South Dakota sightseeing from Hill City to Interior (which is a town!)

       Started off the day with drizzle coming down, and had already decided not to spend a 3rd night here in Hill City.  We thought Deadwood looked like a great little frontier town to visit, so we packed up and left by 7:30am (and still never saw the campground hosts, so we left them cash and a phone message!).  Got to Deadwood, and what a major disappointment!  The whole place is basically nothing but casinos, 80 of them from what we read.  Not a single eating place in town open for breakfast, unless it was attached to a casino.  A lady in a gas station recommended we eat at Silverado, which "had a GREAT breakfast buffet".  Mediocre, and the place was drenched with smoke.  We decided it was time to move on.

     Our next stop was Sturges, which is renowned for it's famous "bike week" each summer when over 100,000 motorcycles descend on this small town for a week of fun.  And yes, they have casinos here, too!  The town was actually fairly modern and neat, and has a huge VA facility at old Fort Meade (not the Maryland one!).   We bought some postcards, and then headed off on I90. 

          Ellsworth Air Force base near Rapid City was our next destination. It's the home of the South Dakota aviation museum, and has a large collection of vintage aircraft that have been based there at one time or another, including the B-29, B-52, and B1B bombers.  They also have a Minuteman ICBM displayed, as Ellsworth was a central command post for these cold war nuclear missles.  Becky is being very indulgent of Jim's fondness for visiting military museums!

        The next stop, a real fun one, is the famous drugstore town of Wall, and the highly popular Wall Drug Store.  Becky is pointing out the Drugstore, in case you can't see it.  It actually takes up a whole city block, some 75,000 square feet, and is basically what the town is all about.  It was started back in 1931 in this little depressed town by a couple who had moved in looking for a small town atmosphere and a good Catholic Church.  It was struggling mightily until the wife had the brilliant idea of putting signs on the nearby highway offering free ice water.  Sounds hokey today, but in those days of dusty roads, no air conditioning, and 50+ miles

 between towns, it was a huge hit.  On a busy summer day today they will have upwards of 20,000 visitors, and they still dispense free ice water and 5 cent coffee!  Not just a drug store, it sells entertainment, souvenirs, food (great cheeseburgers!), and is a good novelty spot to stop at.  Here on the right is a photo of  Becky and Jim in a covered wagon!

       We decided to travel the north loop of the Badlands national park, which is about a 25 mile ride.  We're really glad we took this, after the disappointment of the south loop yesterday.  It is a spectacular drive, a huge area that was originally formed by volcanos.  Millions of years of wind and rain have carved out this incredibly beautiful wasteland, and it is truly impressive to see.

           Around nearly every corner is another picture postcard view, and the only thing that could have made the drive better would be if it were early morning or late afternoon, when the lighting would have made the rock formations even more dramatic.  Here are a few of the photos we took.

      We decided to stay at a KOA campground situated near the center of the two park sectors, and it seems like a good choice.  Funny being only one of the two customers here, though!  Guess that's the advantage of traveling off-season!

Mount Rushmore and the Badlands National Park

     As we came down a hill 10 minutes from our campground, we saw a scenic turnoff and pulled into it to see what the view was of.  Reading the description, we turned around and saw George Washington in profile up behind us!  What a surprise!  We proceed on down the mountain, then up the other side into the large and professional parking lot, and pulled into the RV parking area.  We were among the first arrivals of the day, and walked up to the monument through a most impressive entrance with flags from all 50 states.  The complex is run by the Xantarra Corp, the same folks who have done such a great job with the Grand Canyon railroad and train.

     Mount Rushmore is awesome, in the original sense of the word.  It took 14 years to build it, and started under Calvin Coolidge and ended under Franklin Roosevelt.  Gutzon Borglum was the designer, architect and builder, and his studio is still available for tours at the site (though it wasn't open that morning).

        Becky and Jim walked the 3/4 mile Presidential Trail to catch and see all the views, and it's quite exhausting!  Over 240 steps back up to  the top if you go to the bottom where the hydraulic power station was.  This picture is of Becky filming the monument from that location (she took quite a few beautiful movies of the site). We purchased some postcards and souvenirs, and decided to move on--too many things to see!

        Our plan for the day was to drive through the Badlands, into Nebraska for a short visit, and then return via the Custer Park and the Crazy Horse memorial that is being carved on the backside of  Mt. Rushmore.

