Retirement Road Trip 2001: Day 6, Wednesday 8/31

372 miles, camped at Chris' Camp, Spearfish, SD

I'm camped at a private campground, not a State Park tonight.  I'll explain later.  Anyway, I left Vermillion Lake about 7:30 in the morning to a heavy, heavy fog.

It soon cleared.  The weather was projected to be in the mid 90's in western South Dakota this afternoon.  Yikes!!  I have no AC in the camper.  That fact was part of my decision making process for selecting a campsite.  I drove I-90 the entire day.  The road was very well maintained and there was little traffic.  It was actually an enjoyable drive.  Corn and soybean fields were the main view out the window as I left.  When I crossed the Missouri River, the view seemed to change.  There was still corn and soybeans, but also fields of hay, sunflowers and sorghum stated to show up.  The further west I traveled, the drier the land became.  Finally the corn and soybeans disappeared and were replaced by wheat and grazing cattle.  By the time I reached the Badlands, Rapid City and Sturgis, cattle grazing was the main activity along with some hay production in the stream valleys.

I stopped at two tourist traps; The Corn Palace and Wall Drugs.  The first was actually interesting.  The second was a real trap.  The Corn Palace got its start in 1892 to celebrate the ability of the soils in Eastern South Dakota to produce corn.  It is a building that hosts concerts and sporting events.  The exterior and some of the interior are redecorated each year using, you guessed it, ears of corn.

I got there early and as I was leaving about 8:30, a bus from Onondaga Coach Company was unloading.  Sure enough, it was a group of senior citizens (they were much, much older than me) from the Syracuse area who were on a midwest tour.  Small world.

The second stop was at the famous (if you believe the billboards) Wall Drugs.  As I said earlier, it was total tourist trap.  There was a bit of local craft for sale, but most of the stuff was just stuff.  Stuff you can find anywhere.  Yet people, like me, flock to this place.  A true testament to self promotion.

Interestingly, Kathy and I were traveling across this same route about ten years ago.  We went to the Badlands, Mount Rushmore, etc.  Kathy wanted to stop at Wall Drugs.  I complained that we had better things to do.  For once, I was right.  :-)

Since I had visited both the Badlands National Park and Mount Rushmore in the past, I did not take them in again. I guess the primary reason was the heat.  Had it been cooler, I would have taken an hour to drive through the Badlands again.  However, the temperature was hovering around 95.  I wanted shade, and believe me, there is not much of that around here.  In fact, at one rest area I stopped at, there was not a single tree on the property.  All of the state parks that I checked out on the web did not have shade either.  However, this campground that I'm set up at now advertised shade.  That, along with the pool, clinched it for me. Oh, they also have free WiFi.   :-)

So here I am, sitting at a picnic table, working on this blog in 80 degree weather, sipping a beer, after having been swimming.  Life is good.

As for Thursday, I head toward Livingston Montana.  The good news is that the weather is supposed to be much cooler.

Thats all for now.........