1st July - Spearfish III

Today I wanted to re-admire the baby animals, but they must have been hiding. All we saw was a full-grown cow. An English couple moved in next door and like us, they were struggling to find good internet in order to Skype family members overseas. They were nice to talk to and said they had been coming over to the USA for summer over the past few years. They rented out their house and that was enough to pay for their time in the US! They live in York, which they said it pretty expensive. Tough life! They were really nice, but the man had quite a bad stutter and was sometimes a little difficult to understand. They were nice though.

That afternoon I found the hacky-sack and I totally wanted to go and play before we went and had a swim. So there I was, ready to do a cool trick (the one where you kick the hacky behind one leg with your other foot) when I slipped on the grass (I was on a slope) and my feet went out from under me and I landed really really awkwardly. There was a crack and something did not feel right. I just lay there thinking ‘uh-oh, please don’t let it be broken’ while I freaked out. I was able to pull my hurting leg out from my other leg and it didn’t feel broken, but it hurt like hell. Will helped me into Betsey, as I couldn’t put my foot down. I sat down for a while and felt really dizzy and like I was going to pass out, but I didn’t. I found it really hard to breathe, but I could think straight and was trying to tell Will where exactly it hurt (above my Achilles and also my ankle itself). He said I was in shock, but I didn’t feel like I was, so it must have been my body being in shock!

I lay down while Will went and bought some ice and then I read a book to take my mind off the ankle immobility and we followed the RICE in first aid (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate), except I think we used the ice a bit too frequently (10 on and about 20 off). My ankle felt really tight and when I tried to walk on it, it really hurt so I couldn’t put any pressure on it. After a delicious dinner of Will’s speciality cashew chicken (which I really couldn’t enjoy because I was freaking out wondering what I should do about my ankle. Emergency??) we drove to Macca’s to keep my Skype date with my parents. First time I’d seen them since March! They suggested I just go to the medical centre in the morning (just like the people at the RV park had suggested) so that’s what we decided to do. It was nice to talk to mum and dad and Eric and actually see them! I even gave them a quick tour of Betsey, well as much as they could see with my swinging the laptop around and showing them on the webcam!

After that we went back to the RV park and I made myself as comfortable as possible and managed to get some sleep. I must’ve been really conscious of not moving my ankle too much as I woke up in pretty well the same position as I’d fallen asleep (usually I move around a lot in my sleep). I had the Panadol close by just in case, but didn’t need it in the end. My ankle just felt really tight and as long I didn’t try to walk on it I was ok. 

30th June - Spearfish II

Today we did pretty well nothing – and it was great! We hung out at the RV  – went swimming, did laundry, played guitar and had a wonderfully relaxing day. We managed to tidy up Betsey a bit and do dishes and organise the cupboards, that sort of thing. Will got the leaking pipe fixed. He asked where he could take it and the boss of the park said to ask the guy we’d seen zipping around on an ATV (everyone else zipped around in golf buggies!). So Will went and asked him and he took a look. Then they went to the hardware store for the part and came back and this guy fixed it! The pipe had just worn all the way through, probably from age, and as a result had cracked and was leaking. The part they bought was just an elbow section of pipe, which they installed and then no more leaking! The guy was so nice – he didn’t even want any money or anything! Bargain.

The RV park also had a little baby animal farm section ‘petting zoo’ for kids, but of course I had to go and have a look. There were two goats and a lamb that would not shut up. The goats were so cute, all sleepy and cuddled up and this lamb just baaed around. I fed it some grass and that temporarily shut it up. It was nice to pat their little heads. Can we get one for Betsey???! Pleaseee??! 

29th June - Spearfish, SD

As we left Spearfish Canyon this morning we stopped to take photos of a Dancing with Wolves film site. Nothing too exciting, just a stream, but I need to re-watch the movie to work out which bit this place was in! We drove past the other campsite in the area that we’d checked out yesterday, but because there were practically no trees and it was hot, we decided to try the other one. Glad we did choose the one that was further away, much cooler! After that we continued on down the road to ‘the falls’ – Roughlock Falls. There were a few guys fishing in the stream and we did see some little fish. I wanted to go swimming in the water as it was quite hot already in the mid-morning, but I was too scared I’d get in trouble for scaring the fish away! The falls were quite pretty, but it was already so hot we didn’t stay there very long. Just long enough to take some pictures! 

Anyone recognise this from the movie?

We drove to Spearfish, which was closer than we originally thought! We found some free internet at McDonalds, as usual, and found an RV park for the next couple of nights as we had a couple of days to kill before heading to Deadwood to meet up with Neil. Will treated us to Macca’s soft serve cones as we were pretty well melting ourselves! We hadn’t had any ice cream for ages and it was delicious!! We drove out to Chris’ Campground and booked in for 3 nights. While they sorted out where we would be camping, we went to Walmart and bought some supplies (more chicken burgers!). When we got back we plugged in to power and enjoyed some air conditioning! After lunch we went for a swim in the ‘adults’ pool, which was great because it was so so hot!  There was a kids’ pool as well, that even had a water slide. We spent ages in the pool and we talked to an American guy. He travels for most of the year in a huge RV with his wife. He was telling us about how the barges go down the Mississippi, sometimes forty at a time and how to they have separate them as they go down the locks. He spends time in Minnesota with a daughter and used to be a travelling computer businessman, so he’d been to New Zealand, but not Australia. The water was amazing and it was so nice to be cool again! Then finally we started turning into prunes so it was time to get out! 

Roughlock Falls. 

We had a relaxing afternoon playing guitar (one guy asked if I could play louder, so I must be all right! J and enjoying the shade near Betsey. Will discovered that something was leaking water in the back (something to do with the water pump being on) so we pulled everything out in an effort to dry it out.  When the water pump turned on and put pressure in the pipe a small hole would gush water. That evening we watched some of Season 2 of The Goodwife – just as addictive as the first season! 

28th June - Black Hills, SD

We left reasonably early this morning (well for us anyway!) as they started mowing all the grass (it was quite long) and the chippies were gone and it was quite noisy. The previous day some girls had come and sprayed all these different bits of green blue – for Canadian thistles I think – and today they were mowing and it was getting kind of annoying! Which was a shame as it was such a nice spot, with a little creek running behind us. So we said goodbye to the hiding chippies and left.

