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Published: September 12th 2012
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Hello from the Black Hills!
We have finally made it to South Dakota, one of the places we looked forward to seeing most. We left out motel room pretty early yesterday, trying to get a jump on the road. We finally stayed at a motel that offered breakfast so I got to have toast and yogurt instead of the oatmeal I've eaten every day on the road. The drive brought us through southern Minnesota, from the woods to the plains. It was really different watching the scenery change, especially since I've never seen the Great Plains before.
Just at the border we saw a giant field of windmills (?). They stretched on for miles in every direction and I felt like Don Quixote driving through them. We continued through and the border to South Dakota soon followed. We drove through and in every direction the plains stretched out around us. I've never seen anything so flat and straight. One really notable thing that we noticed in both Minnesota and South Dakota was the massive effects of the drought. Brown and burned out confields surrounded us through both states. To see a green field only happened a few times. Most
of the fields were only partially grown and it seemed as though a lot of farmers had just given up. It was a very sad thing to see.
We keep going for a hour or two in South Dakota and found a camping spot near a small lake in a place called Battle Creek. The scenery there was flat plains and rolling hills with a tree or two sparsed in. The plains stretched on as far as the eye could see. Our campground was right next to a lake with a few little houses on it. The camp office sold camping permits, beer, guns, steaks and fishing poles and permits. Ang says she's going to go back there and work, as she's able to sell all of those things. We took a walk after dinner and watched the sun set over the water. Gorgeous spot.
We went to bed at about 8 pm (yes, it's true) and got up early to hit the road again. We continued through today to our first stop at the Badlands National Park. I've never seen anything like it. This place had multicolored buttes as far as the eye could see, spaced in
with river valleys. The rivers were long gone. I can't wait to upload some pictures of this place. It is by far, one of the most beautiful places I have ever been. We took a winding route through the Badlands National Park that took us through some of the cliffs and valleys. There were places to stop everywhere and read some history and take a photo, or climb around a bit. We did all of the above. We continued from there to Rapid City, where we just passed though and continued on to Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore was our last stop of the day, and since I was so tired at this point and hungry, I probably didn't appreciate it as much as I should have. There really isn't too much more to do there besides walk around, take a few pictures and leave. So that's what we did. I will admit, it is an engineering marvel.
So we left, and have now found ourselves our next campgound for the night. It's good to take a load off. Tomorrow we head to the Crazy Horse memorial and Custer State Park, followed by Sturgis and Deadwood, probably not in that
order. Hope everyone is doing well back home! We'll update again soon!
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