The Bad Lands are really Good!

We're on our way and ready to take our first photos for the blog.   We discovered the screen on our camera was cracked!  Oh no!  Well, on to Plan B. Our cell phone cameras will work fine.  But it seems that being grandparents requires quite a lot of photo memory and we were both out.  Oh no again!  We found a Verizon store and purchased another 32 gigs of memory so now we're back in business.     

Photo ready we  zoomed through Ohio, Indiana and Illinois.  First stop was Ames, Iowa to visit Iowa State where Pete went to college.  It was right on the way.  We parked at his old fraternity house (TKE) and took a walk about the beautiful campus while Pete told me stories of his college days.

TKE house Iowa State University

Pete is always on the quest for "small town family owned restaurants" where we will get amazing food.  The first town was too little and all boarded up but we continued the search to Early, Iowa where we ate lunch at the Outlaw.  Since we were the only customers, we visited with Keeley the 25 year old new owner.  She told us she seems to be having a bit of trouble with the locals after she changed the name from Crossroads to the Outlaw--some customers worry over attracting a wild biker crowd.  It turns out that the lovely Keeley is a tough competitor in big tractor pulls--the term "Outlaw" refers to that!  Who knew!

Owner Keeley at the newly named Outlaw Bar and Grill

Next up is Mitchell, SD,  the home of The Corn Palace!  This was quite the tourist attraction with tours and a video running until 9 pm.  The whole outside of this very large onion dome building is covered with murals made of ten different colors of corn.  Every year they tear the corn off and new murals are created after being designed by some local and some more famous artists.  The inside has a basketball arena and concert area with corn murals that are re-done every 8-10 years. The local high school basketball team plays in the arena. The Mitchel KERNELS strike fear in the hearts of opposing teams.

Corn Palace

One of many murals made of corn

Another day of driving (about 1200 miles so far) and we are in Wall, South Dakota.  For the last 220 miles there have been signs singing the wonders of Wall Drugstore.  We took the bait and ended up in a big tourist trap.  It advertised great ice cream sodas--Pete's weakness--so he stepped up to the counter.  His hopeful face fell when he ordered his chocolate soda and the teenager turned to another worker and asked "how do you make a soda?"  The sodas were NOT as advertised!    Oh well, another tourist bites the dust.

The Bad Lands are beautiful.  We are camped in the National Park and have electricity which came in handy with the 91 degrees today.  The AC felt good! 

 There are many nice hikes off the main scenic road through the Bad Lands.  Unlike most National Parks they have no restrictions on climbing or walking anywhere.  Now there are the rattlesnakes ---but  that doesn't slow young people from climbing up and sliding down these formations.  They are eroding from wind and rain and are supposed to be flat by 500,000 more years so I guess they're not worried about the climbers and sliders!

 Pete is having a great time with his new
GoPro camera.  What gorgeous scenery to
practice on.  The Visitor's Center has a nice
movie and wonderful programs running during
the day and evening.  The park is busy but
not too crowded.

We climbed up 200 feet to get this picture--great view.  Another nap and we're we ready go again!

This is our campground with a great view.

We got up early to get tickets for a tour of the Minuteman Missile Control Center.  They opened at 8am and by 8:04 the tickets were gone.  There was a nice display there with information about the Cold War.  The missiles were underground and could launch within minutes and be at their target in Russia in 30 min.  Once fired, there was no "abort plan".  These were deterrent missiles and the plan seemed to work.  They were much more powerful than Hiroshima bombs.  The ranger giving our tour was an actual missileer who commanded at the site for 4 years and had the power with another man to start the missile launch (if the president ordered of course). It was a sobering tour.  All of the missile sites have been removed from South Dakota but there are 450 upgraded Minuteman 3 sites remaining in surrounding states.

Jim the Missileer

Walking along the road

We drove up scenic route 240 through the Bad Lands park and took a recommended gravel road to see more wildlife.  The road was so rough and "washboarded" that it practically shook our teeth out at 10 miles an hour!  It turned out to be worth it.  Beautiful cactus were in bloom and there was a big-horned sheep eating right by the road along with prong-horn antelope walking through the grasslands.  We came upon two buffalo near the road but didn't stop to pet them!

Grazing along the road

Robert's Prairie Dog town was next.  It was a grassland field that had been taken over with burrows of prairie dogs.  They are so cute sitting on their hind legs looking all around...about the size of a small squirrel but they are related to dogs!   The only downside it that they apparently carry the PLAGUE--now isn't that an attractive feature!

1000's of prairie dogs

Check out our short video on YouTube at:   https://youtu.be/QuysrLrK80g

Tomorrow we leave for the Black Hills of South Dakota!  Bailey is excited!