June 17, 2007

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Sunday, 6/17, headed out of the Mitchell, S Dakota Walmart parking lot about 6:40 AM. We stopped downtown to see the Corn Palace, a well known landmark in the state! The edifice is covered with corn cobs and wheat! Different. Then headed down the interstate toward the Badlands. The scenery in S. Dakota is rolling hills with some crops, but lots of prairie grass. Sweet yellow clover, a non native plant, grows plentiful on the roadside and in the fields giving the scenery some color. Small ponds and creeks dot the landscape. It looks very similar to the scenery in “Dances With Wolves”. We crossed the Missouri River at Chamberlain. The Lewis and Clark expedition also crossed there. We are now on Mountain Time (2 hours behind Virginia).
Got to the Badlands by mid morning. Temps were probably in the high 80’s, not humid, but hot enough! The loop road through the Badlands is right off the interstate. It was built during the Depression. It’s about 35 miles and it gives a good idea of the area. In the late afternoon it was neat to watch a thunderstorm in the distance. The dark sky gave a nice contrast to the gray formations. The wind whipped up something fierce and the temps dropped dramatically as a front moved through. We got some rain as we traveled down the highway.
On our way back to the interstate we made a small detour to see the famous Wall Drug. It was just a drive by! Those of you familiar with “South of the Border” on I95 in South Carolina - - Wall drug is the Mid West version. It takes up an entire block.
The geology of this country is very obvious. As you leave the Badlands, it transitions into prairie, then steeper rolling hills and move up that roll up to the granite rock of the Black Hills. We spent the night at the Rapid City Wal-mart along with 15-18 other rv’s. Rapid City is about 35 minutes from Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills. That’s where we are headed Monday.
Quote of the day: Frank overhead a little girl talking to her mother at a Badlands scenic stop, she poined to the Cozy Turtle and said, “Mommy is that an RV?” Size isn’t everything! Our little turtle can maneuver all over the place.
Traveled 307 miles Sunday.

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Comments

[Shannon and Doug]

Beautiful
Wow...the Badlands are beautiful! Can't wait to see and hear more! :)