South Dakota to Michigan

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South Dakota, and over into Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan

Saturday August 9 to Monday August 11, 2008

Mt. Rushmore

With many bikers sharing the road, we drove southwest a bit to circle Mt. Rushmore. Declining the fairly steep entrance fee, we snapped photos from the highway at 2 different vantage points, and made our way east again; we would have liked to take Rte 44 to reach Badlands National Park, rather than the Interstate, but being short on time, opted for speed, and entered the park via the town of Wall. There we stopped at a gas station to use the rest room, and get snacks and coffee. Outside there was a coin-operated horse ride - and Rollie clowned around for the camera (Miles and I got in on the action too). They also had a painted horse statue with a Mt. Rushmore spoof (I think it is a spoof - as it does not look lke the Presidents) that Max captured in a photo.

Badlands National Park

Driving through the badlands, we noticed the intense heat, weird spires, and different-colored striations on the hills. We stopped at a few overlooks, and then at the visitor center. It had a good film about the geology of the park, and interesting exhibits. This is yet another place to which it would be fun to return, in cooler weather, to experience the eerie desert topography, and to see more of the wildlife and plants from the hiking trails. Leaving the blissful air conditioning of the visitor center to return to a hot van (despite our AC - it was still hot), we began the long trek east across all of South Dakota, and over into Minnesota.

In the evening we began to look for a place to stay and swiftly realized that all the departing bikers, headed home from the Sturgis Rally, were also looking……and every place was full. This was true the entire length of I-90 through Minnesota. We kept being hopeful at the larger towns. At one point we saw signs for Estherville south of the border in Iowa, where Rollie’s ex in-laws live, but it was very late at night and we kept hoping we could find someplace to stay. We passed Albert Lea - no room at the inn, passed Austin and St. Charles.

We finally crossed over into Wisconsin. The plan had been to overnight at a state park on the Minnesota side of the Mississippi (some other time we will have to hit Great River Bluffs State Park). That was a mis-calculation on my part; I guess I didn’t take into account the time we’d spend in the Badlands, and the real driving time, even on the highway, but even so, we had not planned to come nearly so far in one drive! I believe we got to Tomah or someplace nearby, and the hotel keeper there was totally booked up, but called a friend with a motel in a tiny town just a ways north and learned that they had one room open, as the people who had reserved it had not showed. So we raced there, and arrived just ahead of a young couple towing a “toy hauler” with their Harley bikes inside. We were carrying our bags into the room when they pulled in; it was about 2 AM!

Flat Tire on the Shore of Lake Michigan

The next day we made our way across Wisconsin to Manitowoc, taking smaller roads across the south center of the state, 23 through Oxford, to Fond Du Lac at the tip of Lake Winnebago, and up along the lake through Maytown. The countryside was lovely and Wisconsin is definitely one state I’d like to explore more - especially the rivers and northern reaches. We found a state park on the map, north of Manitowoc, near the town of Two Rivers, Point Beach State Park, on the shore of Lake Michigan, and headed in that direction. At that point we heard the telltale rumble of a flat tire. We pulled off and Rollie was able to jack up the car and put on the spare. Since we were in a sparsely-populated rural area, we decided to go on to the park and look for a new tire the next AM in Manitowoc.

Point Beach State Park

At Point Beach we found a decent site along a center loop, pitched the tent (allowing the boys a bit of a break to go off on bicycles) and headed for the beach. It was often hard to get the boys to buckle down and pitch camp after being in the car a long time and arriving at a place with things to see and do. Generally it was best to insist on doing it right away, fast, and promising a longer time off once it was done before, say, dinner had to be cooked -- but sometimes offering them a 15 min bike ride to explore (which inevitably turned into 20) was the way to go.

It was great to be by water again, and to pick up the smooth stones. We stayed on the beach till dusk then headed back to fix food. The campsite was pretty buggy, but after all it was August near the water - so par for the course.

The next day we headed for Manitowoc - our ferry was due to leave around 1:15. On the way, however, we had to find a place to replace our tire. We found one right on the way, stopped and got the new tire placed. The old one, which I think was one we had put on the car in Las Vegas, had de-laminated. Later, once home, we had to write to the company in Las Vegas and complain. Luckily they did the right thing and gave us a refund.

No SS Badger

The night before, at the campground, my cell phone had vibrated a bit, but there wasn’t enough of a signal to retrieve the message - and then I forgot about it. Alas, when we got to the ferry dock, we learned that the ferry company had been calling us. The boat engine had blown out and was under repairs - no ferry would run that day. This was really disappointing. Not only had we looked forward to the respite from driving, and to being on the water, crossing the great lake, but upon examining the map we discovered that in order to make our date with friends in Ohio, we were going to have to drive south through Chicago instead of taking the more scenic northerly route around the lake. So we were on the road again. Thank goodness for the inverter, the Game Cube, the MP3 players, and an urbanized coastline with ubiquitous coffee shops!

Strange Asian Treats

In Milwaukee we stopped to look for a restroom, and noticed a large Indian market, so Rollie went in to ask about a bathroom, and purchased some exotic goods (and a nice bag of red lentils for back home), mainly sweets to try, some of which were very tasty and some of which were so awful we spat them out (some dry kind of cakes that tasted like rancid milk - perhaps they were merely old, but they seemed crisp enough…..). In Chicago I made a navigational error (using a small map, and trying to parse the signage during rush hour) so it took longer than it ought to have to make it around the metro area. Then we were headed as fast as we could to Midland - the town north of Saginaw were Rollie grew up.

Next blog: Midland Michigan, Rollie’s old haunts, the Alden Dow home (architecture inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright), and road trip down through Michigan over to Crown Point Ohio.

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Photos

The old boys natter with one another
Rushmore and people/horse photos are Max's and the Badlands scenery and roadside scenes are mine.

Comments

[South Dakota]

Nice post!
Thanks for sharing your experiences.. I am planning to take that route this month! Peace, Jen rosen http://www.universityloveconnection.com/university-South%20Dakota-Dating.htm