The Badlands of South Dakota

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First stop today—Starbucks. Since this hotel does not have its own restaurant offering breakfast, they offer coupons to use at the Starbucks on the property as their way to provide free breakfast. That was a nice change from the standard breakfast buffet.

We drove a short way east out of Rapid City for sightseeing. The first visit was to Badlands National Park. A scenic road winds in and out of the rock formations of the park starting and ending at exits off I-90. We both enjoyed the drive, and we stopped at some of the overlooks for a closer look. In two places, bighorn sheep were close to the edge of the road nibbling the grass and ignoring the tourists snapping photos. Lots of bikers were at the park, too.

Next, we drove up to Philip, South Dakota. Last summer we visited Spivey, Kansas, so it seemed right to stop at Philip this trip. We drove around a bit and stopped for lunch at The Steakhouse. Service was friendly and food was good and just what we expected in a small-town restaurant.

On the way back to Rapid City, we stopped at Wall Drug. I have seen bumper stickers from Wall Drug for years and wanted to see what it was. What started as a small-town drug store in the 1930s has grown into a mega travel stop full of food outlets and shopping places. We found a parking spot at the front door and walked through some of the complex. It did not take us very long to see everything we wanted to see, and we left without making a purchase.

Back on the road again, we arrived at the hotel about 3:30. Philip graded some papers before we walked across the street to dinner at Tally’s Silver Spoon which was highly recommended by the desk clerk who checked us in yesterday. We liked the food and the waiter did a great job.

We took a short walk after dinner before returning to the hotel. We enjoyed the view and ambiance at the Vertex Sky Bar last night so much that we decided to go back again this evening. We watched the nearly full moon rise over the glitter of the city’s lights. Lovely!

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