Blogs from South Dakota, United States, North America - page 9

Deadwood is located less than an hours drive west of Rapid City. It is a historic place and is the town in which Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down. In fact he is buried in the local cemetery, Mt. Moriah, along with Calamity Jane and Potato Creek Johnny. Because of this, the cemetery is a tourist attraction. The Adams House and Museum are located a few blocks apart and are both worth a visit. The house, built in 1892, is built in the Queen Anne style and is quite a charming old place. It is not as large as a Victorian Mansion but is quite spacious. Harris and Anna Franklin built it and later sold it to their son, Nathan, in 1905. In 1920 he sold the house to W.E. and Alice Adams. Adams' first wife ... read more

Hi faithful followers, I am sending this entry from a place called Custer, South Dakota. We decided to come here because Gerry wanted to see where Custer's last stand was and the history....well if you know anything about the history.....we are in the wrong place. We are suppose to be in Montana. Anyway the reason we ended up here is because Gerry looked on the map and saw Custer and figured it was here. Long story short it is a funky little town and for the last week it has had a motercycle rally. Also Sturgus is near by and they were having their rally also. So it has been noisey but relaxing as we did a little exploring. Went to Jewel Cave and Crazy Horse Monument. Enjoyed the two days.... read more

It was a real treat not to have to navigate my way out of some large metro center yesterday, I was on the right highway as soon as I drove out of the motel parking lot. Most excellent riding conditions all day, sunny, not too windy, desolated interstates. It blows my mind how much of America you can drive on deserted roads devoid of traffic. I think I only encountered traffic on the order of a Whitemud Drive or Deerfoot a couple of times, and those were right outside of major centers. Leaving Burlington, IA headed westbound I stopped for lunch in the town of Ottumwa, home to the television character of…………………..do you know whom?(answer later). I had to pickle my way a bit until I could get onto the Interstate, but once there average speed ... read more

It is 9:41pm, MST and we have "landed" in Wall, South Dakota for the night at Sleepy Hollow Camp. We pulled in here around 7:00pm MST. It's cool here...our coolest night yet, about 60 degrees. Today we have driven 472 miles today, bringing our total to 1,513 miles traveled. Most of today's travel was uneventful. The weather was good until we around 50 miles east of Wall. And what a storm it was! We could literally see it coming toward us, because there are no hills to hide it. There was lightning in every direction and when we finally met the rain, it was downpouring in buckets. We ended up having to pull over on the side of the road because between the downpouring rain and the wind, Larry could no longer see where we were ... read more

I've woken up this morning around 4am but feeling more human today! Still feel a bit off but well enough to be able to go onto the coach. Today is a long day of travelling. The coach trip is made up of quite a wide range of people both age & nationality. It's mainly an "older persons" tour with most couples being married for 41 years which was a bit odd!! Our Tour Leader Bob is an ex Principle so you can imagine how it's almost like we are on a school trip! He's very organised, counts everyone on & off the bus & keeps everyone in place. As with anything which involves a group there's the obligatory "ice breaker" game involving making a bow out of toilet roll?!?!?!? We start the day leaving Denver & ... read more

South Dakota – home of the Sioux Indians. This state was important for me to visit as the Sioux was the first tribe of Indians my Dad was interested in. While he was in USA, he and his friend Chris Hall had a truck to deliver to the West coast. On the way they picked up a couple of Sioux hitchhiking, and Dad spent a few days in the back talking, listening and learning their way of life. I remember him, as a kid talking about Wankan Tanka (The Great Spirit) and the Rainbow Prophesy’s. Before we visited the Indian Reservation we had two stops on the way; the first being the infamous Mt Rushmore. The drive up was pretty stunning and at the first sight of the sculpture it looked much smaller than we imagined, ... read more