Blogs from South Dakota, United States, North America

We woke up to a downpour which made packing and loading up a bit interesting, before we headed to 2 places we skipped the day before to reach Deadwood. First up was Crazy Horse Memorial. A mountain monument started in the '40s and still being made with no Government funding - just the interested public's donations and vistor fees. Only the face has been completed, but only as recent as 1998, and it stands proudly overlooking the Black Hills of South Dakota. Mount Rushmore itself can fit in Crazy Horse's head alone! There is a viewpoint in and outside of the visitor centre, with a small replica statue standing there to give everyone an idea of what the final outcome will look like, but it is unknown when that will ... read more

Sadly we were in Cody for one night, so we loaded up and moved on again, this time with the music in my hands for the day, which I seemed to master, with several commenting how good the choices were. Anyway our destination was Deadwood. This town is the actual place where the HBO series is filmed, as well as the town where 'Wild Bill' Hickok was shot in the back whilst playing poker. It's where the name 'Dead Man's hand' came from, as Wild Bill final hand consisted of the two aces and two eights of the black suits. The town was a National Landmark and re-enacts the shooting, capturing and trial of Jack McCall daily. We headed into the Deadwood Theatre to tak... read more

From the Pecos River in the heart of the Santa Fe Wilderness, then north on I-25 to Raton, New Mexico on the eastern edge of the same wilderness, and on again to Trinidad, Colorado, the terrain changed dramatically. High mountains full of pine, oak and aspen trees, to flat land with forever views and little to no trees. From Trinidad, we drove northeast to La Junta (La Hoonta), Colorado, and then straight north to Sidney, Nebraska. Sidney is the home of Cabela’s headquarters and is right on I-80. It’s like the ultimate hunter/fisherman/outdoorsman’s paradise. From there, north through the pan handle of Nebraska to Scottsbluff. Scottsbluff is a landmark that early American pioneers looked for on their way out west on the Oregon Trail. On the Nebraska quarter, there is an image of Chimney Rock. It’s ... read more

The sky began to mystify, the sun still under the surface but still, it was coming. With mist visible along the Great Plains, the mystery of America’s vast open land was about to be revealed. I’m somewhere in the south of South Dakota trying to head to one of the last remaining regions of the Native Americans. No, no don’t expect anything of lush farmlands. This is the forgotten lands for most white Americans. If it weren’t for Mount Rushmore nearby would Americans come here? Forced to conform and accept reservations the Badlands was near one of those area the natives had to accept. Perhaps not the best to keep a sustainable living to say the least but for the tourist it provides the best scenery USA has had to offer thus far on the road ... read more

So, today was spent at two different big mountain memorials. If you know the history of Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse sculpture, then skip ahead.... The Black Hills were considered sacred land by the Lakota people who lived here. And in the original treaty between the US government and the Lakota, the Hills were part of the territory ceded to the tribe. However, once it was discovered that there was "gold in them thar hills" the Lakota were forced off the land. When mining started to die down in South Dakota, the powers that be decided to try and up the tourism business. Gutzon Borglum was working on the Stone Mountain outside of Atlanta, and was approached by the South Dakotans to do something in this state. He decided to do 4 presidents. And you ... read more

So, today was spent on the bus. From 8 am to just about 4 pm. As Jack (our tour guide) put it, today is a long airport transfer. It's a lot simpler for many people to fly into Denver than into Rapid City, so Globus starts the tour there. Bus ride was pretty uneventful, cloud cover when we were leaving Denver meant that we couldn't see the peaks of the Rockies in the distance, but it cleared up as we got into Wyoming. About 20 people on the bus, and according to Jack there are a total of 45 on the tour. A bit more than I've had on the last tours, but such is life. And apparently, some folks are only going as far as Salt Lake City. Saw some free range antelope as we ... read more

So, I took a little walk after we got to the hotel. Main Street seems to have been done up with the tourist trade in mind. A few restaurants (including a vegan one), some stores, and on each corner a statue of a president. According to the info I got from other people on my tour, there is a statue of every president somewhere in town, but I didn't hunt them all down. Quick "meeting" at 6 pm. After spending the bus ride up with just 20 people, it was weird to see 40 some people in one room. And realize that as much as I just want to hide out in the back of the bus, I am probably going to have to sit next to someone the whole time. The tour guide said he ... read more

After nearly one year absence I’ve returned to share with you our travels and to keep the record of memories going for ourselves! Please feel free to ignore my entry reminders if you’d like or let me know and I’ll remove you from my “guestbook.” My last entry was of our East Coast trip last fall, 2010. We landed in Florida and a few weeks later drove the Element back to Michigan for Christmas. Thankfully our lab Harley is a great traveler so tolerates all this travel well (probably better than we do.) After a few weeks enjoying the kids, grands and friends we drove back to Florida. The winter consisted of a five week Habitat build in Fellsmere, Fl with our Care-A-Vanner reunion group. This group of friends is so special to us and we ... read more