South Dakota, USA

Most of my history lessons were about the east coast of the USA and the west coast of California.  I was amazed and happy to learn there is a rich history also in South Dakota.  This has been such an addition to my knowledge of the richness of the country.

Black Hills, South Dakota. 2008

For years, Rich and I have said that “someday” we want to see Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. Since we are not getting any younger, we finally decided that we would “just do it” this year.

June 4, 2008, Wednesday  On the Road Again

Oatie, our dog, gave us the most forlorn look as we pulled our suitcases to the car at 5 AM. Suitcases mean we will be gone for a while. We were at  John Wayne Airport in plenty of time at the unusually empty terminal. Although our flight was “on time,” early morning flights out of  John Wayne line up on the tarmac at 6:30 AM for the 7 AM takeoffs. 

“Ladies and gentlemen, this is the captain.  We are 25 minutes early so will wait until the assigned gate is cleared for us to dock.  Thank you for your patience.”

The 25 minutes turned into an hour on the tarmac.  Once we got to the gate, no service personnel was available to deboard the place so the wait was extended again. Our connecting flight was 3 hours later so we did not have a problem with our connecting flight. There was rain, and thunder while at the airport so our short flight to Rapid City, South Dakota was delayed for an hour due to weather. We waited patiently as this trip was on a United Airlines 2 for 1 VISA complimentary ticket. 

At Rapid City, Enterprise car rental gave us a Pontiac Grand Prix.  We were disappointed as the car seemed dirty and not spanking clean as other cars we have rented but this was the only one left. We took it.  Off we went to the Mount Rushmore KOA where we had reservations for a Kamping Kabin. Thunder, lightning, rain, and mud-splattered all over our “clean” car.

I had packed camping gear for this trip--sleeping bags, sheets, a down comforter, towels, and other minimal camping gear like 2 heating pads for the bed. We had camped in KOA Kabins on our trip across the USA a few years ago and had a good time being in the wilderness. 

The KOA staff warmly welcomed us. This is possibly the largest KOA in the country. (I didn’t know that at the time.) They gave us the cabin closest to the bathrooms, as the crow flies. It turned out to be uphill from the facilities so we have to either hike up and down a pathway or walk or drive on the road. Other cabins were even farther away from the bathrooms.

Well, the adventure is on.

“Where is the nearest grocery store where we can get snacks, and where do you recommend we go for dinner?” we asked at the KOA hospitality desk.

“Hill City is the closest town about 9 miles away.  There is a good restaurant called Alpine Inn that serves dinner.”

After a short shopping trip, the Alpine Inn was agreed to be the best recommendation for dinner. The porch was full of waiting diners watching an enactment of a street shoot out. 

After we were seated a waitress came up, “How would you like your steak tonight?”

“May we see a menu?”

“The menu is lettuce wedge salad, filet mignon, 6 or 9 oz wrapped in bacon, baked potato with Texas toast.  Dessert is either ice-cream or apple pie.”

That makes it simple, we thought.  “Medium steaks, please.”

A little after-dinner stroll down the street revealed this was a cowboy tourist town with wire fences around plants to protect them from deer. We did see deer on someone’s front lawn. 

June 5, 2008, Thursday  The Mammoth Museum

It was a cold night even with our down blanket and heating pads. The morning the skies were ominous.

“Where could cold, wet tourists go on a day like this?” Rich asked the waitress at the breakfast restaurant.

“I’d go to the Mammoth Museum.  It’s indoors,” she answered.

 A drive through  Custer National Park on the way to the Mammoth Museum in Hot Springs was well worth the time. Although it was foggy and raining lightly, the scenery was beautiful. This winding road had one-lane bridges, tunnels, and pigtail curves, better known to Californians as cloverleaf turns. We did get to see and drive through Needles Highway and some small tunnels cut through the rock. Bison and deer were on the roadside feeding quietly. Once through the park, we continued to Hot Springs. Fortunately, we had lots of maps and guide pamphlets.  No GPS in those days.

Surprisingly, The Mammoth Museum is the largest active mammoth dig in the world. A hilltop was being graded for housing development until a bulldozer scraped against a huge tusk. All work stopped as archeologists verified the find. The developer then sold the land back to the state for the price he bought it.

The site was excavated and the museum was built around it. The site is still being excavated today by volunteers and paleontologists. The displays and history of the whole mammoth area were fascinating. It is the only site with Columbian and Woolly Mammoths that met their demise over many hundreds of years in the hot springs.  In the winter the mammoths fell into the sinkholes and could not climb out because of the slippery rock walls. A mammoth’s life expectancy was 80 years but most of these were thought to be under 20 years old so they were “kids”.

The gift shop clerk recommended a nearby place for lunch that was worth the recommendation.  It was raining.

Not far from the restaurant was The Hot Springs Museum, formerly the high school until 1981—not so long ago--on a hilltop overlooking the city. The classrooms were vignettes of times gone by—a doctor’s office, a dentist’s office, schoolroom, kitchen, bedroom, family parlor, etc. The areas of greatest change from then to now were the kitchen and medical field. Thank goodness I live now as I would have made a very lousy pioneer. 

When we left the museum it was still raining.

We happened upon some locals who greeted us.

“We are so disappointed that it is raining on our vacation here,” we said.

“Disappointed?!  This is an answer to prayer!  We are in a 7-year drought and this is the first measurable rain in years.  The reservoirs were finally refilling.”

“Oh!  Well, I guess we are thankful too as we are from California and know about drought.”

We went north again but this time on the main highway toward the Crazy Horse Museum. We saw signs that pointed to “Crazy Horse”, but as much as we craned our necks, we could not see a statue like the one on the brochure.  Only the head of the Crazy Horse statue is completed but today it is covered with heavy fog. Because of the bad weather, we were only charged half the entry fee and given a 3-day return pass. 

The size of the statue is enormous. The sculptor worked on the project alone for 50 years while he and his wife raised a family of 10 children.  Only the head is complete.  His family is taking up the privately funded project—no government grants accepted. The money received from tourists funds the project with an unknown finish date. 

The large visitor center at the base of the statue featured a film about the project, the sculptor & family, Indian crafts and arts, a large gift shop, and a restaurant. Crazy Horse was commissioned by the Lakota Indian tribe to honor all Indian tribes. The dream is to complete the complex with a university, a research center, and a medical center. 

It was cold and rainy so we did not stay very long.

Each evening seems to be food a gathering adventure. Through the AAA book, we found the Gold Spike Restaurant in Hill City.  The food was mediocre but, we struck up a conversation with our Filipino waiter. 

“Are you from the Philippines?” I asked him because of his accent.

“How did you know?!”

“You remind me of my Filipino friends.  What are you doing here waiting tables?”

“In the Philippines, I worked as a collections agent for a bank but they laid me off with early retirement.  I wanted something different than just being lazy so I came to the US for 3 years.  I work up here for the summer months then go to Florida in the winter months.  I can always find a job.  After this summer I’m going back home to the Philippines to my family.  My visa is up.” He related this with a heavy Filipino accent.  “Thanks for asking.”

“Well, good luck in all your travels,”  I said smiling.

We snuggled in for another cold night. I did not know this KOA Kabin did not have a heater. Others we have stayed had heaters. Wearing all your clothes at night is not fun.