Spearfish Canyon.

We continued on through the Black Hills, more gravel roads and pretty green trees. We aimed for Black Fox Campground, but my reconnaissance officer (Will) said the toilets were feral with lots of flies, so we continued on. We took a detour to Lead (pronounced ‘Leed’ according to Lonely Planet!) to try and find some internet to organise our meeting for 4^th of July celebrations. We ended up getting some outside a hotel that looked as if it hadn’t opened yet! 

We ended up staying at Spearfish Canyon. It was a nice drive along the canyon, with high cliffs on both sides. Reminded us a little of driving through Colorado on our way to Edwards. There were lots of bugs, so I stayed mainly inside and had a nap, while Will sat outside and read. After my nap we did a short walk into the woods, but were worried we’d get lost so we went back out the way we came and ended up walking up the main road. We saw a path that led past a creek and back into a forest, so we wandered up that one.  Will almost trod on a snake but it was only a baby and not venomous as most snakes in the US are not deadly. It was a nice walk along the river and we saw quite a few beaver dams, but no beavers L. We saw where they had chewed the trees into rough points - they looked so weird! Must have super strong teeth! We came to a section where the creek/river became a small lake and we saw ducks and we also accidentally scared some mule deer that had come down for a drink. They sprinted up into the trees, then one stopped and looked at us as we kept walking. There were pretty flowers and lots of tall pine trees and grassy areas. I was hoping to see a moose, but we didn’t see one. Eventually we started getting hungry, so we turned back and walked the way we’d come. We stopped to ask if another section of path that crossed the creek went back to the campground and the guy we asked seemed to have a strange accent, but he said he was just from Wyoming. Whoops! He and his female companion were admiring the water and we told them that the path continued up for a fair way.

We spent a relaxing evening cooking and eating dinner and then playing cards. A chippy made a brief appearance, but then raced off into the trees. Then after our fire failed to catch (wood must’ve been a bit damp), it was time for sleep. 

June 27th - Black Hills, SD

Today we left Wind Cave National Park. We saw a pronghorn antelope running up the hill in the distance as we ate breakfast and as we left the campground, we said farewell to the prairie dogs. Then we saw bison hanging out in the paddocks – but I think we’d already taken enough bison pictures… well maybe I could just take one or two more…! We headed north through Custer State Park, but didn’t pay to do the special wildlife loop. We’d already seen buffalos and prairie dogs that day, so we didn’t really need to drive a few extra kilometres to see more of what we’d already seen lots of!

Driving along the road we'd just driven over!

There was a crazy bit of road that looped under itself. It was hard to take a photo of as we were driving, but it was like the beginning of a corkscrew! First we were driving over the road, then we were driving under it! Random! 

We stopped at Jewel Cave and had a look at the displays and postcards. We decided not to do the tour as we’d done Wind Cave the previous day and we didn’t want to lose the novelty of being in a cave. It was too soon to do it all again! So we continued on to Newcastle, which was closer than we thought. We were hoping to find internet, but no luck. Instead we filled up with gas and propane and then headed back into the Black Hills, looking for a campsite for the night. Newcastle was pretty small and sleepy, but it did have a Subway! Newcastle is in Wyoming.

Dandelion fluff left by chippies. 

Heading back into the Black Hills we went back into South Dakota, but because we were in the middle of nowhere there wasn’t even a sign! So we guessed we were back, based on the basic map we had! We drove along gravel roads through pretty meadows and aspen groves. We saw cows and lots of gorgeous blue flowers. I think we went over about twenty cattle grids! Finally we found a campground after taking the long way around  (our map wasn’t very detailed at all). We enjoyed an afternoon in the sun – I read and admired the little chipmunks who made an absolute mess of dandelions near our car. We had lunch at the picnic table and then one had to go over there and investigate and no doubt eat any crumbs we’d dropped from the bagels we’d had. They scampered over rocks that lined the road near where we were parked. I think they lived under one of them but when we went to the toilet I shined the torch under the sides of it, but couldn’t see any fur or shiny eyes. All afternoon they would go and nibble the top of a dandelion and then take it somewhere to eat. Once they were comfortable around Betsey, they would sit in the shade of her front right tire and nibble away right there, leaving all the fluff behind. They would then scamper underneath her and I’m pretty sure I saw them jump up into the inside part of her wheels! I peeked under and then pew! They jumped up and disappeared! They became pretty confident around me as I was just sitting there and reading and not moving. One jumped up on the rock right in front of me and then saw me and I think he freaked out and ran away. One also raced towards me, then realised he was heading right for me, couldn’t turn around, so kept going and zoom, off he went. Meanwhile Will had an epic nap for about four hours! 

Tiny chippy having a snack. Right next to Betsey's tire. 

We had Per Sketty (spaghetti) for dinner and then after such a warm day, the sun went down and it got really cold. We talked to a guy and his cute little son who were from Newcastle. The guy invited us over to his campfire for a beer after dinner, but we were so tired that we didn’t go around there. We were parked right near the toilet block (drop of course), so when they drove around (yup, all one hundred and fifty metres!), the kid would always yell out ‘hi!’ which was so adorable. More Deadwood and then sleep! Even for Will after his epic nap. 

26th June - Wind Cave

Boxwork formations. 

After breakfast we headed to the visitor centre to do a tour of the famous caves here (not that I’d ever heard of them!). Will accidentally timed our tour wrong, so we were 40 minutes early! These caves are one of the largest cave networks in the world and it was the first cave system to be declared a national park. We decided to do the Fairgrounds cave tour, which went down to the middle and top levels of the cave and showed the most variety in rock formations. While we were waiting we wandered around the museum section and looked at the elk antlers and various displays about how the forests and caves work. Pretty basic stuff, but it was quite interesting. A little bit of rehashing on bushfires from Yellowstone. We heard an announcement for pie making outside the centre, so we wandered outside, thinking pie sounded like a delicious idea. It was, but not really an edible option. A ranger was showing kids how to make a pie using the different geological layers. Might be a good teaching idea if ever I get thrown into the Science end of things! So we went back to the car for a drink and play some Sudoku and plan our moves for the next day. 

More boxwork formations. 