        There is a choice of two routes through the Badlands National Park, the South being jointly run by the US National Park Service and the Oglala Lakota Sioux.  The Northern sector, basically to the east, is National Park Service.  We unfortunately took the southern route, primarily through the Pine Ridge Indian reservation.  Unlike the photos that show fantastic mountain and valley views, the southern route goes through truly ugly and useless bad lands.  Wind and rain over the centuries has eroded much of the land, and one can see why it's essentially good for nothing!  That's probably why the US government gave it to the indians!   There is a Ranger and information station along the route, but it doesn't open until May.  We pulled into the parking lot to give the dogs some exercise and eat lunch, and found a sign depicting how a good portion of this land actually had been put to some use by the US government.  During World War II, on short notice, the government decided it needed a third of a million acres of the reservation for aerial bombing practice!  Many residents had to move out on short notice, some never to return. 

       After leaving the Park area itself, we drove for many miles through the reservation.  It is really tragic to see how so many of the native Americans live, not just here but on several of the reservations we drove through.  The common homestead is a beat up mobile home, used 5th wheel RV, or a small house.  The yards are generally filled with cars, trucks, buses and/or RV's, of which at least 50% of all we saw were rusting junk.  The yards are generally filled with trash, scrap metal, and lots of paper.  To see any kind of landscaping or flowers is an extreme rarity.  And it's consistently like this, even in the areas where farming or raising cattle is possible.

       We wanted to get to the site of the Wounded Knee river massacre site.  On 12/28/1890, Chief Big Foot of the Sioux had surrendered to the Army and were escorted to a site on the river, where they camped.  The next day, 470 troopers of the 7th Cavalry (of Lt Col George Custer fame) surrounded the 350 Sioux warriors, women and children and mounted cannon on the hill overlooking them.  Someone, no one knows exactly whom, fired a shot and the Cavalry opened fire, killing a majority of the Indians.  This was the last major military action taken by the US government against the native American tribes.

     We got to the site, which is basically a large muddy parking lot now with this large sign depicted here.  The other side of the sign, which is defaced even more, tells the second half of the story related here.  As we were reading it, an American Indian man drove up and started talking about how the small souvenir shop across the street was still closed for the winter, but he had some "dream catchers" made by some of his students who were traditional indian singers, and they were raising money to go east to perform at some event.  We of course bought one.  He pointed out the gravesite on the steep hill opposite the parking lot, which our RV wouldn't have been able to traverse, and thanked us.  It was really sobering being at the site and thinking what has happened over our country's history.

       Moving along, we drove into the tribal town of Pine Ridge, and stopped for diesel fuel.  As Jim was fueling, two teenage girls came up with locally made jewelry and asked if we had "been to the massacre site", and wanted us to buy some.  We declined.  The local school had just let out, and there were a lot of folks walking around, and boy did we stick out as tourists from another planet!

       Just south of Pine Ridge we crossed into Nebraska, at a town called "White Clay".  If we thought life on the reservation was bad, it looked great compared to this unbelievable shanty town.  The buildings were decrepit, the natives lounging around all looked inebriated, we saw two men fighting rather ferociously.  Really tough to see how badly some people have to live, and how fortunate we are.

       We drove through Nebraska for about 40 or 50 miles, farm after farm after farm, all of it in much better shape than anything we had seen recently in South Dakota.  Pretty boring, actually. 

       As we ended up the day driving nearly 300 miles, and all four of us getting pretty tired, we didn't stop in Custer state park or at the Crazy Horse memorial.  We got back at 4:30, the campground office was closed (though the "open" lights were on!), so we went grocery shopping.  Came back, still no proprietor, so we camped for the night - one of three RV's in the campground.

     Pretty exhausing day, and very educational!

Devils Tower, Wyoming

          Another beautiful day for a drive, and we departed early for our 375 mile jaunt to South Dakota.  The top photo was taken as we drove southeast along I90 with the Rocky Mountains in the background and the Bozeman trail (used by early settlers) down in the valley.  We went through mountain range after mountain range, with a tremendous variety of terrain.  Wyoming was particularly desolate, much like Arizona but with more mountains--and, we were already up in high elevations throughout the state.

       As we approached Moorcraft, we got off the highway and headed north towards Devils Tower.  Jim felt like he could hear the five tones from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" when he first saw the mountain!  The mountain towers 5112', coming off a valley that starts at 3850'.  It is most impressive as one drives up to it!
       After entering the park, we passed a huge Prarie Dog city, and probably saw 100 of the rodents running around.  Passed some antelope shortly after that, and kept seeing signs warning us to beware of Big Horn sheep.  Never saw any of them, though!

    

     There is an old Kiowa indian legend (apparently supported by several other tribes, too) on how the Tower came about.  The photo at the left is actually from a huge painting on the wall of the Ranger station, and illustrates the legend.  As told, there were 8 indian children playing, 7 girls and their brother.  All of a sudden the boy started growing claws, teeth, and  turned into a ferocious bear that started to attack his sisters.  They fled to where a large tree trunk called out to them to climb on and it would rescue them.  The trunk started growing, and became Devil's Tower.  The bear grew also, and tried to climb the Tower to get after the girls.  The rough lines running vertically on the Tower were made from his claws, trying to climb.  When the Tower stopped growing, the girls ascended into the heavens and became the 7 stars in the great dipper. 

