Custer State Park

After leaving Mt. Rushmore we traveled over a very hilly and curvy road which went thru several tunnels of which this was one. They were pretty neat but you had to be careful as they were one lane only. You needed to honk your horn before you entered to warn anyone coming from the other direction.

We were just hoping that we would see buffalo and other wildlife.

As you can see we were not disappointed. We not only saw about 4 donkeys along side the road but we also saw a herd of buffalo. It is really a neat sight to see these majestic animals in the wild with no fences or anything to keep them off of the road. Some people do not realize that those bison are fairly dangerous as a few people in these cars parked just off the road would have found out had they riled one of them. Luckily, or at least as far as we know, no one got hurt. You will notice on these pics that the date on my camera was turned on and yes some of our activities are showing up on the website out of order, but I am just catching everthing we did before I got internet access on the road up and running. It is now actually the 29th of June and we only have 5-6 days left here. I still am not caught up but with any luck I should be on schedule by the time we hit the road again and you will get the updates sooner to the time we were really doing them, if not the same day.

Here we are at a very beautiful lake called Lake Pactola which is south of Deadwood/Lead and just north of Hill City.

Hill City is where our next post will be about as that is where the 1880 Train originates its run to Keystone. That will be covered in tomorrows post. Until then, Asta Luego, from the Midwest Travelers, Rick & Mona Wells.

Mount Rushmore

Today we went to Mount Rushmore. We have been here before, but no matter how many times you actually see this monument, it never seems to stop amazing you. I never could figure how people can carve something into solid rock and get the detail so vivid.

We saw lots of beautiful scenery on the way here. Now, for those of you who have never been here or are planning on coming here, just to let you know, there is no charge to get in. However, you do have to pay for parking which is $8 per car.




While we were at Mount Rushmore we met up with Rick's cousin Kevin and his family, wife Barb, daughter's Leah & Mikala and son Nathaniel. Sorry guys if I mispelled any of your names.





We had a great time and enjoyed seeing the sights with you.

We all stayed into the evening and was able to see the show at the end of the evening where they show a film on each of the President's that are on the Monument. After that they had the ceremony for lowering the Flag and then they lit up the monument. Here is a picture of the Monument at night after it has been lit. Pretty awesome, Huh?

Spearfish Canyon

Today we went for a ride and found a scenic drive between where we are camped and Spearfish, SD. The scenery was beautiful as

these pics will show. The drive was about 30-45 minutes and along the way there are lots of different curves and mountains.

This is a picture of Bridal Veil Falls. It was a very neat looking falls. Although I think there are probably 20-30 falls across the country with the same name. Pretty neat just the same. And of course they look even better when you put my honey in front of them.

We continued on through the canyon and found another falls called Roughlock Falls. While not as spectacular as the first it was still a pretty neat sight. Here they are!

Finally today we continued on up the gravel road and saw a sign that said Cement Ridge Overlook. So we went that direction through some beautiful scenery. We came upon a sign that said Wyoming state line. So this overlook was obviously in Wyoming. Still not that far to drive tho. We continued for what seemed like a lot longer than it actually was and just as I was about to give up and head back, there was a sign that said we were within two miles of the overlook. So naturally we continued. We were not disappointed. Here is a little of the view from the overlook, which was a road that you would basically only want to take a jeep or a 4wheeler on. Of course, I never got into 4 wheel drive so a regular car could make the trip.

Hope you enjoyed. See ya next post.

Deadwood, SD

This is a picture of Deadwood as you enter on one of the main roads. Deadwood has a population of 21,802. It is best known as an early gold mining town. Some of the best known people who are notable in Deadwood's history are James Butler "Wild Bill" Hickock, Martha "Clamity Jane" Canery, Seth Bullock, Sol Starr and Charley Utter. If you have watched the HBO show of the same name, you will be more than familiar with those names.