Then it was time to head to the cave entrance. We walked along a long path from the visitor centre, past some beautiful greenery and then we joined the 40 or so people waiting for the tour. We stashed the drink bottle we had in the camera bag when they said no food or drinks and I was glad I didn’t have any gum ‘cos we weren’t allowed to have that either! Then 10 at a time we went down the elevator, out of the hot sunshine and into the cool depths of the caves! 

The fragile white boxwork. 

The elevator took us down 70 metres and then we followed the lady ranger who was our tour guide. It was 11 degrees down there! As opposed to the 30 degrees outside on the surface! We saw boxwork formations that looked like peanut brittle laced around the roof of the cave – this formation is unique to this cave. There were also popcorn formations, a type of white frostwork formation, which looked like white popcorn stuck to the ceilings of the cave. We walked around the caves and up and down stairs, taking pictures and oohing and aahing at the amazing maze of caves! Then we sat down in a little amphitheatre that looked as if it were facing a wall of the cave. She turned off the lights and then showed us some amazing and very fragile white box formations. They looked all sparkly like diamonds and apparently are quite rare. Then the ranger turned off the lights again and showed us how the original founders of the cave lit up the caves. They were discovered in the 1800s and all the first explorer had was a bucket on its side with a candle in it. The candle lasted for four hours, so if it ran out they were stuffed! He did have a piece of string that led the way back to the entrance, but it would have been pretty rough climbing over some of those sharp rocks in the dark with just a piece of string to follow! Our ranger had a bucket with a candle in it – it didn’t really light up the full extent of the cave we were in! 

Me in the cave. 

We walked up to the next level and again admired all the amazing formations. There was a guy we were following for a while who kept having to duck (well, Will did too), but ol’ shortie here, didn’t have to, except once and it was more a tilt of the head. I think I did bump my head gently one time, oops! There were so many low bits. Anyway, we’d stopped to hear more about the history of the cave and the guy asked if I’d had to duck at all, but I did not understand him at all! Between the mumbling and the accent, I had no idea, but fortunately Will did. I just smiled. I don’t know what accent that was, but it was crazy! There was a family there, with aunts, uncles and cousins and they kept stopping to take pictures. As one of the younger boys said ‘there’s always one family that holds everyone up! And sorry, but that’s us’ or something to that effect. 

More boxwork.

The tour ran for one and a half hours and all of a sudden it was time to take the elevator back up to the surface. We saw the tree on the hill which had fallen over which marked something significant about the cave, but I can’t remember what haha. Will thinks it was where we were underground and the marked the furthest point we went to in the caves. We walked further along the path past the visitor centre and had a look at the original entrance to the cave, which was tiny! It was only about a foot in diameter, so it would have been an effort to squeeze through the gap into the cave. I’m not sure why anyone would do that, but at least that meant the huge cave network was discovered! It was named Wind Cave, because of the wind which whistled out of the cave – the Lakota Indians believe the cave was how spirits were released into the world, like the bison spirits and so on. So they didn’t go near it. The wind was so loud coming out of the cave! In the visitor centre it explained how the wind came to blow there, something to do with the low pressure in the cave trying to match the high pressure outside or something like that. There was a simulation of it in the visitor centre. The wind blows at about 13.3 miles an hour at this entrance. The family from the tour were checking out this entrance when we were there, and one of the women put her head near it and her hair was being blown back so much! It was pretty full on wind! 

Crazy concrete steps. 

Overall we walked 450 steps, but the part of the cave network we explored was only a small part of the whole thing. Apparently 136 miles of cave have been explored which is only about 5% (they think) of the whole network! And if you are over 18 and fit you can go cave exploring and if you find a new part of the cave you can name it anything you like! Our ranger, Whitney wanted to name hers Whitney’s cave, but was told that was boring, so she named it Dragon’s Breath or something like that because it was reddish inside. I personally thought that was a bit boring too, but she seemed happy about it. Now that cave will always be called that. The expeditions last from two hours to two or three days (camping way underground? Crazy! Do you need to take a tent?!) It sounds like it would be fun, so maybe one day! Something different, that’s for sure! 

Pronghorn!

All the paths in the cave were made out of concrete and there were railings along the stairs. The concrete was was carried into the cave in inner tubes on people’s shoulders. They would be so heavy! The majority of the paths were built in the 1930s, so that was a fair effort! Because the original entrance was so small, they had to build another entrance next to the first one, which was bigger. One of the questions while we were in the cave was what would happen if the power went out. They have back-up generators, but Whitney said one time they failed too when they had a huge storm, so they had to climb out! And they ended up in the entrance next to the original entrance. Took them a few hours apparently. Not the best question to ask while we were down in the actual cave. Hope no one was claustrophobic!

The visitor centre was quite old too and was extended in the 1930’s after the original was built in 1918. There were a couple of different entrances into the caves depending on the tour chosen. I think there were three total and the tour groups walked in and then came out up the elevator we went up and down in.

On the way back to the campground we saw some more pronghorn antelope, but this time one was really close to the road, so I got some good pictures of him. Pity he was a bit scruffy. Probably moulting like all the bison we’ve seen. 

Amazing sunset, post epic storm.

As we were eating dinner that night there was a huge thunderstorm. There was amazing forked lightning on the hills around us and really loud thunder. A little bit scary as it was so close! Will was worried about what would happen if we were hit – would we get fried? Or be fine because we weren’t touching the ground? Anyway, I wasn’t too worried as I knew the trees around us were a lot higher than us – I figured they’d get hit first. Well, we didn’t get hit and neither did anything close to us. It was amazing to watch though and it went for about two hours! The rain with it was absolutely torrential and drenched the ground outside. The road was running with water! Then suddenly it all cleared up and there was an incredible sunset. Such bright colours, so I just had to take some pictures! This was our third and final night at Wind Cave National Park. 

25th - Hot Springs, SD

Today we decided to drive south and go to Hot Springs, which is about 15 miles south of Wind Cave NP. We stopped at the visitor centre in Hot Springs to get some information about the area, but we may as well not have! Except that we got a map. The lady there was pretty useless and just wanted us to spend money. She would only tell us about activities that cost money, like the ‘hot springs’ waterpark ($11 each) and some tour of a hospital or something like that. I didn’t really listen to her after she said the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was great because people came to Hot Springs and spent lots of money. Will listened patiently. He did ask about a spot that was mentioned in Lonely Planet where you could swim for free and she replied by saying there were rattlesnakes at this place, which was called Cascade Falls. Oh, but all the locals went there. So we didn’t take her advice and wanted to go there!