     We thought this would be a good sight for Katahdin to see, also, so we had him pose in front of the monument.  Becky thought Jim should be in a picture, too, so here are two views of the bear claws on the Tower!

     We drove into South Dakota, and the Welcome Center was having some construction done, though no one was working.  In fact, they also walled off the area for brochures, so we couldn't get any info on the state there!  Driving through the Black Hills was quite an experience, as they were wooded, curvy, and somewhat different from any we had seen before.  One really got the idea you were in the middle of nowhere, and we guessed we were!  We drove through some really interesting looking towns that we will look forward to going back to in the next two days, particularly Deadwood (where Wild Bill Hickok died) and Hill City, where our campground is located.

     The Campground just opened for the season, and there are only 4 RV's here.  The dogs met another golden retriever, and had a great time running around with him!  We're getting used to being in empty campgrounds at this time of year--been to quite a few!

Custer's Last Stand

          It  was an absolutely gorgeous day, and after the other campers departed it was down to us and one other RV--and he was gone all day working.  That gave Rosie and Dudley the run of the place, and they thoroughly enjoyed being off leash exploring.  We had a very relaxing morning after the 3 heavy travel days, and got some cleaning and laundry done.  The afternoon, though, was what made the day truly memorable.

          We drove the 15 miles to "Crow Country", which is a reservation larger than some of our eastern states.  Located here, however, is the Little Big Horn River and the site of Custer's Last Stand.  It is a National Park site, and as we've found elsewhere's it is well run and informative.  They have a 17" video giving the background of what preceded the battle, and a step by step of what actually happened on June 25, 1876.  

       It would be difficult to explain fully what happened that day in this short blog, so we won't.  The short version is that Lt Col George Custer, leading the 7th Cavalry Regiment of @600 men, unexpectedly came across the combined indian tribes of Sioux and Cheyenne Indians camped along the Little Big Horn.  There were about 7,000 indians total, including 2,000 warriors led by Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.  For reasons that defy logic to a lot of folks, he decided to split his Regiment into three forces, and attack in different places over a 5 mile area.  The first force, under Major Reno with 150+ troops, attacked down the slopes into one area of the village, were immediately counterattacked by hundreds of warriors, and retreated pell mell back up to the point where this picture is taken from.  The river in the center of the photo is where he attacked.  The second force, when it realized it couldn't link up with Custer, also ended up here and they ended up losing about 60 of their 350 men.  Kathadin is shown here with a plaque describing the Reno position.

     Custer, with 250 men, split his small force of three troops into separate areas, and this helped the Indians eventually pick them apart.  The two pictures here show what some of Reno's men saw from three miles away, and a closeup that shows "last stand hill" where Custer fell.  The Indians had them completely surrounded, and the white gravestones mark the exact positions where the cavalrymen fell.  The final picture is taken from the top of Last stand Hill looking down on the those final positions, and you can see the terrain that would have been covered by hundreds of Indians.

       We were quite surprised to learn that Custer and his force of 255, wiped out to the last man, only caused about 50 Indian deaths.  The final picture is of Becky at the monument on Last Stand Hill with the names of the 7th Cavalry who died there.

          This was the biggest victory that native Americans achieved over "Europeans" in 400 years, and it was to be the last.  The sad history of
what the "Americans" did to the native tribes is well documented elsewheres.  Becky and Jim have certainly gotten a different perspective on the lives of native Americans on this RV trip, and it is sobering to see how poorly they live. 

     We drove into the small town of Hardin afterward, did some shopping, and retired to the campground for a pleasant evening.

Continuing through Montana

       It was a spectacular day for a drive, and Montana is known as "Big Sky" country for good reason.  We had great weather today, in the 60's most of the day (after leaving Deer Lodge),  although very windy. 

       We went through several sets of mountains, and the vast and seemingly endless plains between them.  We guessed the term "Big Sky" comes from the 360 degree vistas framed by mountains all the way around.  They are dwarfed by the enormity of the land, and the unobstructed sky.  When the white clouds are contrasted against the deep blue of the sky, it is simply awesome. 

       The first part of our journey today took us through the natural wealth producers of Montana--Copper mines in Butte, including the phenomenal Berkeley Pit; granite and ore producing mines in Bozeman; and the huge petrochemical industry of Billings.  Interspersed with this, however, are endless cattle ranches, and we probably saw more Black Angus cows today than in our entire previous lifetimes!  We even saw some herds of wild antelope grazing along the road in the fields.

