Day 2-May 14-Oacoma,SD to Devil's Tower, WY

---

Up early today to get jump on a long day. Al having to deal with hot water problem which "guru" Ray's magic could not solve. We left Oasis Campground on the banks of the Missouri and were on the road by 8:30am. The farmlands of the prior day swiftly changed to rolling hills with grazing cattle abundant. Instead of leaving the 15mph winds behind, they continued at 20mph for most of the day as we literally sailed along Interstate 90 toward the Badlands and Mount Rushmore. The weather was a little cooler with highs only in the 60s but still sunny. Somewhere along the way we passed into the Mountain time zone and gained another hour. However, this is 2 additional hours in less than a week and we still haven't caught up. We stopped for gas before entering the Badlands and as you can see from the pictures, it was quite different from Race-Trac, especially the gophers. We're getting about 5.78mi per gal. (ouch).The Badlands were awesome! The Lakota knew the place as mako sica which means "bad place". You must see for yourself to really appreciate the beauty of the peaks, gullies, buttes, and wide prairies. A highlight of the trip for Dorrie through the Badlands was a facetime call from our children on Mother's Day with grandchildren on the line to see the sights with her.

We left the Badlands and headed toward Mount Rushmore with a stop at Wall Drug for lunch. Wall Drug, a popular tourist stop was started by a couple just after the depression and to encourage people to stop at their remote pharmacy they offered free ice water to travelers in this area and signs spread the word far and near. After lunch we continued toward Mount Rushmore and were pleasantly surprised it wasn't that crowded. Once again, words can't do justice to this monument of the four presidents depicted. Tom bought a book in the bookstore from the last surviving person (age96) to work on the monument who personally signed his copy.

We moved on to the Chief Crazy Horse Monument which is near Mt. Rushmore. Chief Crazy Horse was one the chiefs at the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 in which the Lakota and other Plains Indians defeated George Armstrong Custer and his 7th Cavalry Regiment. We'll be seeing the site of the Battle tomorrow. The Chief Crazy Horse Monument is a monument to American Indians, especially those who lost their lives, lands and much of the heritage as the West was settled. Al's been I touch with Great Alaskan Holidays to try and sort out hot water heater.

We left Chief Crazy Horse and headed toward Devil's Tower, Wyoming. The high point of the day for me was the changing landscape as we drove 10 miles of winding road across the state line between South Dakota into Wyoming. When I was training for marathons in my "youth" my endorphins occasionally kicked in to create a "high". Today, I had the same experience seeing this beautiful landscape. We started to drag at this point since we had been on the road for 9 hours and decided to stop for dinner. The road went on forever not passing through any towns until we reached Sundance, WY where we stopped at 7 pm and had a great dinner at the Longhorn Steakhouse. Although sunset isn't until close to 9pm, the sky darkened early and we had some rain as we drove the last 35 miles to a KOA Campsite at Devil's Tower, WY. It was a bit eerie seeing Devil's Tower looming on the horizon as we approached it in the darkened sky. A reminder of Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The KOA office had closed down but there were plenty of sites available and thanks to Ray we're now "old hands" as we picked 3 sites and hooked our water and electric up in no time. Early night tonight. Al deciding on best plan for tomorrow to get water heater fixed.

379 miles today...total 728.

---