Cute visitor centre - useless advice. 

We walked down the street and took some photos of the old buildings there – lots of red, which looked really pretty. I wondered where all the people were as it was a Saturday morning. It was pretty quiet! As we walked down the main street we saw heaps and heaps of pictures for the Miss South Dakota beauty pageant. Then we saw where all the people were! There was a cool little market selling lots of crafts and food just down the road! I can’t believe the stupid visitor centre lady didn’t bother to tell us that! The Miss SD hopefuls were there having their pictures taken – they looked extremely dressed up for the middle of nowhere South Dakota, but I did admire their dresses. Bought off the internet perhaps?? I’m not sure that there is anywhere to buy dresses like those in the area!

Hot Springs. 

We wandered up the market looking at the various crafts and foods for sale. We settled on a large wedge of chocolate brownie from the old lady cake stand. I think every small town market has at least one stall where little old ladies sit and sell their tasty cakes. (though we later realised this cake tasted nothing like what brownies should – it just tasted like chocolate cake! It was delicious though! And only $1.50! (Little old lady bargain!). 

After the market we headed to Cascade Falls. It was a longer drive than we thought and Will wanted to turn around, but I said to go just a little further. And there it was! Well, there were cars parked around a grassy picnic area that was overrun with ants. We had lunch (bagels and cream cheese!), then read for a little bit to settle our tummies (I made sure we waited half an hour before we swam!). Then we went down to where the scary locals were already swimming. Actually they weren’t so scary except for the kid that didn’t see Will sitting in front of him and pretty well ran into him. I think that kid needs new goggles. Poor thing though, he felt so bad and kept apologising. Initially we went down to the deeper end and put our feet in, then we saw the awesome pool up the top, so we sat in that and tried not to get washed away by the current! It was a great spot, with little shallow pools and then a big deeper one for real swimming. The water was so nice and cool after the crazy heat of the day! I think we spent a whole hour just sitting in the water and cooling off. I watched the little kids splashing around – particularly two girls who kept gate crashing our pool. One was pretty quiet, but the other one was totally Miss Bossy! Look out mum and dad when she hits her teens!!! Eventually we pulled ourselves out of the water, lay in the sun to dry a bit and then headed back to Wind Cave. We didn’t see a single rattlesnake! 

Hot Springs. 

I had been nagging Will to get some more propane as ours was getting low and I didn’t want to run out halfway through cooking dinner! So as we driving back into Hot Springs, he saw a place and we stopped to fill up. There was a guy filling up there and he helped Will top ours up. His gauge wasn’t working too well, so they only filled it to what they thought was full (actually only half, but still). And then when Will offered to pay, the guy said ‘don’t worry, we spill more than that in a week’ – so we got it for free! Score! The guy was nice and was asking about Australia (particularly Sydney, just like everyone else). But anyway, it saved Will’s proverbial balls, as he would’ve got into a lot of trouble with me if we’d run out!!

Pronghorn antelope!

After that we headed back to our campsite in Wind Cave NP where we stayed for a second night. On the way back we saw some pronghorn antelope loping around the park, so we stopped to take some pictures. That caused people to slow right down and in good tourist fashion, peer at what we were taking pictures of in case they needed to stop too! Then the poor antelope must’ve got scared, because all of a sudden they took off again. They looked so cool though! We also saw more prairie dogs and when I yipped at one out of the window, he yipped back once, really high-pitched and then proceeded to jump backwards in the air! It was so funny and I wished I could’ve have videoed it. 

That night we had dinner early (more chook burgers), which was just as well as there was and big thunder and lightning storm! The lightning was just over the hills around us and the thunder was so so loud! So close! We watched the storm while playing cards and then after the storm had passed, it was time for sleep, ready for a cave tour the next day! 

24th June - Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Wind Cave National Park - South Dakota

Me and Sammy Samick. 

After one more delicious breakfast we hit the road, heading for Mt Rushmore and beyond. On the way we stopped at the other guitar shop (it was on our way!). I got to try some lovely Taylor guitars, but they were totally out of my price range! I ended up getting a beautiful shiny Samick. It came with bag and ‘chord chart’ – one page with a handful of chords on it. So pretty. 

We drove down to Mt Rushmore and as promised, there were lots of tourists, tourist shops and hotels lining the windy road to the national monument. Then we saw it! And like all national monuments, it was free to go and see it. BUT it was $11 to park a car! We would probably only spend an hour or so there so we didn’t bother stopping. It did look quite cool, but not super dooper impressive. So when Will stopped at the traffic lights, I snapped a few pictures and then we kept driving. There was a spot down the road where we could see the side of one of the faces, so we pulled up there with a bunch of other people and took some photos there. We also saw some mountain sheep wandering around in the trees – some people were taking photos and kept scaring them further away and then the people followed them. Too funny! 

Mt Rushmore.

We went to Hill City to have a look at the authentic 1880 train there – Will wanted to see it. The train wasn’t there, but we saw some cool carriages that looked like they were just made out of boards. We went into the souvenir shop but there wasn’t anything that eye-catching there. The actual rides on the train were pretty expensive - $24 each return! So we decided to continue on our journey.

Will and the side of Mt Rushmore. 

We headed down towards where Wind Cave National Park is, stopping to have a look at the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is a huge lump of rock, which is being transformed into a huge statue of Indian chief Crazy Horse. The guy who had the idea and has been the main carver of rock, died in the 1980s. So not sure how the carving is going now. I think his son has taken over. Anyway, when we turned off, Will did a U-turn. It was the last spot to do one before you entered the ‘park.’ They had about four lanes and tollbooth type buildings – but once you went up the lanes there was nowhere to do a U-turn, so you’d be forced to pay to go through and then you could do a U-turn. Sneaky! We didn’t know how much it would be to go in, but from a distance the lump of rock didn’t look too impressive. We could see a hole cut through it, where I assume his legs would be as he sat in a saddle and we could just see the horse’s head. I’m not sure what else would’ve been up there as part of the display, but we took some pictures and then kept going. 

Lump of rock = Crazy Horse Memorial!

