South Dakota

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Interstates 29 and 90 are the two main avenues of this state and

we have travelled both completely in both directions more than once

Our youngest daughter had a horrible experience at a "Catholic" college in Aberdeen

where she was treated in a terrible manner

From south to north, through Sioux Falls where we have stopped many times

you are always in farming country

One time while in Mitchell we had to get a check for several thousand dollars reissued

and rush it overnight to our bank back in Kansas

We were there delivering computers to a local Christian School

that had a problem with a lot of things

In Rapid City while visiting our son-in-law, who was stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base,

We went to a dinosaur display and took some pictures as our grandchildren played

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The Corn Palace is a must see even if it is just a large auditorium

and we visited a Doll Museum there also

We have taken 281 all the way up and down this state

always watching the sky for signs of stormy weather

The main features we remember clearly are the horrible windy snow

which made driving next to impossible

Always the presence of wheat, corn, cattle and rural farms and

wild turkey's on the side of the road

Once at the start of a vacation, we stopped to get

Linda some pain relief at a hospital emergency room in Pierre

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We drove highway 18 across and then up into Wounded Knee down through Pine Ridge

and over and up the back way into Rapid City

We remember the abstract poverty of the Indian Reservation and the angry stares

we received even though we simply wanted to see and experience this first hand

We did experience Wounded Knee and the Reservation first hand

and it was not nice and we did not expect it to be

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We have stopped many times in Wall and visited the famous Wall Drug and had cold water there and other good things

We would always go to the Badlands and have seen Bighorn Sheep there often

Once we saw a young man being rescued after trying to rock climb a fairly barren steep hill and took his picture

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Driving in at the first entrance, you drive through rocky hilly up and down area reaching the campground at the bottom

On the way out to the Wall entrance you drive past an area where we have seen Big Horn Sheep many times

There is a gravel road where we had an "interlude" and

A huge Bighorn Ram came rambling by

This is an area where we see buffalo often

We even have camped at the bottom campground and it was a clear beautiful star filled night

We took the time once to go to the South Dakota State Fair in Rapid City

And we had a nice afternoon

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Once while staying in Rapid City we were joined at our motel by what appeared to be a very nice group of suited businessmen

They were on their way to Sturgis and we went also and it was wonderful

Most of the people there were our age and were having the time of their lives

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The second time we saw these same "banker" types they had on full leathers

And were riding "hogs"

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We really liked Sturgis and we were treated as nice as we have ever been treated anywhere anytime and yes we would go back and hope to

We have travelled around and through the Black Hills and have visited the Crazy Horse monument as well as seeing Rushmore in both the day and night

We found Deadwood to be in the middle of mountains with narrow busy roads and history everywhere and we lost a little money there one time

We have seen buffalo in the Badlands and in the Black Hills and just missed seeing a Mountain Lion sunning itself on the side of one of the Black Hills

We have been to Spearfish, Belle Fourche and Lead and we have had good times and bad times in south Dakota

Mt. Rushmore is so different from the drive across the State on 1-90

I-90 is fast, hot, dusty and tons of endless trucks and you see the Black Hills finally and you are not certain what you are seeing

The difference between the Indian Lands, the Badlands and the Black Hills is such that a lasting impression is made

So much green, cool wooded mountainous land makes you wonder why the Indians live in Pine Ridge, Wounded Knee etc.

Then you realize they did not have a say in the matter

South Dakota is a special place and for the most part we were always treated fairly there and like the State.

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