South Dakota Road Trip - Days 2 & 3

I know it's been a while since part one of our trip's post but I was feeling really unmotivated lately.  Getting sick at the beginning of our trip, and even though the gross cold part of being sick was over, I am still getting over the dry cough part.  Anyway, here is where I'm picking myself back up and getting back to normal.

Day 2 in South Dakota was a hot day.  I don't know how hot, I wasn't doing the driving and therefore looking at the temperature display in the instrument panel for hours on end, but it was hot.  AND it was our day to go explore The Badlands.  It's called that because back in the day the French and the Native Americans both said it was a terrible place to travel through.  With that being said, thank goodness for cars! They are also very interesting to look at.  See?

But as beautiful as it was to look at, I was melting.  (aka starting to get a little cranky.)


Unfortunately, there just wasn't a lot to do in the badlands.  We did stop by the visitor center to learn about the area and for some free air conditioning.  I also picked up another geological marker pin.  I'm up to 3 of those for the trip.

On our way back to Rapid City we stopped at the well known Wall Drug.  It's the place with all the signs leading up to it saying how close you are to Wall Drug.  It was so weird!  It's like a gift shop that got hooked on crack a long time ago and just kept on making all the wrong choices.  However, it is great if you like to take funny pictures of the things you encounter!  Matt is convinced that a handful of people disappear here every year.





Since The Badlands and Wall Drug didn't take up the whole day, we had time to visit the Museum of Geology. It was fantastic!  They had 2 plsiosaur skeletons, a triceratops skull, minerals and even some fossilized dino eggs! Here's a great link to a photo tour that's on their website.






After the Museum of Geology we were pretty wiped out.  We went to get some dinner and then saw a movie, (Fast Five) and called it a night!

Day 3 we planned on exploring the town of Deadwood.  It was about a 30 to 45 minute drive from Rapid City.  We got there and checked out the visitor center.  They had a little exhibit talking about the history of the town, and the famous people that had lived there.  Having been a fan of the HBO show Deadwood I was interested in seeing some of the historical aspects the town had to offer.  Sadly, there wasn't much.  So little that the only picture that I tool all day was of Wild Bill Hickocks and Calamity Jane's graves.  Sadly, Deadwood was a disappointment for all of us.



With another short day on our trip we went and saw another movie (X Men) and called it a night.  I really enjoyed our trip to South Dakota, and would like to go back someday again.  There were quite a few things on my list that I wanted to see that we didn't.  But having been there I know what we can afford to miss next time.

Oh and I'll be updating my post from day 1 with better and more pictures from my camera so click back to that here!