16. South Dakota

Sept 14th, drove 1 hour to Rapid City, SD where I attended morning and evening Yom Kippur services at the Synagogue of the Hills. Spent the afternoon walking around downtown, which is a nice small town, with life sized statues of the presidents on each corner.  Also drove up to the top of the hill to their historic Dinosaur Park.

Spent the night in an RV park there, next day (Sunday) drove towards the Black Hills, but stopped to buy food in Sturgis, home of the motorcycle rally. They were having a motocross race in the middle of downtown.

One of the many massive bars in downtown Sturgis

Race track downtown, next turn is Main Street

Next stop was Deadwood, old mining town, now tourist spot with many casinos. Walked around the famous cemetery where Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried. Hickok was killed in Deadwood during a Poker game.

In the afternoon, drove through the Black Hills towns of Lead and Hot Springs, and arrived in Custer City where I spent two nights. Drove my scooter around the Black Hills and visited the sights.

Lead - Homestake Gold Mine (open pit)

Crazy Horse Memorial

 Mount Rushmore

Pronghorns in Custer State Park

This is a VIDEO of Bisons in Custer State Park (not sure how to upload this)

Next day, drove South to Hot Springs, where I took the 1 hour tour of Wind Cave National Park. Not expecting much, as I was dissapointed at the last Cave I visited but this one was really nice (no pics).  Drove on to the outskirts of Hot Springs where I toured the Mammoth Site, where an old deep sinkhole trapped 60 mammoths.

Late afternoon, drove 2 hours East to the town of Interior, next to Badlands National Park, where I stayed the night. Next day, toured the park in only 3 hours, including 4 hikes. Was not too impressed with it.

Ten minutes away was the town of Wall, home to the famous Wall Drug Store. Spent an hour there, looking at the paintings and memorabilia, which was nice.

Drove 30 miles East to the Minuteman Missile Test Site, but the tours were cancelled for the day, so drove another 200 miles East to the town of Mitchell, where I spent the night.  Next morning, went to the famous Mitchell Corn Palace, a 100 year old arena where each year they decorate the exterior and interior with murals made of corn.  Found out that there are 5 main types of corn, and the sweet corn and popcorn we eat make up less than 2% of production.  The main type is used for ethanol, corn syrup, animal feed and other manufacturing processes.

That afternoon, Sept 19th, said goodbye to South Dakota, and drove 100 miles East and 30 miles North into Minnesota.