The Badlands

B1-B Bomber at the Air and Space Museum



B52 on display



A prairie dog at the Prairie Homestead



Marsha inside the pioneer sod home



Marsha checking out the outhouse



This and the rest of the pictures of the Badlands speak for themselves




















Date: Thursday, July 29th
Day: 75
RV Miles: 6,514
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota
Elevation: 3,217

After the i-phone alarm clock fiasco yesterday, Larry, who wanted to get up at 6AM, set the i-phone alarm for 7AM. Guess what, it went off at 6AM but the phone said it was 7AM. And the black-out curtains in the bedroom worked. Sasha let everyone sleep. Larry was so happy he got to sleep in till 6AM. He told me he couldn’t remember the last time he was allowed to get up AFTER sunrise.

Even this late in the vacation we are still scoring firsts. Last night was the first time since we left Indianapolis that we did not have to turn the furnace on at night, and it was the first time we had to let the air conditioner run all night. We scored a photographic first today, but more on that later.

Well not much to say about today. Sasha and I went to doggie day care . . . Again. Larry and Marsha went off to see some pretty neat stuff.

Their first stop was Ellis Air Force Base, which is only about 5 miles from here. They have an Air and Space Museum along with a Minute Man Missile Silo Tour. Next they went to Wall to see Wall Drug and for some reason they both forgot to get some pictures. That’s the photographic first I was talking about. So far they have taken 2,892 pictures. Is it possible they are starting to suffer from some physical malady such as “shutter finger” or “chronic photo fatigue syndrome?”

After Wall Drug they headed for the badlands and stumbled across two attractions they didn’t expect. First was the National Minuteman Memorial and second was a Prairie Homestead which is listed as a National historic site.

The homestead was pretty neat with a preserved pioneer sod home dug into the side of a hill that was build in 1854 and used continuously until after 1909 . I saw the pictures and Larry said they had hundreds of prairie dogs around that place. I told him Sasha and I could clean that up in a day or two but he told me that that wasn’t necessary. Drats. And, finally they got to the Badlands.

Tomorrow will be the town of Deadwood, more Black Hills and possibly a visit to Sturgis. (The motorcycle rally starts Sunday.)