Deadwood

The Oyster Bay Bar where Wild Bill Hickock ate and his grave.

Wyoming

Here's my camp. Again almost no connection.

Oil Change in Spearfish, SD

Changed my motorhome's oil in a parking lot in Spearfish, SD on the way to Wyoming. It was overdue and it's been a hard trip on it through these mountains, winds & heat. Bought the oil & a sealed container to catch the used oil at Walmart. Their lube shop was backed up the whole day.

Took me 15 minutes or so. I went back and gave them the used oil.

Wyoming!
Camped at Keystone State Park by a lake. Nobody else here. Saw Devils Tower from a distance; will go there tomorrow. I changed my oil in a parki

Prairie

Took a 3 mile hike into the prairie. Wide open; nothing but wind and
grasses.

Drove the Wildlife Loop and saw deer, lots of bisons and the famous
"begging burros".

Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup

It was pretty neat but not quite as big as advertised, buffalo-wise.

I got up @ 5AM (which is about the earliest since I retired!). Parking opened at 6:15AM. The line of cars was miles long behind me!! I finally got to park around 7:15.  The crowds were tremendous along with radio-tv announcers. 2 viewing areas; North & South.

Bought a pancake/buffalo sausage breakfast and waited. The herd was driven through around 10:00 but it seems like about half of the 1,500 head that was advertised; a lot of people were disappointed.  It was neat watching the cowboys fire their blanks and gallop by and feel the ground shake a little as the bison went by.

They corral them all so I went down to take a look. Also had a buffalo bbq with beans and Miller! They auction off a lot of the older bisons there for meat.

Mt. Rushmore!!!

<Sending this from a Subway in Custer, SD. There is no connection of any kind in the park and the park is B_I_G; 75,000 acres, the roads are horrific for a motorhome so it takes an hour to drive out from where I'm camped at Center Lake. Supposed to hit near 90 today!.>

The drive to Rushmore was, um , exciting. One of the roads is called Terror Trail because of the curves and steep slopes. I was concerned when I got near Rushmore I hit a grade where my trusty Sunrader in first gear, floored could barely make 10 mph. But wow, when you get that first look of the monument....

But it did make it, and when I pulled into the rv parking lot guess what was there?! Another little Toyota motorhome.  Hot, 80's and sunny. The ice cream concession did a booming business even at $5.50 a cone. The statues are pretty breathtaking Just Washington's head is bigger than the Sphinx in Egypt!  The heads are scaled to men 465 feet high. 

Borglum was 57 when he started them and it took 14 years. 90% of the rock was removed by dynamite. The workers got so good they could blast within 3" of what he wanted removed. Not any fatalities.  He wanted a statue larger than the Egyptians or Romans.  He chose the hardest rock he could find. In 10,000 years the wind and rain will have eroded it by 1/10 of an inch.

His studio is there along with his model which is different from the monument. He had problems and needed to redo Jefferson from Washington's left to his right when he found there wouldn't be enough mountain to do him. A bad blast on Teddy caused that to be redone which is why he is back in so far.

The use GE Silicone Sealant to repair any cracks that show!

Custer State Park, Center Lake

Altitude 4,700'
Quite a drive down Needles Highway. Have to drive through tunnels
drilled through mountains only 8' 4" wide by 10' 7" high!!! I stopped
and tape measured again to be sure. I'm 10' high 7' 11" with the
mirrors so I folded them in. Whew! Many hairpin turns with Danger 5
mph! Took almost 90 minutes to go 15 miles. I was the only rv on the
road that I saw. Most won't fit.
Camp is very nice by Center Lake. I guess bisons wander through here
but now they're all corraled for the roundup and auction tomorrow.
Over 1,500 of them.

On top of Mt. Rushmore now!
Camping @ Center Lake in Custer State Park. Buffalo Roundup tomorrow.

More Badlands Pics

The view from my campsite and some photos of my hike off the trail
into the Badlands.

When hiking down Notch Trail I had to climb up a rope ladder!

National Defense

Here is my trusty Sunrader in front of Minuteman Missle Silo D-9.
There were hundreds of these around here but all were demolished
except this one. It's in the middle of grazing land by Rt 90.

I am on my way to Custer State Park near Mt. Rushmore. The big annual
Buffalo Roundup is being held there Monday!

The Badlands

I drove to the park entrance; I can connect here.

Poured rain and gusty again for the drive to Wall,SD. I stopped at
Wall Drugs which is pretty much half the town. Huge, touristy place,
crowded even on an off season crappy day.

I'd researched and found a great free campsite right in the Badlands 7
miles south of Wall on an access road. I found it and drove down the
rutted gravel until the trail to the camping area on the rim branched
off. It was impassable. After rain for 2 days it was uphill & covered
with slippery, gooey mud. I slipped just walking up so no way I would
try with a 3 1/2 ton motorhome. It was tough turning around there!

Plan B was drive 20 miles back to the "official" Badlands National
Park. Very windy and cloudy. Got a site at the campground-very open;
like camping in a parking lot. But WHAT A VIEW!

Got down to 39 last night after it finally cleared up and the wind
stopped. Beautiful full moon over the hills. Deer walking through,
owls hooting.

This morning there was mist over the prairie and it's perfectly clear,
high near 80 so I'm going hiking!

At Badlands Park; nil cell svc.

Chamberlain, SD

Well Elm Creek didn't work out. 10 miles down a dirt road and it was
CLOSED.

So I drove into Camberlain and camped at a private campground here.
$25 a night w/ full hookups, on the water.

On to South Dakota

Enroute to Elm Creek Rec Area near Platte,SD. Probably a boat launch
and a parking lot but offers free camping acording to what I read.

Turkeys wandered through my camp this morning.

SPAM

I made a 16 mile detour on my way to Gull Point and saw Hormel's
Museum of SPAM in Austin, MN. The doors looked like pigs. They had a
SPAM Wall 20ft high. Samples of cans and advertising through the
years, radio, tv & The Spamettes!

A terrible drive up here; 45mph wind with higher gusts. 90 degrees
yesterday afternoon. Down to 70's this morning. I'm in town washing
clothes. The have wi-fi!

Buddy's Last Tour

"The tour turned out to be a miserable ordeal for the performers, who were subjected to long overnight travel in a bus plagued with a faulty heating system in −25 °F (−32 °C) temperatures. The bus also broke down several times between stops. Following a performance at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, 1959, Holly chartered a small airplane to take him to the next stop on the tour. He, Valens, Richardson and the pilot were killed en route to Moorhead, Minnesota, when their plane crashed soon after taking off from nearby Mason City in the early morning hours of February 3. BandmateWaylon Jennings
gave up his seat on the plane, causing Holly to jokingly tell Jennings, "I hope your ol' bus freezes up!" Jennings shot back facetiously, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes!" It was a statement that would haunt Jennings for decades. [19]

Don McLean referred to it as "The Day the Music Died" in his song "American Pie"."

{Sent from Ron's iPhone}

Buddy Holly

I went to the Surf Ballroom, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens & The Big
Bopper's last concert site. Everything inside pretty much as it was.
Thousands of photos of rock stars who've played here. Clippings of
Buddy, his guitar & records. Pineapple wallpaper and palms on the stage.

After that I drove 5 miles to the crash site literally in the middle
of nowhere. A big pair of black glasses marks the trail. His grave is
at the end amidst fields of corn. Overcast, breezy, misty here. Pretty
desolate spot to end up...

Heading to Gull Point State Park north of here.