The story began with a 5-week journey in a 1997 RV, from Richmond, Va to Utah and back, July 23 through August 27, 2011. The next step included the sale of that RV and the purchase of a larger, classier RV we call Princess. Now we have changed RVs again. We sold the Princess to a family of 5, and purchased a 2017 Class C, smaller than the Princess but some better features as well as some limitations storage wise. And so our adventures continue.
The town of Deadwood looks better now than it did 6 years ago when we were here last. We only saw one tour bus and that was probably for a casino in town. There are plenty of those in town but a few of them have gone out of business. The newer commercial businesses are on the outskirts of town, leaving the main town road as it was many years ago when Wild Bill was killed there. He and Calamity Jane are buried nearby.
We had to visit Mt Rushmore once more since it is unlikely we will be near here again anytime soon. The t-shirt photo is a bonus, found in a gift shop down the road.
Upon leaving Mt Rushmore, we drove through the Black Hills. I took a few photos, but was more mesmerized by the twists and turns of the road, including one lane tunnels where you couldn't tell if anyone was coming from the other direction until halfway through the tunnels. The corkscrew turns were also interesting. Jim did an excellent job of handling all of it while Bill Knab took pictures from the "shotgun" seat and Pat and I enjoyed the ride from the back seat.
We did stop at one winery, advertising RedAss wine...it sucked! A few other wines were pretty good so I bought 2 bottles, including a cabernet.
This was a fun little town to walk through the shops. We had lunch at a small deli as well, enjoying watching people and cars driving through town. That included a shiny red corvette with the top down.
The streets are quiet and the mess is all cleaned up in town after the 2017 Motorcycle Rally early in August. It's Sunday so lots of places are closed, except the gift/t-shirt shops. We were able to buy 5 t-shirts for $35; not a bad deal!
The Badlands are home to many differentvanimals, including prairie dogs, sheep, bison, and mountain goats. We were lucky to Catch a glimpse of many along our drive through the park.
Exits 131 and 116 off I-90 in South Dakota took us to the site of one of the Minuteman Missile sites, active during the Cold War. The missiles were all removed from the fields around this area, except for this one which was deactivated but left as a shell for educational purposes. We enjoyed the ranger talk by Ranger Emily. There is still high security here with motion sensors in place as well as security cameras.
Our 27 mile drive through the Badlands was filled with many picturesque views that are hard to fully capture on camera. These are some from my feeble attempt to do just that.
