Day Five: Spearfish Canyon, Devils Tower and Sheridan

One of Dean's customers called this morning at 4:30 (even at eastern time that's a little bit early!) to order Muck Shoes.  That was the end of my sleep, although I think Dean did fall back to sleep.  We left Deadwood by 8 and drove Spearfish Canyon, which wasn't as great as I expected.  Possibly I'm becoming desensitized?  We did drive on a rainy, wet dirt road to the site of the final scene in Dances With Wolves.  I couldn't really get to the exact site where they were sitting on their horses in the snow because of mud and weeds and a creek but I can say I was there.  I guess all that's a big deal out here.
We had breakfast in Sundace, and planned to go to the Sundance Kid Museum because it was raining.  We drove all over that little town (all three streets) and never found a museum of any kind......  so off we went, in the pouring rain, to Devils Tower.  Alright, damnit, we're there, we are gonna walk around the darn thing!  So we did - with umbrellas and waterproof jackets.  It didn't rain all the way around the 1.3 mile loop.  The sun actually almost came out a couple of times.  It was pretty neat no matter the rain.
The sun came out bright for most of the 130 mile drive from Devils Tower to Sheridan.  But the last 10 miles it was a torential downpour with amazing thunder and lightning.  We are staying at the Mill Inn, a converted flour mill, for the night and Dean is napping.  I think driving might have been a little difficult with the strong wind blowing across the plain.  Dinner later, then bed - we are so darn borning!  Well, maybe not so boring - after a great dinner we went to the Sheridan Inn, once Buffalo Bill Cody was a part owner and he always stayed there.  The Inn is in the middle of a great renovation project right now and they only havre the dinning room and the bar open.  It was cool to be there though since Dean is related to Buffalo Bill and Cody was named after him.  Sorry about the late posting, the Mill Inn had lousy Internet connection.

Day Four Deadwood

I discovered today that my itinerary outline is at home on my computer.  That initially threw me for a loop but I think I remember most of it.  Whatever I don't remember, wasn't meant to be!
The drive to Deadwood from Keystone was pretty but totally without photo ops.  We arrived in Deadwood smack-dab in the middle of a parade of antique cars.  I thought Dean was going to come apart at the seams!  He gave up all his museum time to wander among the cars and talk to the owners.  I'll bet next week he'll still say that was the highlight of the trip.  I did pry him away eventually and we went to Tatonka, Kevin Costner's creation which is a tribute to the Native Americans and the Bison.  It was very nice, we had a private Native American guide who explained all the artifacts and the sculpture that began the project back some 20 years ago when Kostner came here to film Dances With Wolves.  We went to Mount Moriah Cemetery to see Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane's graves.  When we got back, we went to Saloon #10 for the re-enactment of Wild Bill's demise.  That was corny but fun and then there was a gun fight in front of our hotel, the Historic Franklin.  We had a buffet lunch at the Silverado Casino that was so filling that we have decided to have a cup of coffee and an ice cream cone tonight and call it good. 
I am working in the lobby of the hotel becauise its the only hot spot and the smoke from the casino is wafting in and choking me.  So I'll add pictures and call it good for today.

Day Thnree: Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse & more Custer State Park

After rain last night, the day was bright and sunny when we got to Mount Rushmorethis morning.  I took lots of pictures and we walked the hike to the base of the mountain and I took more pictures.  Dean did well walking what turned out to be .6 of a mile, with bunches of stairs.  They kept saying there was an elevator but we never found it.  As awesome as the sight of the presidents was this morning, it was no comparison to the closing ceremony tonight.  That was the most humbling experience I have had in a long time.  Between the talk, the movie and the singing of the National Anthum as the sculptures were slowly illuminated, I don't think there was a person there who was dry-eyed!

This morning after Mount Rushmore we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial.  That's quite an undertaking and it'll be amazing when complete.  The museum commorating the Native American people is well done and we enjoyed it.  After leaving there, we went back into Custer State Park and drove the Needles Highway and a couple of other roads - the ones we drove in the night last night.  We came back here to the Holy Smoke, for dinner - the "ribs to dies for" for Dean and I had a buffalo steak and some local wine.  The steak was good, not so sure abouyt the wine.

Day Two, add on

I shouldn't have published so quickly last night.  We decided to drive the wildlife loop at Custer State Park before dinner.  There were so many animals around and we got so caught up in them that before we knew it, it was dark and we were still miles away from "home".  So we ate at the park and got home around 10:30pm.  We saw tons of deer.  There were wild dobkeys - at least they were supposed to be wild - not so much!  They'd hop right in your car if you opened the door!  We werte driving down the road and Dean saw a big whittailed buck.  I tried to take a picture through the binoculars and damned if it didn't work pretty well!  Ten points!  Just at dusk there were lots of bison bedded down right the road.  It was great but the ride home on these winding roads wasn't that much fun - especially since Dean drove like he was racing in the Indianapolis 500!  I'll write about today after dinner, in case we have more to tell.

Day Two, The Badlands

We survoived the arctic tundra of The Alex Johnson Hotel last night - the AC was on high and there was no way to adjust it - even unplugging the unit didn't do it so we froze in our little double bed and were actually up and out by 7am.  We drove directly to Wall, SD where we ate a really good breakfast - somethin for nme because i hate breakfast.  We toured the Wall Drug complex (reminds me a lot of South Of The Border, Dean called it a tourist trap) and headed out to The Badlands National Park.  We started out going to Prairie Dog City, where we saw a bunch of the little critters and a herd of bison crossed the road right in front of us. We drove the whole park loop road and when we arrived at the Visitors' Center at about 2pm, it was a whopping 110 degrees!!!  We're now at the Holy Smoke Resort, named after the gold mine the resort sits on.  We have a cozy little cabin and will eat tonight their world-famous ribs. Tomorrow we're heading out early to Custer State Park to see the bison and elk - we hope.

Day One, Syracuse to Rapid City

The day was beautiful, the flights were on time and there was not a cloud in the sky in South Dakota.  We have a Subaru Outback and that's nice.  I forgot to make reservations for the cowboy supper so we went to the Norwegian stave church and then to the hotel.  The church was interesting and in a nice setting.  The hotel has a beautiful lobby but that's where the good about it stops.  I reserved a room with either a king or two double beds.  We are in a closet with one double bed and a dresser.  No other furniture - no desk, no chair - nothing.  I'm glad I don't have too much to share tonight because I'm on my knees with the computer on the bed and it hurts!  Anyway, we stopped in the gift shop and the clerk there told us that there was a street celebration called Cool Summer Nights, where they close off a street and have food vendors and a band and plenty of beer every Thursday.  We stopped by and had Chicago style hotdogs and some beers with the locals and other tourists.  Dean met some guy who told us his life story,  It was great!  Rapid City has statues of the presidents on each street corner of the downtown area.  They're pretty cool.  So now it's 9 pm and here we are ready for bed (of course it's 11pm at home so I guiess we can go to bed!