South Dakota

South Dakota Activities and Adventures:

June 17- 28, 2013 - Wow we spent 11 days in the state of South Dakota! Had been our plan to take care of any maintenance and/or care-taking that we needed to do before we embarked on the last part of our trip: Canada and Alaska. We were able to do that, got the MoHo checked out, oil changed, new air filter, beautiful new GREEN window awnings and rock guard installed. Corona and Guinness got a daylong spa treatment, a nice grooming to help keep the dog hair down for the rest of the trip. We also spent the better part of a couple days, cleaning inside and out, 15 + weeks on the road and we are feeling just a bit shop warn!

We spent a day enjoying the city of Sioux Falls. It is a very pleasing town and has an amazing amount to see. We enjoyed the Falls Park, very nice area with some pretty good falls flowing on the Big Sioux River. We took a trolley ride to downtown where we enjoyed the 2-3-block walk with 55 bronze sculptures on display. The artists display on the city’s Phillips Street, and loan the pieces for a year. The visitor’s vote on their favorite one and then the city purchases the winner at the end of the year. This is the 10^th year for this activity. We were also quite impressed with the many other musical and artistic activities that are planned during the summer.  The surrounding community is filled with beautiful old homes, churches and buildings.  It was a great day – completed by a visit to a tacky little bar called the Thirsty Duck – great happy hour, hot wings and cold drinks.

The travelers packed up and headed west again – stopped for the night just out of Murdo S.D. and the next morning we made the pilgrimage to the famous Wall Drug – how can one pass up fresh donuts and 5 cent coffee? We also each bought cowboy hats (yes really?) to wear at the Calgary Stampede. Our roadside was still very green, but less corn and more grasslands and cows and horses to be seen.

Rapid City was our next major stop on our itinerary. We camped at the local Elks, another very pretty place with a full 18-hole golf course owned by the lodge. We used this as our base for 4 nights. We got a lot of our chores and errands accomplished. We spent a few hours enjoying the city. We were quite familiar with this area due to our extended visit 5 years ago when we made a “pit-stop” to have the motorhome repaired after a bit of a disaster in Glacier NP.  We made a visit to the Mammoth Site where they have unearthed 2 woolly and 60 Columbian Mammoths that roamed the area 26,000 years ago. We enjoyed walking through the Black Hills Caverns and the Wind Caves National Park.  Karen’s knees survived quite well the steps and slope climbing.  Crazy Horse was also visited and he continues to make slow but steady progress.  We guess he may be completed in 2040, and may get back to see him again, maybe our kids will get to see him finished?  We enjoyed an up-close and personal encounter with a herd of buffalo. They were crossing the road in the Wind Caves National Park, - there must have been 25-30 grazing moving from one green area to the next.

 Almost every night we had a bit of rain and on a couple of occasions rode out some pretty substantial rain/lightening/thunder storms with a tornado watch one night. The ground was pretty muddy and puddily but we were none the worse for wear.  

Our next major activity was to join the 25^th Anniversary Rally of Safari International. This was held at the Rapid City Fair Grounds. About 130 motorhomes, most of them Safari brand, were in attendance. It was interesting to see so many of these coaches- the variety of murals, body and coach designs were astounding.  Think we were one of the oldest ones there, BUT one of the “PRETTIEST”! This 4-day event was well organized with several seminars, activities, events, happy hours and meals. While Mike and I are generally not the type to join with lots of other folks we found this to be fairly enjoyable and we are glad that we did it. It was one of those events that just happened to fall into our itinerary and give us another experience.  We met a number of very nice people, visited Ellsworth Air Force Base and saw a fly over by their B-1 stealth bombers, visited a couple of wineries, and looked at some new and used motorhomes that tempted us but did not cause us to loose our “good sense “ and trade up!!

We enjoyed our time in South Dakota and are ready to head west and north toward the tours we have booked in Calgary and Alaska. Lots more fun to come.