It was a pretty drive down to Wind Cave – lots of pine trees. We stopped at a campsite just down the road from Crazy Horse, but it was $19 a night and there were no showers and only drop toilets. Seemed a bit expensive, so we continued on. Finally we arrived at Wind Cave National Park! We went down to the visitor centre and had a look at the different tours they were offering, bought some postcards to get change for the camping and then headed up to the campsite. 

It was a nice spot, with rolling grassy hills on one side and towering pine trees on the other side. $15 a night for primitive camping (but we camped near the flushing toilets - woo!) and ‘donations’ for firewood. But Will accidentally forgot to pay when he went down for the second lot of wood – oops! That night we had fire-cooked chicken burgers (again!) and they were delicious. Plus a s'more or two for dessert! I tested out the new guitar and had to rack my poor brains to remember how to play anything. It’s coming back to me though! After dinner we played a few games of cards, watched some Deadwood and listened to thunder rolling in the distance. 

23rd June - Rapid City II

Happy five year anniversary for Will and I today!!

Delicious Will-delivered breakfast! What a sweetie!

A very relaxing day in the hotel room, just enjoying some actual space to unpack clothes and watch TV. Nothing too romantic, but a very enjoyable day nonetheless. Will brought me breakfast in bed (from downstairs) with toast, donuts, hot tea and apple juice and even a fresh, hot waffle!! Yum! A nice way to wake up J Even if it was only 8.30am…

And then we proceeded to do absolutely nothing all day – it was wonderful! Well, I read an entire book and Will watched Discovery channel – about some guys who make their own motorbikes from scratch. We talked about going out to see some live music, but it was hot outside and we weren’t really interested in walking down there and then back. So we had Wendy’s burgers for dinner and saved our money and romantic anniversary dinner for another time J.

June 22nd - Rapid City

Will woke me up early-ish so we could go down and get breakfast in the hotel’s breakfast room. There were donuts, toast, cereal, oatmeal (porridge), some fruit and even fresh waffles! Though we had to line up to make them ourselves. There was also coffee, different teas and orange and apple juice. So we filled up – the fresh waffles were so good! First American waffles that I’ve had! Yum!

After breakfast we walked into town to have a look at what Rapid City has to offer. Not a whole lot, but I still managed to get a ski jacket half price. A Burton one, that was at the bargain price of $120. Not like the $300 or $400 ones at home! The guy at the store said it was a couple of years old, but that means it would be fashionable in Australia as they are always a bit behind hehe.

So we wandered around town and looked in a couple of stores. The first bookshop we went into had kayaks and gifts, but didn’t have the Lonely Plant Canada book we were looking for. Neither did the second travel store, but we did talk to the lady there for a while and she told us there was live music on Thursday nights outside her store and also that Deadwood was a pretty wild place to party for 4^th of July! She said that the area was divided between those who partied and those who went camping and hiking for the weekend. We will be in the former hehe. And as always, she knows someone who lives in Australia, but rather than Sydney, she said she knows someone who is in Tassie, but she couldn’t remember where. Random!

Next we stopped off at the local guitar shop to check out their products. I’ve wanted to get a guitar since now I have lots of time to practise! They had a few but I was torn between nylon and steel strings! I decided to think about and come back. They did have some nice guitars there, but they said their main store is out of the CBD.

We kept wandering and found the second hand bookshop of my dreams – shelves and shelves of classics, thrillers, history books and so on. I spent a good half an hour there, just browsing the shelves while Will rested his feet.

Will's buffalo burger - with blue cheese!

We stopped for lunch at the Firehouse Brewery, which I read about in Lonely Planet. It was pretty popular – there were heaps of people in the outside seating area. Will had his first buffalo burger! I had the soup and salad (white bean soup and Caesar salad). I had the drinks special – rum punch ($3.50), which was quite alcoholic! Will had a pint of their microbrew – some kind of scary looking, rich tasting stout. 

An interesting thing about Rapid City is the president statues that are scattered all around the city. We saw JFK, Woodrow Wilson, George Washington and a few more, but apparently they are all there! Quite interesting! It’s quite a pretty little city, but the CBD is quite small. We didn’t really want to go out to the malls (which looked small too). Rapid City has a population of about 60,000 people.

It was getting hot and we were a bit tired so we walked back to the hotel. We hung out and I managed to watch about eight episodes of America’s Next Top Model before Will asked me to change the channel! Definitely got my fix of trashy TV and bitchiness! Dinner that night was pizza and buffalo wings from Papa John’s. The wings were delicious! And so was the pizza J. A nice quiet night in, watching more TV. 

June 21st - North Dakota to South Dakota

Well, it rained last night and outside Betsey turned to absolute muddy mush. I went to the toilet block in the morning (about a 5 metre walk through mud to a path which was then slightly muddy for 10 more metres) and I came back an inch taller. I also nearly slid over a couple of times. The reason I was taller was because I’d collected at least an inch of mud on the bottom of my shoes! It was a nightmare trying to scrap it all – I eventually gave up, took them off and tucked them under Betsey while we got ready to leave. I think I’ll have to wait for them to dry before I get all the mud off them!

Rock formations in the South Unit.

We did the 36-mile loop of the South Unit this morning. We saw more bison – on the road again. The first one leading the way on the road was the hugest one we’ve seen! He was nearly as big as my little white hatchback car!! At least, like all the ones we’ve seen on the road, he was on the correct side and going the correct way. Clever hehe. It wasn’t raining but was threatening with the sky looking very dark. We stopped at a few overlooks on the way, admiring the interesting geography of the land. Lots of rolling hills carpeted in moss green, dotted with pine and juniper trees and a dirty full river winding its way through the lower parts of the valley. We also drove through a couple more prairie dog towns so we took lots of photos. Some of them are so game – their little burrows are so close to the side of the road! I’m surprised we didn’t see any squashed ones on the road, but that’s good because I think they are endangered now and are only found in a few places in the USA. 

HUGE bison!

Then it was back on the straight, long road to Rapid City. It was so straight – we could see the road ahead for miles, like a roller coaster dipping up and down. Crazy. And beside us was blue sky on one side and dark rainclouds on the other. Then blue sky and white clouds for as far as we could see. A lot like pictures I’ve seen of the Australian outback – the horizon so far away and huge blue sky with fluffy clouds  everywhere.

