Marching Forward

 

It’s the end of day 4 and we are 1500 miles from home.  And all we have done is drive!  We did stop at Wall Drug today…just because we missed it on the last trip through South Dakota. For those of you unfamiliar with this iconic tourist trap, this establishment was founded back in 1931.  The famous part comes from the placement of signs for hundreds of miles along I-90 advertising free ice water and 5 cent coffee.   We did three eggs in the parking lot, a Casita, Scamp and Escape, which is more than we’ve seen the whole trip.

Tonight finds us at Devil’s Tower National Monument, B-Loop as A is closed due to flooding over the weekend.  It’s cold, highs were in the 50’s with gale force winds rocking us all day.  A beautiful morning with sun and lovely clouds turned ugly by mid afternoon.  Dark, menacing clouds stole the light and dampened my mood.

We did not really mean to camp here at the Tower but the welcome center hostess warned us that Gillette, Wyoming was a busy, noisy town 24 hours a day and we would not get good rest at either the Wal-Mart or the Flying J, our two objectives.  And we were too tired to make a rational choice so we drove about 30 extra miles to pay the $6 nightly camp fee. (With senior discount.)

I’m glad we are here.  I may never see this rock again and it just exudes energy….even from my first sighting of it 15 miles away, I thought that the native Americans would consider it a very spiritual place.  The campground and the black tail prairie dog town lie in it’s shadow.

This sculpture is called the Circle of Smoke.

Devils Tower and Casita awning

Last night we were in need of a shower and I wanted to get off of the road after one night at a truck stop and one night at wally world.  We found a Corp of Engineers park on the Missouri River,  Big Bend Dam at Lake Sharpe. (North of I-90 in the middle of South Dakota.) For $9 we were able to shower, cook up some of our food, and get the battery charged. 

Missouri River in South Dakota

First night out at a Pilot Travel Center

Printed this sign onto the Reflectix and it has started conversations everywhere we go.  Most begin with “Are you coming or going?”  A few are people who have actually taken the trip and they usually pass on some much appreciated tip.

Signing off for the night.  Don’t know if the meager signal here will handle the data, if not…there’s tomorrow.

  Please forgive all the mistakes….at least there were mistakes, still uncorrected, in the last post.  My brain just won’t work when it’s tired.