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Daily Gallery
August 15th: Long drive today. Left Sunrise Beach about 8:15 and didn't get to Wichita, KS until 5:15pm. Drive was uneventful. Lynne's new BMW X5 almost drives itself. Had to stop a couple times just to stretch my legs. Had dinner with high school friend of Mike's -- Ken Steffens. Picture of the two old codgers below:
August 16th: Another long drive today. Left Wichita about 8:45 and didn't get to Sioux Falls until 5pm--going thru 4 states: Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, S Dakota. Drive was uneventful, but the land sure is flat and the roads are straight! After a quick dinner we went downtown to The Falls Park. The waterfalls that give the town their name run thru the park. It is a pretty park and we walked all around to see the falls from different angles and also went up in the tower at the visitor center to get a better view.
Picture of prairie land from window of car--really flat
Blue line on map is our route--straight road!
Mike standing by rail at the visitor center tower
Picture of prairie land from window of car--really flat
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August 17th: Slept in this morning, went down for breakfast and then headed out to see the Good Earth State Park/Blood Run National Historic Landmark, about 10 miles outside of Sioux Falls. Archaeologists believe this site was used as early as 6500 BC, but more recently it was used extensively from 1500-1700 AD by various Indian tribes as a gathering place for trading and ceremonial celebrations. Located right on the banks of the Big Sioux River, its thought that as many as 10,000 may have lived here at one time. It was very interesting and a well done state park with hiking trails. We walked one of the trails--was good to get exercise after sitting in the car for two days. Ate lunch and came back to room to rest and then go to the speaker dinner this evening. Had a great dinner at the Blarney Stone Pub downtown and visited with many friends from previous speaking engagements.
The entrance to the Good Earth State Park
One of the murals in the museum area at the state park--showing how the Indians lived and worked
We met a nice AF wife (her husband is flying F-16s in Afghanistan) with two children along the path in the wooded area. She was kind enough to take our picture. It was shady and cool under the oak trees.
The entrance to the Good Earth State Park
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August 18th: Took Mike to the venue for the SQL Saturday event and drove back to the hotel. Got breakfast and left around 10 am to go to the Pettigrew home, an 1880 Victorian home owned by Richard Pettigrew, a surveyor, railroad man and real estate man that had a big impact on Sioux Falls history and development. He was also an amateur archaeologist and history buff, so collected many artifacts in his travels. He added onto the back of the house and made a museum in that part and when he died in 1926, he left the house to the city to be used as a museum. It was very interesting--the house and the history shown in the museum of this area. I was only one there so had a personal guided tour. After leaving the house I, of course, went shopping until time to pick up Mike. We went to an after-party at a local brewing company, but left early to get dinner before coming back to the hotel.
The Pettigrew house from the front lawn
The entrance to the museum is on the side of the house
The addition Pettigrew added for the museum was built out of blocks of petrified wood from Arizona (apparently a common material at the time).
The Pettigrew house from the front lawn
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August 19th: We got up and on the road about 8:15 for the drive west. Along the way we had a lot of heavy rain. By the time we were going to cut off to drive thru Badlands National Park, the rain had slowed. We entered the park and what a shock. We had driven thru rolling plains all day and all of a sudden you are in a different landscape all together! Because of the rain, we pulled into several of the overlook areas, but only opened the window to take photos then rolled windows back up! (Unfortunately with the rain the vibrant colors just didn't show.) Stopped at the visitor center then drove on out of the park to Wall--a small town renowed for Wall Drug Store. We walked around a little and found a place to have lunch. The drug store is really many different retail shops and really crowded with people (Mike's most unfavorite thing), so we left and drove on to Deadwood. We had reservations at the Gold Dust Hotel right downtown. After settling in we walked around town and then went upstairs in the Franklin Hotel and sat out on their veranda and had drinks. Another couple joined us for a while--they live in Deadwood and had come to listen to the free concert music in the parking lot below. We walked around a little bit more after the drinks, then came back to the Franklin to have dinner--buffalo ribeye steak. (Some of the pictures do not show all unless you click on them -- hit escape to go back to this screen).
Picture at one scenic overlook in the Badlands National Park
Another from the rolled down window.
