Devil's Tower

Along the way to visit Devil's Tower, we stopped in a town called Aladdin, Wyoming.  This town has about 16 people living there and the whole town is for sale.  It would cost you 1.2 million dollars.  We stopped in the general store which was a little bit of everything, but mostly a very unique antique shop. The store looked like it was about to fall down with cardboard holding the ceiling together.  I wish I had a picture.

On we went to Devil's Tower and became very intrigued by the size of the tower.  Found out the tower is 875 feet tall.  There was a trail that went around the base of the tower.  We took a stroll.

During our stroll there were scarves hanging in the trees.  

Some trees had strange bottoms with bark missing.  We found out it was porcupines eat the bark of the tree during the winter because they do not hibernate.  It snows a lot here.

Some young, youthful types were rock climbing to the top.  Can you see them?

Finally, we were half way around.

Trees growing out of rocks?

  Awesome tower, thank goodness we are back in the parking lot.

Spearfish, SD

After Wall, SD we went to Spearfish, SD.  Beautiful country!  We took a ride through a scenic canyon to Deadwood.  Deadwood is full of casinos and typical tourist trap shops.  So we headed off to Sturgis, the motorcycle rally supreme.  The rally was over two weeks ago and Sturgis was almost a ghost town.  There were some motorcycle people riding through town but still pretty quiet.  Next year will be the 75th anniversary of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.  They expect over a million people.  We had a beer at a huge biker beer hall.  Refreshing!

Wall Drug Beauty

Minuteman Missile

The next day at Wall, South Dakota, we take off, in the rain mind you, to sign up to tour a missile site.  Minuteman Missile National Historic Site lets you tour a missile launch facility and a missile silo.  These were used during the Cold War.  While the servicemen were stationed at the launch facility, they had all the comforts of home. TV to watch, games to play, latest magazines to read, 4 meals a day, and a basketball court were some of the comforts they enjoyed.

They slept in dorm like rooms.

The cook and facility manager were the only ones that got their own room.

Two missile men would go 31 feet below to an undergound capsule. Notice that the chairs they sat in are attached to a rail system.  In case of a nuclear attack, they can still roll they seats while the ground is shaking.  The computer system to the left of the chair, had less memory than your hand held phone.

There are no longer active ICBM silos in South Dakota, but 500 nuclear missiles are still deployed in the upper Great Plains.  The United States selected the upper Great Plains because it is out of the way for an attack and if a missile was launched, it would take only 30 minutes to reach its objective.

It takes 2 keys by 2 people to launch a missile.  Also, it takes 2 more keys at a different site for all 4 people to launch the missile.  Very difficult for a missile to be launched by mistake.

Security was upmost important issue at these launch sites.

We drove to a nuclear-missile silo that was about 10 miles from the launch facility.

If you look real hard through the protective covering, you can see the missile.

Prairie Dog on Steroids

Badlands, South Dakota

We journeyed on to Wall, South Dakota.  What a day!  It started out by us trying to leave the RV park in Rapid City.  I was moving the truck to hook up to the back of our motor home.  Dead Battery!  Jim got out the charger, got it started, and off we went to Walmart.  About 2 hours later we finally were able to leave.

As Jim drove the motor home around the park in order to exit, he had to stop before he took out a pole.  Well, that required us to unhook the pickup so that he could back up the motor home to avoid the pole. That was about another half hour.

About an hour later, we finally arrived at Arrow RV Park in Wall, South Dakota.   Now, we were on the way to park our motor home. Jim skeptically followed the instructions of the park manager and got the motor home stuck again.  We had to unhook the truck again so that he could back up the motor home  to get around another obstacle.  Twice in one day we had to unhook the truck in order to navigate these older rv parks.

After lunch we decided to go to Badlands National Park. The peaks, gullies, buttes, and the prairies were amazing!  

  Pronghorn antelope were just walking right up to us as they grazed along the hills.

More pronghorn antelope resting.

There was a section called Prairie Dog Town.

And more scenery...

We also were able to see a herd of buffalo in the distance.  In speaking with the park ranger, we found out that the bison herd has about 1500 in the park and we probably saw about 1000.  

The City of Presidents

We saw the four presidents at Mount Rushmore.  Now it was time to see the rest of the family.   Outside the Hotel Alex Johnson is a life-sized seated President Lincoln sculpture.  This statue was sculpted by Gutzum Borglum, the sculptor of Mt. Rushmore.  

