Wrapping up South Dakota

We'll be heading out for Montana in a few days, and are finishing up our sight-seeing and getting the RV ready for travel again. We also need to get our truck back from the body shop where almost 100 little hail dents are being popped out and the bed cover is being replaced.

We've been driving around a lot, ranging farther from our home base and hitting some scenic drives we missed on earlier trips. Yesterday we drove west to Wyoming and back up through Custer State Park on Iron Mountain Road, famous for its pigtail turns where the road goes under itself in a 360 degree loop.

Here we're driving out of a tunnel into the top of the pigtail.

And here we're looking up to where we just were and the road loops under itself.

There were also some cool views of Mt. Rushmore from a distance - a perspective you don't usually see.

No buffaloes this time, but we did catch the back ends of some gentleman longhorn sheep.

I think my favorite place is the west side of the Black Hills, as they transition into the flat dry lands of southeastern Wyoming. Lush green, grassy valleys with little groves of quaking aspen.

Back "home," our valley has just been hayed, as have many in this area. 

Tonight we're going into Spearfish for a huge Corvette rally. Who knew?

Sylvan Lake and Spearfish Falls

A few days ago Rick, Kona and I drove south through the Black Hills to Sylvan Lake, a small, idyllic mountain lake in the area called the Needles.  Needles refers to these rock structures, which are huge and dramatic. The lake is surrounded by them.

We assembled the kayaks and spent a little time on the water. Kona was in heaven, doing her favorite thing - swimming the whole time. The weather was threatening, so we felt a little pressured for time, and then had to get off the water the sound of thunder.

Disassembling was a struggle, partly because of the pressure to get it done before the rain started. My kayak just doesn't want to come apart so easily. I wish we could figure out a way to assemble them once and then just transport them that way until we make our next move.  We don't have a rack on the truck, and they don't quite fit in the back.  So far, the time spent assembling and disassembling way outweighs the time enjoying them in the water. Bummer.

Here are my intrepid traveling partners on a foot bridge over Spearfish Canyon. We took a lovely mini-hike to  Spearfish Falls.

And a walk along Spearfish Creek. Rick and Kona are real water babies. 

Happiest in and around water. 

Clouds

I've been going on about the skies and the clouds here, so I have tried to capture just a few with the camera.  The photos don't begin to do justice to the spectacle, but I'm going to keep trying. 

Backroad Wyoming adventure

Would you believe that Google Maps actually sent us on this road? It was really our first time driving in deep ruts and mud. But Rick and the truck did fine and the scenery was breathtaking on this indirect route from the Black Hills of SD to Sundance, WY.

Fireworks after the rodeo

Roundup in the Rain

Despite the pouring rain, which the longhorn cattle and cowboys either didn't mind or were prepared for, the enthusiastic citizens of Belle Fourche turned out to watch the ritual cattle drive down Main St. from the comfort of their pickup trucks or the local coffee shop. Although now there are only a handful of cattle driven down the street, "in the old days" Belle Fourche was part of the long trail along which thousands of head of cattle were driven. Interesting how communities recreate events in this ritual way to keep their histories alive. The Black Hills Roundup happens all July 4 weekend, with parades, rodeos, contests, carnival and the crowning of Miss Roundup Queen. We plan on going to the rodeo Sunday night and seeing the fireworks if we aren't rained out.

Where We're Living Now

Rainbow over the RV park.

We have a very slow computer connection right now, and downloading photos is difficult. I'll try again tomorrow. Got a great shot of the Main Street cattle drive in Belle Fourche (say Foosh).

Wildflowers

Wildflowers in Spearfish Canyon, Black Hills, South Dakota.

Weather

Yeah, you can say that again. WEATHER! Are we ever having it, and then some...

