Across the USA and Canadian Maritimes: Rapid City to Mitchell, South Dakota

July 18 we drove to Rapid City S.D. where we met friends Diann and Rich Coy. They will travel with us the next 3+ months.

On a very pleasant July 19 we drove the 45 minutes to Deadwood where we walked up and down the main street. They claim they have 84 casinos, but most have just a few slot machines. The town’s claim to fame includes the likes of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill, etc. – lots of interesting bits of history.

The next day we left the RV park early and headed for Mt. Rushmore. The viewing is free, but you must pay $10 to park your car. Once you are parked and walk toward the monument, you become aware of the many improvements made there.

As we walked toward the monument, we walked along the Avenue of Flags where all 50 states have plaques on granite pillars (one on each of 4 sides of each pillar). The date they joined the union is on the plaque. And at the top of each pillar the 4 flags are flying. It’s really neat.

There is a nice museum and the workshop of the monument designer where you can see how the monument was designed and created – quite nice. You could spend several hours if you wanted to learn all the history.

Once we were done at the monument, we drove the wildlife highway through Custer State Park – along the route we saw buffalo, elk, pronghorns, prairie dogs, and burros; and much lovely scenery.

From there we continued to the Crazy Horse monument. I imagine many of you have either seen it or heard of it. It is still a long way from being done. We didn’t care to pay the $27 to drive into the monument, but we were able to take good pictures from outside the entrance and that was enough for us.

July 21 we headed east again – our goal was to see Wall Drug and Badlands Nat’l Park on our way to Mitchell, SD. We drove the RVs to the large Wall Drug parking lot and unhooked Rich’s car which we took on the loop drive through the Badlands. It was much more massive than we expected – very beautiful rock formations at the east end of the park; grasslands toward the west end.

We returned to Wall Drug and strolled through many of the 28 stores and 540-seat restaurant. You can get coffee for 5 cents – free if you are a US Veteran. But most of the 72,000 sq. ft. store is drug stores and other specialty shops. It was interesting and we can check it off our list!

Then the fun began – we had about 220 miles to drive to reach our RV park in Mitchell, SD. The first 1.5 hours were not a problem. But we were hearing about a thunderstorm to the north. Unfortunately we ended up in the storm and drove 120 miles in driving rain and wind whistling across the RVs. It was really nasty. As we drove Gordie noticed that water was bubbling along his window well. Oh my goodness – all the window wells on the driver’s side of the RV were full of water. I got dish towels and cleaned up, then stuffed the towels into the tracks. I ended up using every kitchen towel I had over the next 5 hours (they would get completely soaked) as we continued through constant rain and wind – and I mean constant, there was NEVER a letup. We finally did get to Mitchell, but it was still pouring rain. The next day as we visited with the RV park managers, they told us that their swimming pool overflows with more than 4” of rain and it overflowed that night.

Fortunately the next day (though super humid and warm) was relatively nice. We headed out to visit the Corn Palace. What an interesting place – the only corn palace in the world. The town first built the corn palace to draw attention to Mitchell in hopes of it becoming the South Dakota state capitol. Even though that bid was unsuccessful, they have made the most of this unique place. Inside is a basketball court and large auditorium.

Outside the front and side walls are covered with corn artistically attached to the wood walls. An artist designs the pictures and each year the corn is replaced at harvest time (usually mid-August) with a new set of designs. They even have special fields where they grow the specialty colored corn to use for the pictures. During August they have name entertainment every weekend to celebrate the corn harvest.