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!
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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!
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| 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!
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