Deadwood

Day 7, Interior SD to Deadwood SD, not too many miles.

Today was a slow day. We stayed at a KOA campground last night and met some very nice people. It is always interesting to hear where others have been and what sights they have seen. After a leisurely breakfast we headed back through the badlands for one more look. The landscape changes so drastically with the different angles of the sun. We met a group of bikers from Pennsylvania. Two of their group had a very interesting story to tell. They left home a month ago and headed across the country to Alaska. They made it all they way up to the town where the ice road truckers leave from. All told, they put 13,000 miles on since they left. Part of their journey took them over 400 miles of dirt roads. When we heard this we all looked at eachother and laughed. Two days ago we began down a dirt road, with very severe washboarding, and we didn't make 400 feet because our teeth were chattering out of our heads! Wow, we all bowed down to these guys. To top it off, one of them was 60 years old and has to have surgery on his knee, due to an injury before he left, the day after he gets home. They certainly made our trip look like a jaunt to the corner store.
We stopped back into Wall Drug again since it was closing when we got there last nite and we missed a bunch of things. Scott and Sandy got to sit on the Jackalope (see the picture!) and we got the free ice water, which is how Wall Drug got started. It is a really neat place with tons of touristy things to look at. It is really a step back in time to the old time roadside attractions.
Then it was back to I90 and headed west to Rapid City. Scott and Karen (his GPS lady) lead us today. They took us thru the suburbs of Rapid City and we headed north on Nemo Road to Deadwood. As we climbed in elevation the landscape turned green, it had been dust bowl brown. The fire hazard is very high here.
The black hills are a new landscape for us. It is so different from anything else we have seen. We are not used to seeing grass continue clear up the mountains to the top. The frequent wildfires keep the understory to a minimum so the forest is very parklike. You could tell that this area has been burned many times. More recently, there was a 300 acre fire on Nemo Road and we saw many makeshift signs along the road thanking the firefighters.
We arrived at our campground, just south of Deadwood, and luckily our sight was available as we arrived one day ahead of schedule. So, after a nice relaxing afternoon, we headed to Deadwood for the evening to check it out. We didn't do any gambling, it is a real big gambling town. We just walked around and had dinner and listened to a local singer and his really bad jokes. We also learned that Wild Bill Hickock was killed 131 years ago today in Deadwood. We visited his gravesite too. Tom found a great piece of deadwood from Deadwood to take home as a souvenior (to add to his tumble-stick) and Sandy got mad at him because she hadn't found anything yet. Well, she left the cemetery with a nice piece of deadwood from Deadwood too.
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Tomorrow.....Sturgis.......