Rapid City, S Dakota

We drove around Rapid City today. Founded in 1876, 2 years after gold was discovered in the Black Hills, it now serves as a trading center and tourist headquarters for the area. Our first stop was at the Berlin Wall Exhibit, commemorating the wall which symbolized communist oppression, erected in beleaguered Berlin in 1961. There are 2 12' sections of the wall standing with 2 tank traps in front. There are several interpretive placards and the Mission is: What stands if Freedom Falls? It was very thought provoking.

They have erected 39 bronze sculptures of American Presidents and they stand on street corners all over downtown. My favorite was JFK with John John.

We also went to the Chapel in the Hills, Stavkirke Chapel, meaning a stave church, in Norwegian. This structure was simply amazing, showing an incredible amount of craftsmanship with pegged construction. This is an exact replica of the famous 850 year old Borgund Stavkirke located near Laerdal, Norway, built from the original plans. A son built it in memory of his parents, early settlers. The front door is a carving of snakes and dragons, depicting the battle between good and evil. The Vikings were pagan and dragons were good luck to the Vikings and that is why they also had them on the prows of their ships. In history, men entered by the front door, women and children at the side. The reason for the covered walkway around the whole church; you could wait there in inclement weather and men stowed their weapons, leaving them outside the chapel.
When you look up at the staves, it looks like the inside of the a Viking ship. There is a prayer walk through the woods around the church and a deer walked by.The gift shop was a special hut with sod roof imported from Norway. Delightful day. We have really enjoyed this area but you could stay a month and never see all the amazing attractions in the area.

Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park

We went south driving through the Black Hills National Forest to drive to Mount Rushmore National Memorial. What a rush; every kind of rock formation, hills and windy roads you can imagine. We stopped at Keystone, an old mining and gold rush town, where you can take your your picture with a stuffed buffalo. It's very quaint and we saw the Borglum Historical Center, for the man who carved the mountain. The carving photos were amazing. Seeing this massive granite sculpture memorializing the 4 American Presidents; Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt, was truly awe inspiring. Next we followed the Iron Mountain Road which had been laid out by Peter Norbeck, a Conservationalist and S.D. Governor, on horseback and foot. This is not for the faint hearted. You go over 3 pigtail bridges, like corkscrews and through 4 narrow tunnels, carved from the rock, the last framing the 4 Presidents heads way across the valley. By now, we were in Custer State Park, 71,000 acres, and this took us to the Park Game Lodge, where we had a lunch buffet, the feature being a great Buffalo Stew, just delicious. Presidents Coleridge and Eisenhower have used this as the Summer White House during their terms. It is a beautiful building made of local stone and wood. Here's Ron in front of the fireplace with a 1920's buffalo nickel covered Buffalo sculpture on the coffee table. We continued onto the Wildlife Loop where we were delighted to watch the wild buffalo herds move beside us. The grass and wildflowers were so lush, you could hardly see the calf. We also saw pronghorns and finished up with donkeys wandering on the road further on.

Black Hawk, Sturgis and Deadwood, S. Dakota

We woke to rain, couldn't believe it. We know you are sweltering at home with 34+ degree weather but this is our first rain since 2 days in June and months before that. Little effect as it quit in 15 minutes as we drove 45 minutes down Hwy 90 East to Black Hawk just above Rapid City. We're in a Coast to Coast Park, 3 Flags RV for 3 nights.
After lunch we went to a Petrified Forest. There was a 15 minute movie explaining the formation of earth's layers and then a 5 block hike around this pine forest mountain top ( just like the Cariboo). It had been a cypress forest like the trees in New Orleans which died in the sea as the earth pushed up the rocky formations. Totally amazing. It was very well explained and so interesting to see these fallen trees, petrified lying on the ground. The upright one was as tall as me and in the background was a 3' portion about 5' long which weighed 4 ton. The 'winter wood pile' shown has 931 pieces of petrified wood collected from the forest floor.
Next stop was Sturgis. One of the town's earliest residents was Poker Alice, a cigar smoking card shark who owned the rowdiest honky tonk in the state. Her hard working, good-time reputation, made her a legend. Back then, the town was just outside Fort Meade, an early Calvary site where Alice helped the soldiers spend their money. Today, Sturgis, a sleepy little town of 6442 is know for the yearly Motorcycle Rally and Races. In it's 69th year, this event draws nearly half a million people from all around the world. It doesn't start until Monday so we easily joined the crowds cruising down Main Street and saw the Motorcycle Museum and Hall of fame. We both bought a shirt and had a good time. The bike watching was great and the people watching was even better. Lots of fun. It's really fun to see the different dress and headgear worn by men and women. Today, women are 23% or 5.7 million of the 25 million Americans who rode a motorcycle last year. We ended the day with a 12 mile drive to Deadwood, the site of a gold rush in the late 1800's. It was a haven for gunfighters and gamblers. Here, Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed during a poker game in the #10 Saloon Aug. 2, 1876, still here. It only has a Main street, the rest of the town is perched on the hillsides. Up in the Boothill Cemetery, Wild Bill is buried alongside Calamity Jane. The town has restored many of the original buildings and it's quite quaint.
The rock formations along the way showed exactly what the movie was about at the Petrified Forest.