We stopped in Belle Fourche (pronounced ‘belle foose’) as Will had read this was the geographical centre of the USA. I looked at the map and it didn’t look right in the centre to me, but apparently once they add Alaska and Hawaii to the western side, it is the centre. Strange, but there you go. Anyway, we went to the information centre and collected some brochures for the area and they had a big monument there showing the central point. Even though it was actually 20 miles north of there, but they decided Belle Fourche was close enough! And the only real place to put a monument thing. It did look quite cool and there were all the flags of the states around it. 

Center of the Nation!

Finally we hit the freeway that would take us to Rapid City. There were some roadworks right where we wanted to turn on to it, so it was a little confusing, but we made it! Then we were peeling away down the road, past all the bright fast food places and empty RV parks (well, there was no one there and they looked closed). When we got to Rapid City we took the exit that the billboards had promised had hotels. The weather was starting to get nasty, so we wanted to stay in a hotel so we could stretch out a little and watch some TV. Will went into a couple of hotels but they didn’t get us very good deals. So I used the hotel internet to book a hotel on Expedia for cheaper! The website said to wait two hours for them to process the booking information, so we went to Walmart and did a little shopping. Then we headed to the hotel, only to find out there were two Super 8 Motels and we were at the wrong one! So Will got a map and we drove to the correct one.

South Unit rock formations.

By now it was getting late and we were starting to get hungry. And it was still raining and horrible. We went to get dinner, something quick and easy and not a burger. I’d seen a sign for a Chinese place, so we went there: Hunan’s Chinese Buffet. Obviously they base the majority of their business on the buffet as it was amazing and everyone in the restaurant was eating that. It was delicious and there were so many different things to choose from that again, I was disappointed that my stomach proved to be so small! 

Prairie dog in a "Prairie Dog Town' - what the colonies are called.

They had spring rolls and little dim sims (‘potstickers’ as Americans call them) and some deep fried desserts which Will thought were savories. I’m pretty sure they had fruit in them – I think I had them in China. Quite a starchy fruit. There was also chicken and corn soup and there might have been another type, but I couldn’t fit it in. There was fried and steamed rice, noodles, beef and broccoli, sweet and sour prawns (really tasty!) and I even had my first crawfish! Though I ate it and didn’t read what it was – they were still in their red shells and looked like a tiny lobster. It was quite tasty, but not a lot of meat! Then I read on the little sign above each dish what exactly it was. There were steamed mussels and several chicken and beef dishes, plus a salad bar section. There was fresh fruit, a soft-serve machine, several types of toppings (sauces and nuts, etc.) and little pastries. All for $11.95! Needless to say we stuffed our guts J. Our server was funny, he kept asking if there was anything else he could to make us happy. I think he might have been slightly mentally handicapped and was a little hard to understand at times (and not just for us). He did do an awesome job of keeping our water glasses topped right up!!

After dinner we practically rolled out of the restaurant and drove back to the hotel. I wished that it hadn’t been raining and that we hadn’t been starving when we went out for food or we could’ve walked back and digested a bit more quickly! It was nice to get back to the hotel and watch some TV and get some sleep and try to digest our delicious but huge dinner! So yum! 

20th June - Theodore Roosevelt NP North and South Units, ND

Overlook in the North Unit. 

This morning we drove the loop of the North Unit through the national park. It was 14-miles return and was pretty cool. We saw some more prairie dogs, which we obligingly yipped at and I believe they yipped back. We were kind of following the river as we drove – though it was down at the bottom of a canyon, snaking its way around. We were driving along the rim of the canyon. The geological formations were pretty cool and we saw lots of different layers of rock in the hills. We stopped at a few different places for photos, including one spot where there was a hut – I can’t remember the significance of it though! It was full of puddles so we didn’t stay long at it. Quite an overcast day, but fortunately it didn’t rain while we were walking around. 

The puddle-filled hut and overlook view. 

On the way out of the park we stopped at the visitor centre. It was interesting reading the board about the different types of plants that can be seen in the park as quite a few are sold by my dad in Australia! Like the columbines we saw in California that just grow wild, there were pictures of sisyrinchium (Spelling? blue-eyed grass) and other familiar plants. Funny how they grow wild on this side of the world, but are bought and put into people’s gardens on the other side! We checked out their stuffed toy collection, but it wasn’t that great. The bison didn’t really look like a real bison. They had noses like koalas!! A lady did comment on us looking in that section – I was taking my search seriously so didn’t really take much notice of her. I think she was looking for something in particular too. We just laughed politely and moved away from her…

Prairie Dog!

We continued on our drive, heading for the South Unit of the park, about 80 miles south of the North Unit. It’s the bigger part of the park and you can’t drive through the park to the South Unit, you can only walk. So we had to leave the park to get down to the South Unit. It was a pretty straight and uninteresting drive down there. We stopped for gas in Bellfield then continued on to Medora where the entrance to the national park was. We showed our parks pass and drove to the campground. When we got to the entrance of it a lady stopped us and told us that most of the campsites had been flooded and to stay in the right-hand loop rather than the left-hand one. So we took her advice and found ourselves a spot not far from a toilet block. It looked like it was quite a muddy spot when it was wet, but it was pretty dry when we got there. We walked around a bit and paid for our site, admiring the more permanent summer vacationers’ sites with their citronella candles and mosquito-proof net tents over the picnic tables! Then we spent the afternoon relaxing and tidying up Betsey. After a dinner of improvised baked potatoes (rather than putting them in an oven after adding ham and cheese, I put them back in the hot pot so that the heat can melt the cheese – it works ok!) we played a little bit of cards, then Will continued on his quest to watch all of Season 1 of Deadwood before we went to Deadwood. I played iPod Sudoku and half-listened to it; there is a lot of swearing! And a lot of the male characters look the same as they all had dark hair and big bushy moustaches. It seems like quite an exciting show though. A couple of episodes and then it was time for sleep. 

June 19th - Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Unit, North Dakota, USA

We woke up this morning, a little disorientated, but alive. No hangovers to report about, just a bit tired!! After breakfast and a shower in the disgustingly yellow shower blocks (yup, every part of it was yellow, except the floor. Inside and out. Yukkk.) Then it was time to face the music, otherwise known as US customs. Again!