First of all, we are not in Montana, but we are definitely in big sky country. The sky here is a novel, while the sky at home in New England, or even in Illinois, is a paragraph in a short story. At any given moment here, we can see many different chapters in the novel, each playing out in a small segment of the sky. Some chapters of the sky are about the past, others about the future. Some chapters are violent and frightening, while others are peaceful.  It has everything: suspense, drama, resolution, foreshadowing, even character development in a way. Unfolding all around us, all at the same time. One sunset happens in every single part of the sky. I can't just point and shoot, without a panoramic camera. I may need to get one.

So, lately the big action of the novel comes to meet us where we are, on the northern edge of the Black Hills. We're in a weather story now that goes like this:  Clear sky in the morning, puffy clouds start developing about noon, and then in the afternoon the chapters start piling up around us. By evening, we are surrounded by massive cloud dramas, (I can't find words big enough to describe them) that start to drop down on us. "Severe thunderstorm warnings" is what the National Weather Service calls them. We get wind, rain and for two nights in a row, blasts of huge hail.

We attended the Black Hills Bluegrass Festival two nights ago. The weather started in early dramatic chapter development. By the last set, we all hurried under an enclosed shelter, and the biggest hail storm ever beat down on the roof so hard the band had to stop for about 15 minutes to wait out the deafening sound. When we thought it couldn't get any louder, it kept escalating. People were literally covering their ears. It was apocalyptic. We drove back to the RV through another hailstorm, but when we got home there was no evidence that there had been a storm here at all. Dry as a bone, just 20 minutes away.

This morning it is sparkling clear and we are headed out to drive Spearfish Canyon. I'll try to take some pictures.

Badlands, South Dakota

Probably most folks have seen photos of the Badlands on calendars and postcards, and maybe had the chance to be there. The place is so dramatic, with the green grass leading right up to the copper colored sedimentary rocks and mud. We camped just south of the Badlands, and so we drove through them several times to get somewhere for dinner, and to and from the highway. I took all these drive-by shots, never expecting them to be any good, and look!

Passed this herd of mountain goats or longhorn sheep, I don't know which. I don't think any were adult males so they didn't have any long horns anyway. About 20 moms and kids.

We also saw our first pronghorned antelopes of the trip. Plenty of prairie dogs, some deer. No elk or bison yet.

We'll be in South Dakota now for a month. We're at the Elkhorn Ridge RV Resort in  Spearfish, a nice real town, compared to nearby Deadwood, which is tourists and casinos.  We got our SD driver's licenses today, and applied for our vehicle registrations. We're officially South Dakotans now.

Travel days in Wisconsin and Minnesota

Now we are really traveling. We had a brief rapprochment to Holiday Hour for one night to have a few technical difficulties taken care of. The Flanagan family and their employees have been great to us, but it was finally time to say goodbye and strike out on our own.

We drove from Cortland, IL to Lacrosse, WI, then camped two nights at Pettibone Island RV Resort. It's an island in the middle of the Mississippi, which spreads out and flows around many little islands at that location. The first night it was crazy crowded with bikers and others, but most cleared out on Sunday and we had a quiet, beautiful day. Did laundry in a gourmet coffee shop/laundromat, took a long bike ride along the Great River Trail and had our first long lingering sunset on the banks of the Mississippi.

Today we drove across Minnesota and landed in Sioux Falls.  Sioux Falls is named after, yes, the falls, which are now surrounded by a lovely, very accessible city park. 

Had dinner at a great little local place downtown called the Phillips Avenue Diner. Everything you'd hope a diner to be and more. Delicious food and an imaginative menu as well.

The historic downtown is about 10 x 3 blocks and there is a fine sculpture collection lining the two main streets.  We walked around and then headed home. There is a tornado and severe thunder storm warning now as I write, so we've loaded a few back packs with basic survival supplies in case we have to go sit in the storm shelter later. Oh boy.

Tomorrow we cross South Dakota and will spend the night in the Badlands. We are moving quickly, passing by so many interesting things, but are eager to get to Spearfish, SD where we will spend a month and have the chance to really give our surroundings the attention we want to.  But even now, we are having so may new experiences, and enjoying ourselves tremendously.