c - Badlands and Mt Rushmore!

 

Saturday was a very, very long day on a very, very straight road.  There is really quite a lot to see along the road, although its definitely not the most interesting piece of black-top we have ever driven.  The Corn Palace is one thing that was advertised for many miles and we finally decided to go and see what its all about.  When we came by here in 2004 we did not stop, so this time was time.  So off we tootled on the off-ramp, only to find a total lack of direction from there on.   We drove down the road a way, then up the road a way and decided that we were probably not meant to see it this time either..........so - on we went still not seeing how they made a whole, huge palace out of corn.  Maybe if we had been just in the bakkie we would have looked harder, but its a bit of a drag pulling this 52 foot down the narrow, busy roads.

We spent the whole day on the I90 West and noticed a good few things changing.  Along with the corn and beans growing and sometimes the corn growing inbetween the beans, we noticed more cattle farm and the smell definitely warned us as they came up...  Obviously wind is also an issue along this stretch of the road as wind-fences popped up all over the place - these are wooden fences alongside the road, up on the hills to break the wind sweep. Well, I am not sure how else to explain them....  And also - there were many many more wind turbines all over the place - some much taller than others but they are all attention-grabbers and we both would love to get right underneath one of them to hear the sound from close-up.

We passed by De Smet, which is the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I simply loved her books as a kid and read them all, loving the descriptions of the open prairies and the ability to see for many, many miles.  I especially remember her descriptions of the storms they could see approaching and driving through the area put real pictures to those she created in my mind.... Its really beautiful here and we find ourselves breathing deeper and easier with all the open space around and gentle hills.  

Then the countryside turned bright, sunflower yellow. The camera could not capture that brilliant color but I sure did try!  They were all bent eastward in the morning and really showing off.  It must be wonderful as a farmer to wake up and see how the fields have turned yellow.  Its really glorious.

Waaaaay in the distance ahead of us we could begin to see the Black Hills.  Mountains!  Well, not quite, but the excitement was real after many days of flat-land driving.  We also gained an hour and are now 2 hours earlier than Chattanooga.  Allie sat on my lap for a while and really calmed down when I held her little head in my hand, blocking her eyes and ears, then I put her under my shirt and she went to sleep!  So I made a good little hidey hole for her under the table.  Yes, yes, I had been down this road before, but not accepted that this doglet does not like travel, and probably wont ever so the only thing to do was to make her as comfortable as possible and try to stop converting her.  Sophie just wanted me to scratch her tummy.  Sigh.

The radio behaved well again, although it got many breaks along the way.  Frank reads all billboards, signboards, road signs etc so the radio goes off when there are many of them along the way - no need for competition :)  We must also be getting old as not many of the songs on the radio instill a peaceful, gentle feeling.......  Besides, its much more fun just listening to the billboards............

And so we decided around 3pm to find a campground.  We stopped at 2 different ones, but they had no wireless and just did not look, well, like places we wanted to stop.  We tried to start at another but could not find it!  So we decided to go into The Badlands where there was/is a KOA Campground.  50 more miles.  We drove.  We went into The Badlands and it was beautiful!  It was absolutely not what I expected at all.  The land had eroded away, sort of like Bryce Canyon, but only with pink stripes in the white left overs......... you will have to look at the photos to see what I mean, but it was beautiful.  My camera came alive and I quickly snapped away, grabbing over 250 photos as we drove looking for the campground.  Yup, we missed it too.  And with no turnaround place for a rig our size, we simply kept going, looked at the map for the next place and settled in again.  By now we were both very tired.

And this is why we are at Mt Rushmore right at Rapid City, South Dakota.  We found a campground.  Now we fully understand why we don't plan any definite stops, we just go with what comes at us, or passes us along the way.  We have internet and the weather is beautiful!

Today we drove up to Mt Rushmore again to get another look - we were here in 2003, but I had a really bad camera then.......... Those carvings are still as awesome as it was and quite astounding that this feat was accomplished.  There is a road here with three tunnels and as you go through each one, you can see the carvings on the hills and the same around many of the corners.........  it's quite amazing.  We drove through the Custer State Park and surrounding area where the roads wound themselves around the hills and rocks and lovely forests.  Then suddenly we would pop out into wide open grasslands where the deer and wild turkey casually looked at us over their shoulders, not giving a hoot whether we were there or not.  We had to stop for buffalo on the road and one became quite verbal and I could see in his eye that he was a meanie and just needed half a chance to let us know.  We gave him no reason and we gently parted ways.

On the way back to the motorhome and doglets (they stayed home for the day) we stopped and collected a delish pizza, opened a beer and ended the day quietly.  It rained slightly and gently and cooled everything off nicely too.

Tomorrow, Monday, we will head out of here and head further west.  We are hoping that the campgrounds in Yellowstone National Park have place for us for a few days.  I don't think there is internet there at all, so we will probably be out of contact for a few days.

Just something else I had been thinking about today as I looked at things like trees growing out of solid rocks, at plants insisting in growing in the strangest of areas - my thoughts were not just "wow - look at that", as they used to be.  Now I see things in nature as a reflection of how we humans are.  Or is it the other way around??  The determination of a tree to survive while living on a rock, on a slope, despite the fact that all trees around it were dead or dying..............well, that brings a good many people to mind - those I have met in the past few years.......those with more courage than I thought possible, those fighting battles with grace and courage unimaginable before.  I see that I am changed from the earlier trips up here.   It's not that cancer in our lives has pulled me down at all - its as if its made me more aware of things around me.  More aware of the treasures I did not see before.  I am so incredibly fortunate, not only to be able to see these amazing places, but to see them with deeper eyes than 5 years ago.

Ok - enough for tonight.  Off to see the Rockies tomorrow and some more incredible places.  The photos are at:  http://photobucket.com/annieb

Love and light

Especially U6 (my 3 and their 3!) 

Annie

http://livingwithcml.blogspot.com

http://livingwithcml.blogspot.com