We drove down more of a narrow road and then were confused because it said the ‘Canadian port of entry’ was closed, so weren’t sure if we’d be able to get back into the US through there or not. But the next one was a while away, so we just continued on anyway. Another tiny narrow road with not many cars going the other way. None going our way! Finally we got to the border crossing and saw that the side where people drive into Canada was closed. Just the side to enter the US was open. So we drove up and I must admit I was a little nervous about having our car pulled apart again. I’d even tried to tidy up a little so when they pulled out the mattresses etc., there wouldn’t be too much stuff on top.

So we pulled up to the little building and got out of the car. The customs guy said ‘Welcome to Montana’ and proceeded to tell us that we were the first customers to cross the border here today. And it was 1pm! Apparently it was mainly used for agricultural transport during the week and this was a Sunday. It was much colder than I thought once we’d hopped out of the car! They guy seemed nice and asked if we had any apples on board, but I said we only had pears. He took one look at them and said they were fine (actually they were about dead, but at least they were ok to cross over the border). Will opened the side doors and the guy stuck his head in but didn’t want to even go inside! He looked at our passports and was quite happy to let us through. He couldn’t really help us with our visa stuff-up, but he did give us directions to Deadwood, South Dakota! The other guy only popped his head out for a second and I think he was checking out our number plate. Probably so he could run a check on it and see if it was stolen! While they conferred it was so chilly Will and I had to put jumpers on! It was pretty overcast. Anyway, the main guy told us to drive a particular way to avoid road works and if it was possible not stop for gas until we were out of the Indian Reservation. Apparently it’s not an area you want to stop in!

Stop sign...with no road. 

So he didn’t check our car, he didn’t care how much booze we had with us and suddenly we were free to drive into the US! Too easy! A bit sad that my first time into Canada had to be so stressful, but hopefully it will be easier next time. So we drove off – but not the way he suggested as we decided we’d brave the roadworks and head back to Williston. The roadworks were long but we weren’t held up – just like previously in North Dakota, we just had to drive on muddy gravel for about 25 miles. We ended up stopping for gas in Plentywood and then we kept driving. Straight road…

Finally we were in North Dakota (probably not something many people say!) and we headed down to the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. As we crossed into North Dakota we saw water EVERYWHERE. We drove down the highway and there was water lapping at the sides of the road!! Crazy! 

More water and power poles in a 'paddock.'

We got gas at Watford City where we turned onto the dual lane highway. We drove through it looking for an RV park, but the only one we found didn’t have anyone in their office/shed and everyone parked there looked pretty permanent! So we decided to continue on down to the actual park. We stopped in Alexander because there was a cheap campground there that we had found on the free camping website. However it looked like everyone there was permanent and letting their trailers rot. And there was no room. So we drove around the corner and saw a paddock with the taps and power outlets for RV camping but there was only one largeish van there and it looked permanent. And there was no one around, so we didn’t bother to stop and ask. We decided we’d just keep going to the National Park.      

 It was raining a little when we got to the National Park. We drove down to the campground, did a lap looking for a good spot, found one and parked. It was getting a little late and we were both a bit tired. Last night didn’t help hehe. As we were driving around we saw lots and lots of the sites were closed – the picnic tables were in thick mud and there were branches and things washed up all around them. Obviously they’d had a huge roaring flood through there. We saw an older lady pull in in front of us on the conclusion of our scouting lap – I didn’t want her to take our spot! I think she was looking for the envelopes to put money in. We saw her later on walking her dogs and absolutely staring at Betsey (and us?!) while she walked her two tiny excuses for dogs. Will thought she was travelling by herself, which she seemed to be. Apart from the two dogs. Anyway, it’s amazing how many people stare at Betsey when they walk past. Poor honey. I don’t think she’s that ugly! So we had a couple of games of cards, but NO alcohol this time. Then it was time to hit the hay ready to check out the park tomorrow. 

June 18th - Regina, SK

Me with some Canadian geese!

Today was a much nicer day, though a little cool and windy. We drove into Regina (about 20 minutes) and found a parking spot not far from what looked like a shopping mall. Civilisation!  (I did forget to get a John Grisham book L). We did a drive through town to work out the best place to park. There were lots of construction works going on. So we parked and walked about three blocks to the… shopping mall. We wandered around and commented on how much more expensive things are in Canada compared to the USA just down the road. I did get some Bodyshop body butter because it’s so nice for my skin – it hasn’t recovered from the high altitudes in Colorado yet and their skin drying effect! It was only $10 – unlike the $26 we pay at home! Similar to the £5 I paid in Europe J. We also went to the Roots shop (in actual Canada this time! thinking of Heather! Very Canadian!) and looked at their clothes – so nice, but again, quite expensive for travellers! The shop guy was very chatty and wanted to talk Australian politics which Will couldn’t resist! Anyway, gave me a chance to check out their sale items, though we didn’t get anything. 

Me = windblown. Possible museum behind.

We had a snack in the form of a Dairy Queen shake – their menu board was so confusing and I thought I was ordering one thing when they said they didn’t do those but how about…confusing. Anyway a tasty shake that wasn’t actually a shake. I think! It was cool to people watch anyway – Canadians! After wandering around a little more we walked back to the car and drove down to the park to have lunch. After a quick lunch, we went for an intended short walk that ended up going all around the lake. We saw heaps and heaps of Canadian geese who were being fed by various people. I knew we should have kept that stale bread! At one point Will thought one of them was going to attack him – I don’t think it was, but funny all the same! There were lots of cute chicks of varying ages too. Tiny little fluffballs to ‘teenagers’ – the latter hanging out with each other rather than their parents and showing off to each other and chasing others. Typical teenagers! They did quite a bit of speed-flying across the surface of the lake in their area too. 

It was a really nice walk and great to stretch the legs. We saw a kayak race too which looked like fun, even though I have no arm strength! Maybe one day. There were lots and lots of people in the park, running, walking and just hanging out. We went through a few muddy squishy parts as some of the paths were under water! It got quite warm and I wished I were wearing shorts instead of jeans, but oh well. The building near where we were parked looked very European. Might have been a museum – it reminded me of the domed buildings of the Museum Ile in Berlin. There was a wedding photo session happening there – it was such a pretty building so I can understand why! After the park we drove through a really pretty neighbourhood with lots of huge trees and huge houses. We stopped at Canadian tire, which is kind of like Supercheap Auto. We had  been needing to fill up our tires with air, but none of the service stations had gauges and Will was worried he’d overfill our tires! So we stopped to get a gauge thingy and then we waited in a queue for ages. Some lady’s card wasn’t working and they kept trying and trying. I think she was getting a little nervous that she couldn’t pay for what she was getting! After that little adventure (I did get to read the cover of the local Regina newspaper – people complaining about record flooding!) Then suddenly we were out of Regina and back in the countryside.

