South Dakota Trip Day Three

Dateline: Rapid City, Sunday Sept. 6

Greetings all blog followers! We have arrived in Rapid City. We got to town around 4:00 Mountain Time (there was a time zone change just a few miles outside of Murdo). After checkintg in to our hotel, we headed for downtown to see the statues of the Presidents. Life-sized statues were created in bronze by five South Dakota artists. Beginning in 2000, two Presidents from the beginning of the American nation and two from the contemporary past were placed on Rapid City's downtown streets, with a projected completion of all past predisents in 2010. We took the walking tour downtown, which comprised a six by two block area, some of which was the downtown historical district. We snapped each Presiden't picture, and then went for some dinner. We opted for the familiar tonight for dinner, Golden Corral buffet. We left Mitchell this morning after 9:00 this morning, and stopped for a picnic breakfast at the Missouri River rest area at Chamberlain. This rest area was on a bluff overlooking the Missouri River. It was cool yet in the morning, and quite windy. These shots were taken at our breakfast stop.

We noticed a definate change in the terrain as we moved east to west across the state. East of the Missouri River was mostly flat, farm land. West of the river was rolling hills of prairie grass, very few crops (mostly acres and acres of sunflowers), and as we got close to Rapid City, no crops were grown, the land was just used as range for cattle. There were very few trees, and one rest area had no trees at all.
We stopped at Murdo to visit the Pioneer Auto Museum complex. We saw over 150 antique and collector cars, as well as gas pumps, childrens pedal cars, tractors, rocks, a prairie town with buildings, a railroad caboose, and much more. After our tour, we ate lunch in Murdo before pushing on to Rapid City.

We have had great weather so far. It was 88 degrees in Rapid City when we arrived. Needless to say, we Wisconsinites from the cold northland aren't used to such warm weather, especially this summer. It sure felt good on the skin, tho.

We haven't yet decided what the plan is for tomorrow. We can either do the southern Black Hills, Mt Rushmore, Wind or Jewel Cave, and Custer State Park, OR do the northern Black Hills region, Deadwood, Lead, Sturgis, and Belle Fourche. Stay tuned for tomorrow's installment of our travelogue to find out what we decided.

Your intrepid travelers,

Susan and Denis

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