June 14, 2010

Hello, this time from Happy Holiday RV campground near Rapid City, SD!
From Eau Claire, WS we did alot of driving, headed to St Paul...our "house" wasn't running very well so we had it looked at in Minneapolis; needed a fuel filter and carb adjustment & we went ahead and got the oil/filter done as well..wow over 3,000 miles already!
We found a good place to park very close to the Mall of America (people come from all over the world) & walked over to see what the hype was about. Wow the place is huge-5 floors and a gigantic amusement park smack dab in the middle of it all. We had some really good Thai fast food before calling it a night..must've walked 5 miles! Watched the Blackhawks win the Cup, too..
*Ask Sue about the tick..
Next we took the I-35 south to get on the I-90. Along the way we stopped at the Village of Yesteryear in Otawanna, a collection of buildings from the late 1800's to the early 1900's. Since the only tour was at 1:30 daily & the time was 3:15 we could only look at everything from the outside & peek in through the windows..
The weather has not been kind to us lately--lots of wind, cold & rain. Anyway next we stopped off at Blue Earth, a small town which just happens to have a 55 ft statue of the Jolly Green Giant (and a little gift shop)..while we were taking pix of the JGG a local AM radio personality scooped us up for an interview, to be aired on Monday the 14th-the weekly show showcased travelers who stopped to look at the ststue..that evening we stayed at a highway rest area, which has a memorial to the completion of the I-90. After yet another thunder-stormy night we started our day (our 11th wedding avviversary) travelling west to Sioux Falls, SD. We were surprised to find actual falls-they were impressive & the city park was huge and included informative plaques, historical buildings and an observation tower.
From Sioux Falls we headed west toward Rapid City, stopping in Mitchell. We stayed the night in Cabela's parking lot, and had anniversary dinner at Whiskey Creek restaurant..when we got back to the "house" we noticed a guy out in the lot had a BALD EAGLE on a leash-we got to get about 10 ft from the amazing bird! turns out this guy was with an eagle preservation society so it was legal.
Saturday we headed west-still windy/rainy-stopping off at the rest area near Chamberlain for a few minutes. Ended up staying for an hour to look at an impressive display of the journey of Lewis & Clark. Next we crossed the mighty Missouri River & stopped in Kadoka for the 1880's western town, which had plenty of roadway signs preceding it..thought it would be cheesy, but turned out to be pretty good. Stayed overnight at an overflow truck parking lot, listening to the rain once again..
Not discouraged, we set out the next morning to Badlands National Park-drove the 240loop-was an AMAZING 35 miles of scenery-cliffs, gorges, canyons, spires, buttes & colors. Never knew what a special place the Badlands is! From there we followed the 1000's of signs (they started 300-400 miles back) to the Wall Drugstore in Wall, SD. Again we weren't expecting much, but were pleasantly surprised. And, we weren't the only travellers lured in; there seemed to be a thousand people in the huge complex, which encompassed a full city block on both sides of the street. Drugstore, souvenir shops, novelties, cafe, clothing & other specialty shops..lots of kid-friendly stuff, photos & western decor. After that we continued to Rapid City, did laundry and stayed the night at-you guessed it-Walmart.