We wanted to camp at a particular place about halfway between Regina and the US border, but the road was blocked off due to flooding. We did see lots of water lying around, so not really surprising! However, as we turned off to continue down the road to the US, Will thought maybe the campsite would’ve been ok as local traffic was being let through. Oh well. Anyway, we continued driving, getting a little tired. It was a pretty narrow road with grass right on both sides – we didn’t see much traffic!

Will decided we needed gas (umm, why didn’t stop and get some in Regina where there were actual servos??!) so we stopped in some random little towns to look. One town seemed to consist solely of scruffy houses and hundreds of shiny red farm machinery implements. And an ‘RV park’ which was somebody’s yard with a couple of taps and posts with power points on it. The only other RV there was older looking than Betsey and looked pretty permanent. We did drop off some recycling there though J. We continued driving to a little town called Ogema There was a campground there but it looked a bit strange – in the showgrounds – so we didn’t stop to look. Not much to see from outside the grounds for $20!! We drove into ‘town’ and did a block, then came back to where we saw one lonely petrol bowser. Lucky for us the guy let us fill up – he was just about to pack up and leave for the night. It was 5 o’clock after all. Phew!

Then we hit the road again, Finally we came to a little town that had a campsite, called Bengough. It was just Will and I in the campground – we paid for a ‘primitive’ site (no water or electricity) but most of the sites were pretty muddy and we thought we might get bogged so we parked in a non-primitive site. Anyway after we got settled, we snacked on baby carrots and French onion dip and Will taught me a new card game called ‘Rummy 500.’ It was a really addictive and once we’d established the rules, really fun. Will’s instructions for card games are like his instructions for driving – you’re past the turn-off and he says ‘oh yeah, you should have turned there.’ But eventually I got the hang of the game (actually not even ‘eventually’ I beat him straight up! And kept winning. So we drank some red wine as we were afraid customs going into the US would be as harsh as those going into Canada and whoever lost a game had to have a shot of Jagermeister. That was definitely Will’s idea. And his downfall hehe. We observed some local Canadian bogans who pulled into our RV park and listened to loud doof-doof music while talking car to lowered car. Reminded me of my days of doing ‘blockies’ in Deloraine with my mates. Ahh good times. Anyway, Will said I couldn’t go out and talk to them so we just listened to their music instead. All we could here from where we were was: doof doof. It was hard to guess what songs they were playing! They left eventually and the card games continued. Until about 11 o’clock when Will realised we hadn’t had any dinner, we were drunk and that he had lost way too many games!! Then we packed up and passed out (not literally, we both just fell asleep pretty well instantly when we hit our pillows!). ZZZZZZZZZ. 

June 17th- White City II

Today it rained so heavily that we didn’t even want to leave Betsey! So we hid inside and watched most of Season 3 of True Blood! It was addictive as the first two seasons – and so exciting! With the usual cliff-hangers that meant we wanted to keep watching and watching and watching. As soon as it stopped raining (about 6pm) I was out of Betsey and we went for a walk/run up the road, which was sooo good. Was amazing just stretching out the legs! It was quite windy though and the grass went all ripply like it had snakes going through it. We didn’t walk through the grass. We did see some hares playing in the field and hopping along the road. Very cute! We must have been up-wind from one because we walked towards him and he didn’t move, but then he must’ve seen us when we were only a few metres away because he disappeared. 

Not long after we got back to Betsey the sun disappeared again and so we were stuck inside again. Dinner and then more True Blood and then sleep! 

June 16th - White City, SK

We left bug city early, stopping at Walmart for bread and bug spray (I got after-bug treatment that stinkkkks in Estevan yesterday, couldn’t stand the itching of the bites I got in North Dakota!). We drove for a while and found a nice campground about 15 miles east of Regina in a place called White City. It seemed like quite a random town, with lots of huge houses and big yards…in the middle of nowhere! Must be an aging housing estate. Or a ghost estate like the ones in Ireland.

The campground we stayed at was quite good, but I didn’t really want to pay an extra $2 each for a swim in the postage stamp sized pool. It did have a sign that said swimming in it was at our own risk and no lifeguard was on duty, haha. The building near us was an old schoolhouse, which still had the original itty bitty kiddy desks and chairs, chalkboards and bathrooms! It was quite cute, though it smelt pretty musty. They had a pretty good book collection too – some John Grishams there! There was also a pool table, so Will and I had a few rounds on that. It was pretty sloped though and the cues were worn down past the chalk so it was an interesting game. I didn’t get ‘pantsed’ but close – I didn’t play so well to start with then all of a sudden I had some awesome shots! Those flukey angle ones that are hard to plan. There were some little kids outside when we went in, a boy and two younger girls and when we were playing pool the boy asked if we could watch them. Will was like what?! And I was like, whatever. He was kind of hard to understand. They kept staring at us and we just said we’d be there for a while. Not giving up our free pool table haha. Then their mom (young bogan by the looks!) came in and asked if they were ok and we just said we were playing for a while then we’d leave. Will and I still didn’t get exactly what was going on, but indicated we’d be happy to keep an eye on them if needed and if they were in the other room. Then they left – weird. Before they did the little girl asked me something which I thought was rude, but it was actually an innocent enough question – thought I can’t remember what it was – their accents were hard to understand though!!

After Will beat me several times in a row, we checked out the book collection properly and then found a game which is kind of like curling except without the scrubbing broom things. It was on a long table with higher sides and you had to slide these heavy metal discs across the surface of the table and try and get it into the bullseye at the end. And then when you’d had your four turns each, there was a bullseye at the other end. It was pretty cool! And this I was actually ok at – and I beat Will nearly every game. Just smashed his out of the way haha. It was quite hard though as the discs were quite heavy – about hockey puck size. Often they didn’t go as far as we wanted. A little bit of graffiti on the chalkboard (I was here ’11 – how original haha) and then it was time for dinner. After dinner, more TV and then bed.