Rapid City 2017
Rapid City South Dakoda
12/4/17
Not much sleep last night. Got up before the crack of dawn. Headed off to the airport and headed over to Denver and then off to Rapid City. It was an all-day event. We grabbed the vehicle and headed to Keystone. Keystone is a old fashioned western town. We liked it that much that we decided to stay another night. We went to mount Rushmore and saw the 4 heads. When the sun went down it got really cold. My nose was freezing. We went back into town, and nothing was open except for Barlees. I had the baked cod with creamy spinach and mash potatoes. The motel that we are stay in is the Roosevelt Inn. It is very modern 70s and under construction. We are not going to make it to Yellow stone.
13/4/17
We went into town and only ½ the shops are open and the rest are opening in May or June for the summer. It is like a ghost town and there are not many tourists here at the moment. Like we are the only ones. We toured the main street and bought gifts, taffey and we bought pizza for lunch and bought it home and had it for dinner. Went for a drive to Crazy horse Memorial. And around the 16A highway.
14/4/17
We went to the Jewel Cave. The ranger there was very rude. The tour was very good. We then headed off to Sundance where we stayed the night. We went to the Longhorn Saloon for dinner. I had the chilli soup which was a mince and red bean soup, coleslaw and a Buffalo steak.
15/4/17
Today we set off from Sundance. Got some pictures of the sundance kid and went to Devils Tower. We walked around it. The road is not too bad around here. We drove into Aladdin with a population of 15. Aveo with a population of 50. This town looked like sister Jo squatted and gave birth to brother Jo who cooked amphet and morphed cousin Jo who had a family of 10 and they all lived trashily ever after. We stopped and had a drink at Hullet which scared me as it looked like a bikies town. I didn’t like it. We finally made it to Spearfish. This town was a bigger and has a good vibe. We had dinner at the steerfish. I had a New York steak.
16/4/17
I drove today. We drove through the Spearfish Canyon and went for a walk to Spearfish falls and Dearlock falls. The drive was windy and was lined with limestone canyons. We got to the Historic Franklin Hotel. The streets here are made out of brick. There are lots of Saloons with pokies in them. We went to the whisky bar where Bad Billy was shot and Clamity Jane used to drink. Then we went to the Wine Tasting shop, not any to my taste and we met Ken and Jodi. We got on well with these people and then went and had drinks with them in another Saloon which only sole beer and wine, no hard liquor. Then we went for dinner at the Casino and to bed. I took some lexettes earlier the morning and my stomach as hurting.
17/4/17
Woke up at 10am and walked out the front door of the Franklin and there was no person in sight. We went to the Deadwood Dicks bar and the chief was not in and we ordered any and then 11/2 hours later and the hamburger got delivered as the chief was not there. Well we found out the Wild Bill was shot in the back of his head and the bullet came out the front whilst he was playing a game of poker. His hand was 2 pair. Calamity Jane parents died when she was 14yo and she had 3 younger siblings to look after. She palmed these siblings off and started working on the railway. She was abused by the men that worked so she decided to dress and look like a male so she would not be abused any more. She found out the wild men were planning to kill Bill and she called along on her elbows and stomach to get to bill where she knocked on the door and told bill their plan and he told her to hide behind him and he shot all the wild men. Wild Bill had saved her life and she fell in love with him. She fell pregnant to him and had the child, raised it for a year whilst wrote a diary. She gave the child to some rich person and the diary was given to the child when Clamity died. We then went to the Grave of Wild Bill and Calamity. We walked the streets. Most of the shops were closed. We had dinner with Jodie and Ken at the Saloon 10. When all the shootings were going on the town was tents and building was going on around it. We used the poker machines at the Franklin and we got a free drink finally. Went we got back to our room the sink was still blocked so they moved us to a better room with a king bed.
18/4/17
Went to the Adams Museum and saw all the artefacts and again just like every museum pictures of men. Headed off the Rapid City after the chipmunks Chocolate Shoppe. I liked Deadwood. They had a coffee machine in the gaming room and I could make a cuppa when I felt like it. They had Vanilla Malt Milk and the tea was delicious.
We made it to Rapid City our motel is great but I don’t like the city. There are too many homies and druggies. The parking costs 25c per hour which is cheap. The shops are unique. They had a tea and spice shop which I bought some hazelnut tea and an Indian shop which has some really nice looking Indian gear and really really expensive. We went to the Hay Camp Brewery and Mark had a try of all the beer. They were small glasses. They had a wine beer which was still disgusting. We went to Firehouse Wine place for dinner and I had a ceaser salad and hot chilli soup.
I had a chocolate bar for breakfast and I was hungry all day.
19/4/17
Today is raining and cold. Breakfast is good here. There is the usual donut, muffin crap but they also have oats, toast, yoghurt, waffles and decent tea. We got some breakfast and bought it to the room for the morning as we will be up at 3am. We went to the badlands today and did the loop. We also stopped at Wall Drug. I bought some Daniel Boon hats for the kids and a saddle bag for me.
20/4/17.
Day of Travel. Started at 3:30am at Rapid city. Flew into Dallas to Newark and then hired a vehicle and drove to Gettysburg. Got there about 9pm. We had dinner on the way at a diner and we met the waitress Janie Crow and she was great. Long day. We stayed at the Econo Lodge. 3 star.
