Temps overnight mid 40's & daytime highs averaging near 65
We left the Kansas City area early on Friday the 20th of May and broke the camp down in (you guessed it) rain again. We are batting 1000 on rainy departures but I am getting pretty good at handling them. We traveled north on I-29 through much of western Missouri, Iowa and on into South Dakota. We were officially in the great plains.....flat (but very pretty) farm land for as far as the eye could see. We made our way into Sioux Falls, South Dakota where we turned west on I-90 to get a little closer to Rapid City - our next tourist destination. We ended up resting (boondocking) for the night in the parking lot of a Cabela's in Mitchell South Dakota.
Cabela's was set up to encourage RV'ers to stay....they had a rather large area designated for RV's with room for 15 or so to park. They had a dump station and a dog kennel area for pets. Several other campers joined us overnighting there and some even set up their grills in the parking lot...we walked to a local restaurant for dinner and an early night.
Early at it this morning (Saturday) to the sound of rain on the roof :-)
It sounded loud like a hard rain (like a tin roof) but it was actually not raining as hard as it sounded. I think the soothing sound helped us sleep until the clocks woke us. On the road before 7:00 with a busy day planned. Again we gained an hour today as we moved into Mountain Standard time.....now two hours behind folks at home.
We made our way across South Dakota heading west....again great plains farm land. We found the lack of trees remarkable as we moved from relatively flat to rolling hills as we made our way west. Beautiful but no trees. I had a nice discussion with a local farmer (Wesley) who, in addition to farming, also worked at one of the rest areas. He said they farmed mostly wheat and raised cattle but in recent years have begun growing a drought resistant corn. He was very interested in the South Georgia farming (peanuts and cotton).....I told him I was married to the farmer's daughter but I was not the farmer.
We made a quick visit to Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota. It is kinda like South of the Border on I-95 (South Carolina) in that the signs are plentiful and begin hundreds of miles before you get there. After reading all the signs you HAVE to stop to see what all the fuss is about.....like Pedro's place in South Carolina....it wasn't much but gave us a needed break from the road.
As we approached Rapid City the hills got bigger and darker....the Black Hills. We settled into the new campground where we will be for the next three nights. After we got set up we headed out to visit the Crazy Horse Monument and the Mount Rushmore Monument. The weather was not great (clouds, fog and light rain) so visibility was not good....we were thinking we wouldn't even get to see the sculptures but the skies cleared just enough for us to get views (although still pretty foggy) of each of them.
This afternoon was our first (but not likely last) glimpse of snow on the roadside. My co-pilot/weather lady/google engineer informs me to expect snow in Yellowstone next week.
A few photos from the I-90 drive today below:
A few photos from the visits to Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore:
FYI - The Crazy Horse monument dedicated to Native Americans and close to Mount Rushmore is not a government/state venture, instead privately funded. It was begun in 1948 and they told us today that they expected it to take 75-100 more years to complete. I plan to compare this photo to the one I take when it is completed :-)
