound asleep in a campground near Madison, Wisconsin when at 12:45am our phones blasted an alarm and an "Extreme alert" text:

What could we do? There was nowhere to go. Bob went back to sleep(!) but I was totally wide awake. I went to sit in the front seat and watched the storm through the windshield. It was the most severe thunderstorm I have ever been in. 

The rain poured down and there were multiple lightning flashes per second, like strobe lights going off in the clouds. I wondered if I should put on my seatbelt in case we were hit by a tornado and tossed around. 

Fortunately, there was not that much wind, and eventually the storm moved on. (Moved on to NJ where a day later, tornados hit southern NJ ( www.nj.com/weather/5-tornadoes-hit-nj-during-thursdays-wild-storms ))

Thursday evening, we got to Cleveland and met distantly related cousins whom I had heard much about.

Friday and Shabbos, we shared in the simcha of Binyamin’s Aufruf, and on Sunday attended his and Sarah's beautiful and leibedick wedding. (I was too far back for a good chuppah picture) This was the first wedding we have attended in person for over 2 years. 

We needed to have a friend bring wedding suitable clothes to us from Edison (thanks Aviva and Barry, and Aryeh). When we left home in April, Binyamin wasn't even engaged! 

Monday we drove the rest of the way home. I am exhausted and in need of a vacation.

Making the Most of the Last Days of Our Trip - Part 2 - Badlands National Park and Wall Drug

We mostly did a drive through of Badlands National Park with a few stops for photo ops and short walks. It was too hot for anything else.

I'm sure all park campgrounds were booked 6 months ago, but we were able to just pull up and camp the evening we got there in this great boondocking spot just outside the park  

In the park

"There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture.”

This was like a cruel joke

There was wildlife, crossing the road and otherwise, as is a required in all national parks

And Bob, channeling his inner mountain goat

Wall Drug

We stopped off at Wall Drug, of course. Unfortunately, it was after 7:30pm and much of the place was already closed, with the rest closing at 8.

I had really, really, been hoping to hear the mechanical bluegrass band that was there when we last visited in 2002, but if the machine is still there, I couldn’t find it. When we were there in 2002, I put in my four quarters, selected the button for “House of the Rising Sun,” from the jukebox style interface, and listened to the best acoustical version of the song I have ever heard. By the end of the song quite a crowd had gathered, and I was tempted to pass a hat to recoup my investment.

This was taken in 2002 (pre digital photos!)

Now, back to doing laundry...

Making the Most of the Last Days of Our Trip - Part 1 - The Black Hills of South Dakota

When you read this, we will be home. Here's Part 1 of the rest of our trip.

With just a few days before we had to start back, we tried to cram as much in as we could. We had been to the Black Hills and Badlands National Park 19 years ago with Aryeh and Yoni so we didn’t feel bad rushing through what we had already seen, and even found time for some new stuff.

Ye Olde “Wild West” Towns
All the restored Wild West towns look the same. With all the gift shops, hotels, saloons, daily “shootouts”, zip lines, etc. - It is hard to believe the days of the wild west were less than 150 years ago. And that this whole area still belonged to the Indians.

Deadwood - Claim to fame-Place where Wild Bill Hickock was shot. (Note: Wild Bill Hickock’s claim to fame is that he was shot in Deadwood.) Also the location of the unlikely named Mount Moriah Cemetery where many legendary wild westerners are buried.

Lead - Location of the Homesteak Gold Mine which made a fortune for George Hearst, father of William Randolph. No longer being mined. The open pit mine is enormous. The underground part dwarfs the aboveground section. Part of the tunnels were converted to the Sanford Underground Research Facility (claim to fame - detection of neutrinos).

The top of the open pit mine. To give you a sense of scale, the horizontal lines are truck roads.

Gold ore. I didn't get to keep it.

Keystone - Claim to fame - Near Mount Rushmore. I’m not sure this photo is actually of Keystone, but you get the idea. (See, “All the restored Wild West towns look the same,“ above)

There were lots of motorcycles in the area for the Sturgis Bike Rally starting August 6th. Would not like to be in the area then. 

Spearfish Canyon

Location where the movie "Dances with Wolves" was filmed. (We never saw the movie but we seem to be collecting Kevin Costner movie film sites, see "In Their Dreams" post)

Mickelson Bike Trail

Custer State Park

Mount Rushmore. We did a drive by. And saw a profile view of George Washington.

Fun Fact - Who was “Rushmore”? - Back in 1884 a NY lawyer named Charles Rushmore was in the Black Hills checking on the legal titles of properties for a mining company. Rushmore inquired what the granite outcropping was named. His local guide replied, "Never had a name, but from now on we'll call it Rushmore." The name stuck and locals began calling it Mount Rushmore. The U.S. Board on Geographic Names made the name official in June of 1930. 

Reminds me of our first Canyonlands canoe trip, when Bob asked the shuttle driver what a formation was called. The guy responded, let’s call it, “Bob’s Knob.” I wonder if that name took?

Coming soon: Making the Most of the Last Days of Our Trip - Part 2 - Badlands National  Park