Two Hams on the Road

Wednesday, August 14, 2013

We got up early and checked out of the Rocket Motel.  Here's a pic of the motel.  It was a pleasant place to stay.

Every August there is a HUGE motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, early in August.  I think this is the week after Sturgis.  Most of the rest of the hotel was filled with motorcyclists.

We're headed for the Badlands.  I don't  know what to expect, but hear its worth seeing.  So off we go.  We head for I-90 and take the Wall exit but head south.  We skipped Wall Drugs this trip.  We have at least a 7 hour drive today.

The landscape is slightly rolling and dry.  Any farming is done with irrigation.  This is prairie.  We drive through the park gates and notice people pulled off on a side road.  Since the key to animal spotting is to look for the crowd, we head that way.  No animals, but our first glimpse of the Badlands.  The prairie just drops off.

The guide book said that if you drive across the state just north of the Badlands, you might never see them, as you just see the prairie.  If you drive on the south, you see a wall.

The topography changes from steep pinnacles to prairie at the bottom.  Some of the valleys seem to have rounded mounds. 

 

Steve and I thought it would make a good landscape for a star wars scene.  It seemed like a stage set, a bit unreal.

 

We were lucky enough to finally see some big horn sheep.  I think this one is a ewe.

 

There were two and they were both peering down looking at all the funny tourists taking their picture.  We passed another prairie dog town.  I'd take more pictures, but they are too hard to catch with the camera.

 

We stop at the park lodge for lunch, but a bus has just stopped and they are swamped.  No problem.  We head for I-90 and start trucking across the state.  Turns out lunch places are few and far between.  We decided we'd stop at an 1880's village tourist trap that had a restaurant.  But just outside the old village is a 1950's diner train.  Right up Steve's alley.

 

We have lunch there and then we're back on the road.  We're now seeing cornfields without irrigation.  Seems like the Midwest.  Steve's goal is to spend the night in Minnesota.  I want to swing by and see the corn palace.  We decide to do both.

They are not finished with this years design.  Not all the crops are in.

 

We eat dinner just east of Sioux Falls, still in South Dakota, so Steve finds a hotel 15 miles away in Minnesota.  Goals for the day are met!

 

Steve thinks we're getting into Chicago tomorrow.  That means driving all the way through Minnesota and most of Wisconsin and heading south.  I may scour the AAA guide for something interesting to take a break at.

 

That's all for today!