Rapid City, South Dakota has included all 42 former presidents in its sculptures around the downtown area.  They plan on continuing this tradition as each president leaves office.

George Walker Bush with his canine campanion, Barney, perhaps best known as the dog who bit a reporter.

Thomas Jefferson, the gifted writer of the Declaration of Independence.

Andrew Jackson was a man of strong will, the people's president.

Ronald Reagan in western attire is one of my favorite presidents during my lifetime.

Crazy Horse

Last sight to see on our bus tour was the Crazy Horse Monument.  Again this is a mountain sculpture much like Mt. Rushmore, but of the Indian Crazy Horse who defeated General Custer at the Battle of Little Big Horn.  This sculpture is no where finished but is quite an enterprise.  When it is completed it will be way bigger than Mt. Rushmore.  All the heads of the presidents at Mt. Rushmore can fit into the single head of Crazy Horse.  This sculpture also includes Crazy Horse riding on his horse.

Below is a model of what the finished project will be in about 30 years.

Sylvan Lake

Last but not least, we traveled to Sylvan Lake.  All the lakes in the Black Hills of South Dakota are not natural but man-made.  Sylvan Lake was no exception as the builder dammed up the river to create this beauty.

No, he did not place those boulders seen behind me to dam the river.  The dam is behind those boulders.

Buffalo Lunch

We ate lunch at the Game Lodge that President Coolidge and President Eisenhower did some fishing. In fact, before these presidents showed up, the forest service people would stock the stream with trout to make sure they were successful in their fishing. Jim had a buffalo burger and I had buffalo stew, but our meat was not from this poor fellow.

The bus driver explained that the male buffaloes fight each other for the privilege to mate with the females.  If a male buffalo is beaten, then he is kicked out of the herd and can try again next year. This must be one of the losers.

Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway

After Mt. Rushmore the bus took us on the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway.  Along this road, there were trees growing out of rocks, 6 tunnels that were very narrow, pigtailed bridges, and beautiful scenery.  One place the bus driver stopped so we could take a picture of Cathedral Spires across a valley.  One woman climbed high on a rock hoping she would get a great picture, but a tree was in the way.  She commented, "Couldn't they just cut that tree down?"

As we went through each tunnel, they seemed to get smaller.  Our tour bus barely squeezed through the last tunnel on the Needles Highway, adding a lot of excitement to the ride. Actually, when we did emerge on the other side of the tunnel, the people who we waiting to go through, clapped!

Mt. Rushmore

Before we got on the bus, we had some fun at Ft. Hayes in Rapid City. 

We hopped on a tour bus and headed off to Mt. Rushmore.  This is an amazing site and we wished that we could have spent more time there.  Besides the faces of 4 presidents carved into the mountain, there was an excellent exhibit that explained how they got there.  The sculptor,  ran out of money before the project was even finished and that is why only George Washington is wearing a shirt.

Bear Country U.S.A. in Rapid City, South Dakota

Our travels from Gillette, WY to Rapid City, SD was uneventful.  We arrived at the TeePee RV Park early, then went off exploring.  First, we went to Bear Country U.S.A.  This park is like a drive through zoo.  The animals are fenced off from the road and from each other, but do have huge enclosures.  We went about 1:00 P.M. during the hottest part of the day.  So most of the animals were laying down in the shade.  We could see them, but they were laying down most of the time.

Gillette, Wyoming

From Hardin, Montana we drove a couple hundred miles to Gillette, Wyoming area.  This is the town that we will be attending a DOAI rally August 26-30.  Jim made reservations at the Cummins Dealer to have the motor home engine checked out and hopefully figure out why we are losing coolant.  

This area is a booming strip mine for coal, with rail cars loaded with coal heading east and empty trains coming back to be filled up with more coal.  What an operation!  I may make a visit when I come back.

There is oil being pumped out of the ground.  Many pipelines are being put into the ground.  If someone wanted to work, they would have no problem finding employment here.

  

Beautiful Wyoming skies!

Pink Flamingo

On the way back to the rv park in Hardin we were able to capture a photo of a rare pink flamingo in Montana.

The town of Xavier is in need of a new school.  Many birds were flying out of this decreptive school.