Sept 25th to 28th - North & South Dakota

Sept 25th - Tues - to Miles City, MT
Terry was concerned about the snow forecast so we left rather than taking another day to tour the rest of Yellowstone. We have been to Yellowstone previously so have seen the loop that we missed this time.
We went north on 191 from West Yellowstone to Bozeman and then across I90 to I94. We stayed at Miles City. Not a very exciting drive today! The people parked next to us were from Spokane - originally just a few blocks from where we lived. Small world!

Sept 26th - Wed - to North Dakota
We had planned to stay at Dickinson ND and do some sightseeing but a viewpoint on the way in showed us the supposedly best view of the ND badlands so we decided not to stay there. We had read about a stretch of highway named the Enchanted Highway which was actually one reason for going to ND. A schoolteacher determined that a small town (Regent) needed some tourist attraction so he welded seven HUGE metal sculptures and placed them along a 32 mile stretch. Some of the figures are over 100 feet tall. They are amazing. They include grasshoppers (many - large & small), fish, a horse, flying geese, an “outlined” man on a rearing horse, a family (mom, dad & son), and pheasants. If I ever get captions on a bunch of pictures I will get them on my blog.
We were amazed at the many acres of sunflowers in this part of ND. And there are antelope everywhere. We ended up staying at Bowman in an RV park managed by the city. There was one tent and two other rigs in the whole place - it was quiet.

Sept 27th - Thurs - to South Dakota
Highway 85 south to Spearfish, then through Sturgis and Rapid City to our site near Hermosa which is about 15 miles from Mt Rushmore. We set up and then went to Keystone where we wandered the “old town” tourist shops and went to the Gutzon Burglum museum. He is the sculptor responsible for Mt Rushmore - very talented artist with many pieces all over the world. From there we went to view Mt Rushmore. We took a very narrow, windy road back to our campsite. It has “pigtails” to climb the hills. This is where the road goes under an overpass, makes a tight, climbing loop and immediately goes on the overpass that you just went under. There are also several one-lane tunnels with limited clearance. There is a wonderful view from the top and then you wind back down cutting the corner of Custer State Park.
I had a large grocery list but we didn’t go near any decent stores so we just stopped in Hermosa and picked up a couple of items to go with our ribs for dinner.

Sept 28th - Fri - Hermosa SD
Took a trip to Deadwood today. We went through Keystone where we stopped for breakfast. Then another windy road to Deadwood. And a beautiful sunny day.
Deadwood is an historic town that has capitalized on its gambling roots. Every establishment has slot machines! I won a bit of money right away by getting lucky on a mistaken max bet of $2.00. Terry also somehow hit max bet of $2.00 on the first spin on a machine and won $267. That kept him going with a lot left over and I went up and down to end up $37 ahead so it was a good day. We were there from 11 until 4:30 with a break to view a parade down the main street at 1 and we still did not go in all the places on Main Street.
We stopped at Albertsons in Rapid City on the way back and stocked up on groceries including ingredients so I could make Gayle Earling‘s “Salsa Salad“ - it is so good. The temperature was up to 83 today - feels more like summer than early fall.