Advertisement
I know, you're saying "where the hell is Alzada, Montana?" I'll get to that later. Today was a very interesting day, scenery wise. After a nice night, we unhooked the RV's in the drizzle, and got on our way. Not much to see on this stretch of the highway, the huge crop fields gave way to gigantic cattle ranchs, stretching for miles in all directions. Still no windmills. The drive to the badlands was a white knuckle one. The drizzle turned into monsoon rain, and the wind was 30 mph, gusting to 45. The RV's were like a giant sail, buffeting back and forth. Then we get a construction area about 15 miles long, down to one lane, rain coming down in sheets, wind swaying us around, and tractor trailer trucks coming at us in the opposite direction......... baptism by fire. John is still shaking. Once reaching the Badlands area, near Kadota, SD, the country side went from flat cattle fields, to rolling hills and trees. The Badlands, while very beautiful, was also a very "Harsh" place. There's a 60 mile stretch of spires that separate the high prairie from the low prairie. These are very lovely, multicolor formations that are slowly eroding towards the Missouri river. The bulk of the park is prairie, once home to the Lakota Indians and millions of Buffalo. We drove through the park on the Rt 240 loop road, exiting in Rapid City, SD. From there we meandered to Mt. Rushmore. I say meander because it's really off the beaten path. Was a lovely, although hilly drive down to Keystone, SD, a lovely western mining-like town at the foot of Rushmore. Would have loved to spend some time there, but too many miles to cover. The monument itself is impressive. Hard to imagine all the workers hanging from ropes with air hammers, and carving that thing. The detail is incredible. We did note there is still room on the mountain, to the left of Washington, for another president. In fact, I'm surprised the current one hasn't started work already. After a brief stay, and a quick ice cream cone, we departed. Bud wanted to see Sturgis, so we headed that way. After a drive through the main street, pretending we were a pack of Harleys, we decided that our planned stop for the night in Broadus, MT was too far to travel, as it was
getting late. We googled camp sites near our location, and found one about 20 minutes north, so we headed out. Upon arriving, we did a drive through, and I could swear I could hear banjo music and people with only one tooth. We opted out of that place, and rather that turn back to Sturgis and stayed a lovely campsite that we passed earlier, decided to press on. The Cat Herder said "surely there will be another camp area just up the road". So we headed out on highway 212 north. After passing through Wyoming, and about 2000 miles of Montana, we still had not seen one sign of civilization. No people, no houses, no nothing, just cattle and deer. Finally, we came upon a small town called Alzada. This town had a bar and a gas station/store, that's it. We decided to ask where the closest camp area was, and notice a small area next to the truck stop that looked like RV hook ups. Sure enough, we gave the guy $20, and hooked up for the evening. Just by being here, we doubled the town's population. Very nice people in the store, and they have a grill serving
breakfast at 6:00am tomorrow. There was also a bar across the road, but instead we opted for cocktails in our camper. With the winds still blowing, and the temperatures dropping, everyone headed back to their RV and made dinner, and called it a day. Diane was disappointed when she realized that the truck stop did not serve a nice salmon, I think she was ready for a meal out, and it's only day 2. The winds this evening are so strong that they are actually rocking the 28 ft RV's. It gave new meaning to "If the RV is a rock'in don't come a knock'in. Looking forward to tomorrow. 361 miles today. Total to date: 679
Advertisement
Tot: 0.086s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 14; qc: 30; dbt: 0.0363s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Marilyn and tom murphy
non-member comment
Love all the info! Seems like you are having a exciting adventure! Maybe the wind, clouds and rain will disappear soon! Part of me is very sad we are not there, but another part is happier on Cape Cod with 60 degrees and sun!!
Look forward to all the pics and blogs! Nice job! Missing you all!?