Campbell Road Trips

081308: Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore

Big day of sightseeing today. First stop was to meander our way from Deadwood to the Crazy Horse Memorial via State Highway 385 and 16.

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This is an amazing memorial that has been a work in progress for over 6 decades, and will continue for decades longer. Here are a few photo's of the place.

From here we were off to Mt. Rushmore.

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And after this we stopped at Bear Country USA.

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Nice driving tour of the grounds that feature numerous wildlife such as bears, reindeer, wolves, cougars and coyote among others.

For lunch/dinner we made it back into Deadwood and ate at the Buffalo Steakhouse in old Deadwood.

After leaving Deadwood, the goal was to make it to Cody, Wyoming to shorten the drive time tomorrow giving us more sightseeing time in Yellowstone and Jackson. Picked up some gas in Gillette, WY and then on our way. Well, not quite, we first had to convince the clerk at the Flying J gas station that we did NOT have a Flying J card. She asked Olivia (14 years old) if she had one when Olivia put her water on the counter, then when I put my stuff on the counter she asked me a couple times. Finally understood it when I said no for the 4th time.

Also at Flying J, wonder how many air fresheners you need to be effective???

We gambled again on lodging and didn't win this time, the only rooms available were in the $150 + range so time to switch it up and go for Powell, WY. Success here, four couple rooms with two queen beds in each here for about $90/each at a place called Americas Best Value Inn. We were hoping this would not turn into a Page, AZ event! The road was long and windy through mountain pass, and we encountered several "herds" of cattle blocking our way ( must be free range country). Finally made it into Powell about 10:30pm and located our hotel. Outside appearance didn't make us hopefull but too late to change now. It was clean but appeared to be an old Kings Inn. Pleasantly surprised, was very clean and the beds were very comfortable. One of the best nights sleep of the trip! Tomorrow long day as we tour Yellowstone.

081208: Deadwood, SD

Left Des Moines, IA, heading to South Dakota via I-80W, then heading north on I-29 just prior to Omaha, skirting the edge of Nebraska as we head for the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Fueled up in Sloan, IA which is just south of Sioux City, SD along I-29.

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Seeing a lot of these "Kum and Go" markets, they seem to be popular, odd name though.

Made it into South Dakota via Sioux City.

Arrived at The Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD and took a tour. They change the design every year, using different shades of corn to make the designs by various local artists.

Met a couple of the locals, Zack and Zeke, Quasimodo seemed to enjoy their company.

On our way to Deadwood, SD via Rapid City and Sturgis. The famous ( or infamous depending on your point of view ) Sturgis Rally was held over the past weekend so we missed it by only a couple if days. Lucky fir us or I'm afraid we would have been sleeping in the suburban. Fueled up in Rapid City.

The country out here in the Black Hills is beautiful and I wish we had more time to explore it. We ate at a local place as we pulled into the town of Deadwood called "Hickok's Iron Horse Inn". We initially planned on pizza somewhere but went into the upper part of the restaurant and decided to go with what was on the menu. The waitress was alone and was very busy, but service was still good.

After dinner we made it to our hotel, a combination hotel/casino (Mom and Dad were obviously thrilled) called "Gulches of Fun" and settled in for the night. Tomorrow we are off to see Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore and Bear Country, a full day for sure before heading west again in search of another hotel as we try to make it as close to Cody, WY as possible.