Wow what a day. It started a bit slow but a lot happened.
The drive up to South Dakota was a bit uneventful, though we did stop and see Carhenge just outside of Alliance, NE.
Hi me Melli here, oh my Buddha!! cows cows and more cows. serious cows by the acres. I have never seen so many cows across the landscape to the horizon! And trains miles and miles long wow weee!! When we came to Toadstool place Marc didn't won't to go down the road as it was a dirt country road and he get is car dirty and muddy, drove a few more miles and was going to see the buttes but there again muddy country roads. So through the prairie lands we so did drive. After first few hours it was neat landscape to see. BUT after 4 hours I HAD PRAIRIE FEVER!! And then Marc,
I (Marc)then thought it would be fun to go over to a smaller highway (HWY 71) rather than the main highway. It was isolated and quiet. It was actually a nice drive, until we crossed into South Dakota. There we ran into Ardmore, SD. I thought it might be a small town, but at least have a gas station. No, not really. It was a freaking ghost town. There were, maybe, a couple livable homes, but most were old, open and vacant. Not some place you'd want to drive through at night.
Then just up the road a couple more miles, road work. No not like you'd expect. The bridge was out and the road was GONE! You had to drive down around the bridge, in the MUD! The Super GLI ninja car was barely able to get through the mud at all. It has slick speedy tires not even all-seasons. How we made it out I don't know. It was probably a mile of that before we got back to pavement. Oh did I mention it had been raining pretty much all day?
Well back on the road with Mellie laughing the whole time, (cured her prairie fever) we found a place to pull off and potty and enjoy some of the Black Hills scenery and flicked off some of the larger chunks of clay/mud stuck to my car.
We got to Hot Springs, SD and right at the main intersection was a car wash! Yay! There was a lot of crud to wash off. Even now there is junk still stuck in places here and there. But at least it doesn't look like we were mud-bogging any more.
Next stop was Wind Cave National Park. It was fun, a cave. Took lots of pictures in the dark so only about half turned out and even then only a few were any good. We had a good tour guide though. Nice history and entertaining, though a little long winded sometimes. ha ha, that pun was unintended.
When leaving the park we saw a couple of Buffalo (bison) they cross the road within about 10-15 feet of us. I was dumb enough to get out of the car and take pictures when I remembered that they are actually wild free-roaming. Tried to do a movie with the camera and managed to screw it up. I thought I was supposed to be Mr. Tech-Dude. Oh well, at least Mellie can take movies.
After some more driving through beautiful country we got to the Crazy Horse Memorial & Monument. Unfortunately it was cold and foggy. We couldn't see a damn thing...except SNOW! There was snow on the ground and in the trees. We watched a little historical movie at the welcome center and got a receipt to go back, hopefully tomorrow the weather will be nicer so we can SEE!
At this point we were getting kinda tired and ready to find our hotel for the evening. We decided to stay at Keystone. It's close to Mt. Rushmore so we don't have to drive too far tomorrow.
We then went to Powder House Restaurant and Lounge for dinner. We both got something that we'd not easily find in Nashville. Mellie got Elk medallions and I got BBQ Buffalo (bison) short ribs. Both were yummy. Elk tastes a lot like venison (Deer). Buffalo, to me, tastes like Beef x10.
Now it's time to relax and chill for the evening.
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