Badlands, May 21 - 23

We left Rapid City somewhat in haste just get be on the road again. We took Route 44 out of Rapid City towards Badlands National Park where we were due to set up camp. Taking that hiway meant not seeing all the things along I-90, but since there wasn't a whole lot to see there, we didn't feel like we were missing much. There were a couple of small towns along I-90, most notably Wall, but Badlands wasn't that far from it and we were planning on taking the scenic route into Wall the next day anyway. The journey was short and we arrived at Badlands early in the afternoon. We choose to dry camp, meaning without water or electric connected to our rig. This would be a good test for our newly installed solar system to see how good it worked at keeping our 12 volt batteries charged. It came through just fine. My biggest problem was that I had a hard time finding the Dish satelites, so it took a couple of hours and several modifications of the aiming of the dish to get the signals. However, I did get it working. Eventually.

We left by car early the next morning to head towards Wall. As we were leaving, we saw several of these birds that are about twice the size of a robin, roaming about the campground. Having not seen them before, we asked the park ranger what they were later in the day and were told that they were Northern Shrike. Looking them up on the internet, it doesn't look like a Northern Shrike. If someone knows what they are please reply back to let me know.

Our first stop was to be Interior, SD., just a couple of miles outside of the park. Here are a couple of pictures from the city, including the Presbyterian Church and the local grocery store. It isn't that big of a town having a population of less than 100. But it had a Budget Inn, as well as a campground, and a gas station, so I'm calling it more than a spot in the road.




The Badlands were like nothing else we've seen. Spires, domes and ravines made by wind and water eroding soft sedimentary rock has evolved Badlands National Park into what it is today. As we toured through the park, looking at the terrain made us feel like we weren't in the northern plains of the United States. The trip through the park took a little over an hour and we arrived in Wall before noon, mainly for the big attraction of Wall Drug. As many of you are probably aware, Wall Drug started its present history in 1936 when it started offering free ice water to travelers. Since then, it's turned into a really nice place to stop for a souvenir, gift, meal, or even a prescription (I think the drug counter is still there). But it's grown from just a small shop into a big block. You can find them on the web at www.walldrug.com .

There was another attraction in the area, the Minute Man National Historic Site. We took the tour of the Launch Control Facility Delta-01 located on the north side of I-90 at exit 116. While it was interesting, it also kinda scary because of what it was. These Minute Man missiles were capable of destroying targets on the other side of the world in 30 minutes or less. The pictures are of the module 30' underground that two missileers would stand a 24 hour watch in. It wasn't as big as our motorhome, although it did have a bunk and toilet facilities, and food was prepared by a cook in the support building above ground, making it was ok to stay in for that amount of time. But it was cramped with a limited amount of space for moving around, and as there were electronics of the 1970's era running all the time (think large components), there was always a constant whir from cooling fans and air conditioning. I don't think it was a place that could be used for much of anything other than what it was meant for: launching a missile.

We headed back to Badlands with thoughts about how we didn't like moving after only two days. If we'd had longer reservations there, our thoughts were that we really wanted to stay. After all, it was very peaceful and quiet there. Had I thought about ensuring that we'd had more water when we left Rapid City, it would've been very easy to stay there for a week. However, we were concerned about having a place to stay over Memorial Day so thought it'd be best if we headed on down the road towards Altoona, Iowa. Having heard about the Corn Palace in Mitchell, we decided that we'd be able to handle traveling the 200 miles to Famil-e-Fun Campgrounds in Mitchell, SD., and stay there for a week.