Badlands National Park

Hi Everyone,

We drove nearly four hours through South Dakota, stopping every few hours for a pit stop and a little walk around to help keep us alert from driving at 80 miles an hour (that's the speed limit out here), in a rainstorm, off and on.

We stopped at a cowboy-style motel in Murdo, SD, where there was a multitude of stuffed animals in the motel lobby. Everything from grizzly bears to elk to prairie dogs was on display there. Mom and Dad and I had Prairie Pizza for dinner with twisted cinnamon and sugar on the outside edge of the crust, served with frosting, so as to create a dessert after eating the pizza. They said it was delicious but I didn't get any. In the morning they had breakfast at what looked like a chuckwagon in the lobby before we left for Badlands National Park.

Badlands National Park is just beautiful! Out in the middle of nowhere, with rolling hills and prairie plains surrounding it, these geological features just kind of pop up out of the haze over the vast prairie.

Looks like a person standing guard, doesn't it?

Since it started to rain we drove through the park loop road and then went to our next destination in Wall, SD. We went to our new home in another motel just off of Route 90 and Mom and I rested in the room while Dad drove 20 miles away to explore the Minuteman Missile Site near Wall, SD.

When he came back he told us that he had seen displays at the visitors center that told the story of the missile sites in the US. At one point the US had one thousand nuclear missiles pointed at the USSR during the Cold War with as many as ten warheads in each. If a war had started as many as 10,000 nuclear bombs would have been used against or enemy, assuring total destruction. Wow!

After dinner, it stopped raining and we explored the town of Wall, SD.

Shortly after we entered South Dakota we started seeing signs advertising the "Wall Drug" store, as far away as 300 miles. All along Route 90, every few miles, there would be a sign advertising all of the great things to see and do at "Wall Drugs", so we had to go and see what it was all about.

Below is a picture of my Dad clowning around, riding a "Jackalope" (a combination of jackrabbit and antelope) outside of the Drug store. I  decided to check it out too, but I don't think Mom was impressed with the place.

We are going to Deadwood, SD tomorrow. That's the place where Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down. See you next time 😊.