Through N. Dakota to Spearfish, S. Dakota

We were swarmed by mosquitoes unhooking the MoHo, incredible!!! We've crossed the Missouri River and are rolling across the Great American Plains. There are some large wheat elevators beside the railways. This is the Little Missouri National Grasslands and believe me that is all you'll see. It is 1,200,000 acres of scenic prairie and badlands. These badlands, a rock bed left behind by an eastward-flowing river that once ran to an inland sea, stretching from Canada, south to the gulf of Mexico. It startled us to go around a curve, down the first hill and be in the badlands, rugged rock and gullies identical to Drumheller AB. It only lasted 10 miles and once again, flat land.
We passed the 1st of the three Theodore Roosevelt National Park sites. The 26th President of the U.S., he came here in 1833 to hunt bison, (buffalo), joined 2 others to start the Maltese Cross Ranch. He later started 2 more and started large conservative areas. we've also crossed the Lewis and Clark Trail, where they explored this area in 1804 - 1806m successfully partly by having an Indian woman, Sakakawea join, guide and teach survival techniques.
We had lunch at a widening in the road at Bowman and passed into S. Dakota by 1:45. same flat land but no evidence of cattle or ranching. Just very bare. Passed through Belle Fourche (beautiful fork) at the fork of the Belle Fourche and Red Rivers, it is the trading center for a tri-state agricultural area of 21,000 square miles. We had had Montana on our west, but now it's down to Wyoming. We're seeing big rolls of hay, even the highway side areas are used and cattle now and get down to Spearfish. We pulled into WalMart for the night. It was named for the Sioux and Cheyene Indians who speared fish in the creek that runs through the town. This creek is unusual as it freezes from the bottom up and runs south to north. Small industry, lumbering and tourism support this town

Detour into the Dakotas

We decided that we'll probably never be back this way again so we'll detour down to Mount Rushmore. We headed south on hwy 39 passing green wheat and blue flax fields. Later it will be golden wheat. Saskatchewan had been called the heartland of Canada. It leads the world in the export of 'pulse crops', lentils, chickpeas, peas as well as faba, dry and soy beans. This is 14% of their agriculture. We follow the CPRail and Soo Line through Drinkwater, Yellow Grass and Goodwater. Talk about naming towns years ago. Stopped for lunch at Wheyburn, parked behind a guy hauling a truck load of pigs. He got out and actually went along the side of the truck and talked to them. I got out later to check the car and nearly asphyxiated!!! Whew. Here we intersected the Red Coat Trail where the North West Mounted Police marched west to Fort Whoop Up near Lethbridge AB. The Prime Minister, John A. MacDonald started this National Police Force to bring Law and Order to the west in settling the land.
We crossed into North Dakota at 1 p.m., at Fortuna, no town at all. It is a vast land, going forever with sky a mile high. There are fields of wheat, barley, oats and sunflowers lining the highway. We can't believe Sask or here. All the side roads going to small towns are plain gravel. No pavement. The most familiar sight is the grain elevator with grain cars waiting on the train track. The American Indian culture and historical sites are preserved everywhere. You could stop every mile to see something of interest. Just 186 miles east of here is Rugby, the geographical center of North America. We keep being passed by bikers, little did we know that this weekend is the famous bikers weekend at Sturgis. We're in the area of Lewis and Clark's exploration of 1804 where the Indian woman, Sakakawea joined them and helped bring success to their travels. Stopped at Williston where Hwy 2 and 85 join for overnight at the Prairie Acres RV park, time to dump and refill water.

Moose Jaw - Little Chicago

We left the campground, fueled and parked in WalMart. It is said that Al Capone, the notorious gangster from Chicago had headquarters here as well, to escape the police during Prohibition. I drove down Main Street to the Tunnels of Moose Jaw. Here I went to a live action show in the underground tunnels where Al and the boys had their secret bootlegging operation. You start in the bar room, see his office, then bedroom and when you hear furious fighting in the next room, you escape down the 3 level staircase to the basement, eventually crossing under the Main St. to exit up into the ticket office where you started. The 2nd show was about the Chinese labourers who built the railroad and settled here many years ago.
There are 41 murals painted throughout the town, depicting the history. It's a pretty little town with a very wide main street and flowers everywhere. There's a 90' moose welcoming you into town.

Regina

We went to Regina today and drove past the University on our way to the Saskatchewan Legislative Building. We went on a guided tour of this very impressive structure. There are 43 different kinds of marble in the building and rotundas where you can look down or up to the dome. They showed the Library, Chambers, everything.
Next we were off to the RCMP Heritage Centre. Again, it was most interesting, the history from the beginning of settling the country and very well done.