       The Rockies extend through this area, and we went through several ranges and over quite a few steep passes.  We must have passed at least 6 or 7 "chain up" areas heading into the mountains, with subsequent "chain removal" areas on the other side of each.  We never realized there were so many mountains out there!

        After leaving Billings and proceeding east, we came over a rise and saw what could have been a scene from an old time Western movie--endless rolling plains with hills in the distance.  We were heading towards Hardin, where we will spend two nights.  It is 15 miles from Little Big Horn, and it is easy to picture the 7th Cavalry galloping over these plains, or similarly bands of Indian hunters riding their ponies in search of buffalo. 

        We're in a very nice, friendly KOA tonight (Kampgrounds Of America, a chain we have found to be consistently good), and its nicely situated to explore from.  After nearly 1000 miles of driving the past 3 days, all four of us are ready for a break!

Traveling through Montana

        After a great breakfast and more conversation, Estelle took us up to her barn that her father had built.  The first Saturday in August each year she throws a barn dance for her neighbors, and it's quite the social event.  Great barn for it, and she leaves the lighting up and stage for the band in place year round.  We of course let the dogs run free and tire themselves out, and it was good as they slept most of the trip!

       We had planned to drive as far east as Bozeman, MT that day, probably about 450 miles.  The weather was great as we left, and the scenery through eastern Idaho and Western Montana just spectacular.  We went through or over one mountain pass after another, and had no idea we would be doing so. 

      As we were in our "touring" mode, we drove through the small silver mining town of Kellogg in Idaho, and then stopped in another even more interesting town called Wallace.  These were very productive Silver towns, and then later Wallace became a major rail depot for the Northern Pacific railroad.  They boast a mining, railroad, and bordello museum among other things, and a quaint and well-preserved downtown area. 

       Western Montana is also very beautiful, and quite mining intensive.  We sure got a surprise, though, when we got to Missoula and were hit with SNOW!  It came down continuously, and made driving more difficult than we had encountered up till now.  Going over Lookout Pass, the day was getting longer and we were both getting pretty tired.  Becky suggested we change plans and stop at a small town 1/2 to Butte called Deer Lodge (yes, that's the town name, not a hotel!).  We pulled into a small KOA

 there and were one of 6 Campers on the site, and we had a few inches of snow on the ground.  Dogs enjoyed walking around, and Dudley in

 particular got very excited when he discovered we had black Angus cattle adjoining the site!  

      We did some shopping at a local Safeway, and then settled in for the night.  Temperature was supposed to drop to 28 degrees, so we loaded up our water tank and then disconnected the hose.  The good news is that it only got down into the mid-30's, and we didn't use up much propane on the heater.

Estelle Duggan's house at Coeur d'Alene Lake, Idaho

       It was to be a long days drive from West Linn to Coeur d'Alene Lake in Idaho, and in fact was 407 miles.  The weather was nice, relatively clear and in the 50's and 60's, and we retraced our route on I84 through the Columbia Gorge and past Multonah Falls.  Much faster trip this time, as we weren't touring!
Going through Idaho was great, and then we crossed into Eastern Washington.  The Tri-cities area of Pasco, Kenniwick and Richland are just plain boring and ugly.  Unless you like to see agricultural fields.  No mountains, lakes, interesting geographic landmarks, or anything.  Very sleep inducing, unless you're driving of course!
      The scenery did improve somewhat around Spokane, and continued getting better as we arrived in Idaho and the Coeur d'Alene area.  What a spectacular lake, and mountains/hills surrounding it!

       Our purpose there, though, was to visit Jim's former secretary from his American Airlines Seattle days, Estelle Duggan.  Estelle has been a good family friend over the years, but we haven't seen her in over a decade and never been to the family homestead where she grew up.  This was our chance! 

       Estelle's father built the home in the 30's, and she and her identical twin sister Esther (long since deceased) grew up on this self-sufficient property where they raised their own cows, sheep, chickens, etc etc.  Estelle retired there after leaving American, and it is a very lonely but beautiful spot in the winter--very few neighbors, and she is 8 miles from the main road.

       We spent a most delightful evening with her, and talked for hours.  Dudley and Rosie loved being there, too, as they could run anywhere they felt like and did so enthusiastically.  The only downside was the RV was parked at the top of her property, up a very steep hill, and the dogs absolutely wore themselves out.  Sure helped them sleep soundly, though!  The photo to the left is taken from her barn looking down at the house.  The RV doesn't show, as it's half way down the hill off to the right.  In addition, there is another hill from the house down to the beach which the dogs also ran to (and walked back!), so it was a great day for exercise and getting the stiffness from riding out of their systems!