19/05/04 to 22/05/04 Buffalo can be Dangerous

Rushy

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19/05/04 Alliance (Nebr) to Mount Rushmore (Sth Dakota) 225miles

I wake up in a Motel in Alliance ( Nebraska), a pretty ordinary railtown.The trip here yesterday after leaving the BMW dealer was characterised by very strong winds on the intertstate from Cheyenne ( Wyoming) and then more strong winds and a extremely threatening grey sky up to Alliance. The roads were straight, the scenery dull farmland with very few people and the mmost notable feature was the railroad which followed the road the whole way and had much heavier traffic on it. Huge coal trains over a mile and a half long! Rain threatened the whole way but only hit just as I arrived in Alliance.

This morning is much brighter and Nebraska looks almost pretty as I blast along deserted roads towards South Dakota. This is after I make a small detour to visit the world famous " Carhenge" its only just outside Alliance. Nebraska is somewhere to travel thru very quickly, I had been told. There isn't much to see.

I get to Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota around 4 pm and immediately see sign warning about the dangers of Buffalo!
A minute later I came around a corner to be confronted by one right on the side of the road. Got some great pictures. Wind Cave is very pretty conutryside , you get to see a few Buffalo grazing and you can easily imagine large herds of them doing the same 200yrs ago. The scenery is largely untouched since then.

I then visit the Crazy Horse Memorial on my way to a campsite next to Mount Rushmore. Crazy Horse will be around 60 times the size of Rushmore when its finished. A family are carving/blasting it out of the mountainside after the father ( now deceased) started the project 56 yrs ago! No completetion date is given but they still have a long way to go. It wont be finished in our lifetime. It doesn't look much in pictures and you really have to see the short film in the visitor centre to understand the scale of the task/achievement.

I finally get to my KOA campsite around 7.45pm , I am 5 miles from Rushmore. The campsite is a big one but very pretty and I camp near the small lake close to some trees. I arrive at the same time as two young college grads in "mom's minivan" and a young couple on a Harley. we all pitch our tents and then have a beer or two or three around the campfire. If the weather is as good as today ( windy but very sunny) I should get some great shots!

20/05/04 Day Trip to the Badlands National Park 271miles

5.00am Wake up put earplugs in to get rid of the sound of birds singing outside my tent.
6.30am Wake up again, I know that sound? S**t its raining bigtime and I have gear outside!!

The rain looks like it will pass but 3hrs later and it hasnt so I set off to see a bit of Rapid City , i'm told its not raining there. I arrive and its definately still raining so I stop in a Honda dealer as they have a Rune outside and I've not seen one. $25,500 or $1500 more with the chrome wheels! David , the Sales Manager had just been looking at the weather on a doppler radar and reckoned it was not raining 60 miles East, we had a look again (staff in almost every retail environment are so helpful over here even if you are not buying anything) and the weather looks better in that direction so I head out to Badlands National Park.

I am forced to stop in a small town called Wall to visit the "famous" WallDrug Store. Why forced? Because every 500yrds for 40 miles there are different signs encouraging you to stop and visit. You just HAVE to stop to see what the fuss is about. 3 guys started this themed drugstore and its just grown and taken over a small part of the town, you can buy just about any souvenir you can think of and loads of Cowboy and Cowgirl clothing.

I spend the rest of the day driving thru "The Badlands" named by the natives as they used to hate crossing it when the migrated . Once again the scenery is dramatic but laso similar to much that I saw further south. The soil/rock is very bizarre though, its almost like volcanic ash in substance and is easily eroded by the heavy rains that have just passed thru which have turned the surface into something like wormcasts.

I get soaked again on my return trip as it rains for the last 35 miles. I warm/dry out next to the fire in the campsite lodgehouse. I have some new neighbours by my tent ( the others only stayed the night) a group of climbers from Fargo North Dakota and yet again its beers by the campsite and talks of foreign trips and Yanks versus Brits. All good natured fun.

to be continued
 


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