Dinner in the restaurant at the Franklin Hotel--the couple we met said to ask to sit by the fireplace
Picture at one scenic overlook in the Badlands National Park
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August 20th: We left Deadwood around 9:30 and headed west, crossing just into Wyoming. We went to see Devil's Tower which some of you may remember from the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind. There was a long line to enter the park, so we pulled over to the gift shop area and took pictures from there. It really is huge and amazing! From there we drove back to Spearfish, S Dakota and had lunch. We drove part way down the Spearfish Canyon Byway--a canyon of cliffs and lots of pine and other trees. Was really pretty scenery--it is a part of the Blackhills National Park. We drove back to Spearfish and got on IH90 east to go to Sturgis. At Sturgis we went to the Fort Meade Army Museum--was originally a cavalry outpost where many soldiers, including survivors of Custer's disaster, operated out of. The base is still somewhat active--there is a VA hospital there and it is also Army Reserve training base for a good part of the western states. Came back to Deadwood, walked around a little, ate dinner and back to hotel.
The Devils Tower is eastern Wyoming
All along as we have driven thru S Dakota, the farmers have had a bumper crop of hay this year
Then we both posed---the closest you will ever see either of us in a thong!
The Devils Tower is eastern Wyoming
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August 21th: We left Deadwood and headed south, to the Needles Highway. It is called this because many of the rock formations stick straight up and look like a bunch of needles. As you drive you go thru several tunnels that are carved out of the rock--and very narrow. Once we were out of this area, we took the road to Mt Rushmore. On this leg were a few more tunnels--the last one as you exit the tunnel, you are looking straight at Mt Rushmore across the miles. As we drove onto the monument area, we also had 3 circular hairpins where you cross back under the road you were just on. We got to Mt Rushmore which is so impressive. Went to the museum and then ate lunch. Our plan was to walk the Presidential trail which takes you closer to the base of the mountain, but as we walked out of the food court, it had started to rain so that plan was shelved! So we drove on to Crazy Horse monument. This too is impressive even though it isn't finished. The also have an Indian museum that was very interesting---included all of the Indian tribes of America including Alaskan tribes. We then drove on to Custer where we are staying in the Dakota Dreams Bed and Breakfast.
The next few pictures are some of the "needles" we saw on the Needles Highway
Once in Custer we visited the Custer museum--one part of the museum was a log cabin, the first in Custer
The next few pictures are some of the "needles" we saw on the Needles Highway
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August 22nd: After breakfast, we headed out to drive the wildlife loop in Custer National Park. You are supposed to be able to see many types of wildlife as you drive slowly thru the park. We did see some including buffalo, but they were not near the road. Other people at our B and B just got back--they drove the same route this afternoon and saw many more animals than we did and the buffalo were right by the road for them. Oh well! Once we left the loop and went to the visitor center, we decided since it was a much nicer day and warmer, to go back to Mt Rushmore and eat lunch there again and then walk the Presidential Trail. Unfortunately the trail was partially closed for renovation, but we did get to see the monument up closer. Once again Mike exclaimed what a magnificent monument it is! Came back to the B and B so Mike could do a little work on his presentation for Saturday in Oklahoma City.
A side note: As we drove the loop we noticed so many trees either burnt or knocked over and really wondered what had happened. At the visitor center, we asked one of the park rangers who told us they had a huge fire last December---lasted for 6 days and burned over 54,000 acres.
This will be our last entry for this trip. Thursday we are driving all day to Omaha, NE and will stay with a former Operations Officer of Mike's (Bill & Dee Lowther). We'll leave there Friday morning and drive down to Oklahoma City and stay with Mike's sister, Debbie. Saturday Mike has two presentations for the SQL Saturday in OKC and then Sunday we'll return to Sunrise Rise Beach. This has been a lot of driving for Mike, and he is rethinking how we will do state-side trips in the future.
{As a reminder when viewing the pictures below, click on the picture to see it in its entirety.}
The Dakota Dream Bed and Breakfast--our home for two nights. It is right outside Custer in the hills and very nice!
A prong horn antelope off in a field
Dinner with Bill & Dee Lowther in Omaha, NE.
The Dakota Dream Bed and Breakfast--our home for two nights. It is right outside Custer in the hills and very nice!
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