The town is now mainly a tourist town and has numerous gambling establishments. We spent the first couple of days just browsing the town and I tried my hand at some of the tables. Wouldn't you know that my luck here is no better than it is in any other casino I have been in. I have taken some pics of some of the older buildings around town and will share some of them with you.



The building on the left is the Midnight Star Hotel and Casino which is owned by Actor Kevin Costner. His movie memorabilia decorates the walls of the restaurant, bar and casino. We ate lunch in the restaurant and found that the food was pretty good. It is a little pricey, but after all, this is a tourist town. Everything is a little pricey.

Kevin Costner also has a place dedicated to the history of Bison and the Lakota Sioux Indian tribe that was prevalent in the area.









This building is called Utter Place or Saloon #10. I did not play in this casino so I really can't say much about it. I do recall there is some kind of discrepancy on the saloon #10 issue. I believe the original #10 saloon establishment was the actual place that Wild Bill Hickock was killed. This Saloon #10 is not that spot.

The building on the left is the Bullock Hotel and Casino.
This is an old building that houses mainly the hotel and is basically a slot casino. Therefore, I didn't spend much time there.

But the building is pretty neat.
















The picture on the left is of the Stockade which is an area that has tables and a bar or restaurant. They have live music seven days a week with Yancey de Veer, who has recorded in Nashville, Tn., and has had numerous shows in Vegas and other venues. We very much enjoyed his music and his humor. You should not miss it while in Deadwood.












Will post again tomorrow and will show somes scenes from the Spearfish Canyon scenic drive.

On the Road At Last!

OK Folks, we have finally hit the road after all the family things that had to happen before we could get out on the road. We finally hit the road on the 3rd of June. Sorry I have not posted since whenever, but once we hit the road I had no access to the internet. Finally, after never being able to hook onto WiFi due to most of them being to far away to pick up, I decided it was time to let Verizon be our internet access. So far, it is working well, the only thing is it is slow as molasses if you are not in a big city area. And believe me Deadwood and Lead SD are not that.

For example, the nearest WalMart is 35 miles away. This post will be to catch everything up.


So I guess this will be a long one. I will try to do it by dates.


June 3-June 6


This was the long journey from Kokomo, In. to Deadwood, SD. Towing the Jeep behind the motorhome proved to be more costly on gas as we now only get about 8 mpg. Our first night we decided to dry camp at a rest area just outside Walcott, Ia since we could not find a Walmart. We woke up early and hit the road again, and wouldn't you know 10 miles down the road was a Super Walmart. Drove through Iowa up to Minnesota and found that there was nothing to stop at along the way, no gas, no restaurants, nothing. We hit I-90 and started across Minnesota to South Dakota. A few miles before the South Dakota state line, we had our first catastrophie. It seems that there was a very high wind and we heard a loud pop and found that our awning had come open. Houston, we have a problem! We pulled over and got out to see if we could fix the problem. The high winds would not cooperate though, and I ended up fighting with it for a while. We finally got it to go back in and Mona got on top and took bungy cords and lassoed that mother up. It must have been a funny sight because all of the cars, trucks and RV's going by must have been laughing because noone stopped to help. That's what this world is coming to.


That problem solved (except for Mona's worrying about it) we made our way to Mitchell, SD and boondocked at the Super Walmart there. We stopped here because we wanted to check out the Corn Palace. We had heard that it was great, however, neither of us were impressed. Uneventful night. Got up and took off early and stopped again at Al's Oasis in Quacom SD where we ate breakfast. Great food, nice gift shop and grocery. This was last stop for a while.


From there to Wall SD there was awesome scenery, but not much else. We continued to Wall where we stopped for a much needed break. We walked around town and had lunch and did a little shopping. We bought a tee shirt and cowboy hats. This is where I had my first Bison Steak and Mona had an Indian taco. Food was very good. We left there feeling good because we were less than 2 hours from our destination.



We arrived at Recreational Springs Resort, outside of Lead, SD around 4 pm. Here is a picture of the area.