On day 3 of our trip (Wed), we head out of Murdo and on into the Black Hills and Badlands of South Dakota. Half-way through a most sleepless Murdo night, I discovered that no matter how well prepared you think you are, some force is out there saying "ha, you think you can prepare for everything? no way," as I feel a nasty cold coming on. None of buckets-full of drugs I have with me can do anything about it, although I do have some that will ease the symptoms. Oh well, part of the goal of this trip was seeing how to handle adversity and unexpected things that come our way. This is the first, and I hope it's the worst, b/c I can deal with a cold.
First stop is Prairie Dog town. The billboards along the highway announce you can feed the Prairie Dogs here, and YD gets the same look on her face, that she has since she was born. The one that says "can we Mommy? Please Mommy, please!" We have discovered that we are suckers for having to check out all the corny tourist places advertised on the highway billboards. One of the jokes of this trip has become the goal of finding one that was worse than the Corn Palace we visited the day before). Prairie Dog town lived up to it's billing. For 50 cents you buy a bag a peanuts, walk through the fence and a few dozen prairie dogs come out of their holes, knowing what awaits them, and give us a nice show of cuteness munching on their peanuts. Corn Palace has not been defeated. Prairie Dog town was a good stop.
Next comes Wall Drug. Again, lived up to it's billing. It's a mix of Old West tourist Kitch (think South of the Border in South Carolina), you see advertised starting more than 100 miles away. We get our free water and I get my 5 cent coffee, we browse the shops a bit, then on to Rapid City, where we make a quick stop at Black Hills bagel for a bite, before heading out again, for day 3's destination, which is Mount Rushmore.
We get sidetracked once again along the way by the Thunder Gold Mine. Despite my pretty severe case of claustrophobia, I agree to take the mine tour with YD, as she has agreed to ride horseback to the bottom of Bryce Canyon with me later in this trip, despite her even more severe fear of heights. The highlight of this stop was our toothless tour guide Jim, who seemed to have taken a little bit of too much of a liking to me, enough to give me a bit of his dating history. Now I know what they mean when they say it's scary out here in the Badlands!! I survived the tour, and we had fun doing little panning for gold at the end and coming out with little vials of gold flakes we had found.
After that, we do finally make it to Mt. Rushmore. Although I had been warned by people I knew who had been there that they were not as overwhelmed as they thought they would be, we were appropriately impressed. We passed up the information center located about a mile away from the site, giving the details of the making of the sculptures, which is something I would have liked to see, but my rhinovirus had zapped enough of my energy at this point that I didn't feel like another stop. We walked the 1/2 mile scenic trail, read the markers, and got back in the car, on the way through the Black Hills National Forest to Deadwood, where we planned to spend 2 nights.
One more billboard-advertised stop was irrestible to YD, this one touting other-worldly happenings, physical impossibilites, balls rolling uphill, stuff like that. Although I was really feeling quite poorly at this time, YD had that look on her face again, so off to the "Cosmos" we go. Most of the 30 min tour had us in, basically, some kind of funhouse like cabin, built on the side of a mountain, and orientated so it was almost impossible to walk in it, and when you stood still, you stood at about a 45 degree angle to the ground you were standing on. Being that both YD and OM have a strong tendency to motion sickness, added to the fact that my ears/sinuses were totally clogged and I was a little dizzy from that to begin with, I found the whole thing extremely disorienting, and left somewhat nauseous, and YD left with headache. So much for the Cosmos, however, it still did not surpass the Corn Palace.
A lovely drive through the Black Hills Nat'l Forest (plus some Advil and a nap in the car for YD) revitalized us as we pulled into Deadwood at about 6:30PM. We were looking forward to some nightlife, which we had yet to see on our trip. Although not exactly bustling, there was a fair number of tourists on the streets, and live music coming from crowded saloons. We secure ourselves a room for 2 nights, go upstairs, shower away the road dust, change and head out for a lively evening of dinner, music, gambling. We step outside and it is basically deserted. The crowded saloon with the live music now has 2 tables with people, the other casinos/restaurants are about as crowded. It is all of 8:30 PM and Deadwood has packed it in and gone to bed. Oh well, we find a lovely italian restaurant, which has food YD can actually eat, have a nice meal, a drink after dinner at the bar downstairs where we run into a father/son the same age as us, doing a similar trip, have a nice conversation, and then off to bed, planning to start our nightlife earlier tomorrow!
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