Homeward Bound – Day 2: Sioux Falls to Kansas City

Todays’ bug count: Over 200 for the third day. The warmer temps are bringing them out in droves.

I awoke this morning a little before 6:30 am, got up and went to the window and saw that the skies were clear and lots of sunshine starting out the day. I showered, dressed and went down for breakfast. After breakfast, I scanned the US Today newspaper and got my things together to get ready to leave. I had noticed on my Outlook calendar notifications that I was supposed to have my annual stress test today. I thought I had cancelled everything for the six weeks I was to be gone, but apparently this one slipped my notice. I waited until the Dr.’s office opened at 8 am and checked to see if I really had an appointment or was it just a reminder to me. Yes, I had an appointment, but they had a conflict and couldn’t do it today and supposedly had notified me. I guess there will be a message on my answering machine when I get home. I checked out and left Sioux Falls a little after 8 am to drive to Omaha and then Kansas City.

The drive to Omaha was non-eventful, other than the slow downs for road construction every so often. You could tell looking to the sides of the road that the area has received a lot of rain the last few weeks. I arrived in Omaha around 11 am and made my way to the Pettit Bakery just north of downtown. Bart Pettit, a friend of mine in Dallas is from Omaha and his family has been operating the bakery since the 1950s. At the bakery I met Bart’s older brother Bret. He asked if I was going to take some of the water from all the rain with me. I told him I would if I could. I spoke with him for a few more minutes and then purchased some goodies to take back with me and some to consume on the rest of my journey to Kansas City.

Scenes along the Road to Omaha

Pettit Bakery

I got back to the car with my “booty” and headed on toward Kansas City. The temps were now approaching 80F, so I relented and turned on the A/C for the rest of the trip. The road to Kansas City was similar to the first half of the trip with evidence of a lot of rain in the area as seen from the swollen streams and water standing in the fields. I arrived at the Comfort Inn in Platte, MO on the north side of KC.

Scenes Along the road to KC

 I checked in, unloading my things for the night and checked on the BBQ places from “Diners Drive-ins and Dives” program. I decided to eat at the Smokin Gun BBQ in North Kansas City as it was the closer of the four I had to choose from and it was over 20 miles from the hotel. Since I hadn’t had lunch, other than my snacks from Pettit Bakery, around 3:30 pm I headed out for the BBQ place. Samantha navigated me there just fine and I arrived just before 4 pm. I beat the crowd, because I was the only customer at that time of day. The restaurant is in a non-descript building on a street that has industrial/commercial business. A hole-in-the-wall type place. Inside the front door are numerous trophies for cooking competitions and along one wall were displayed ribbons for cooking awards in various contests.  I ordered the BBQ combo BBQ which has ribs plus a choice of three other meats, of which I chose brisket, pulled pork and sausage. It came with two sides which I chose as onion rings and potato salad. They brought it out in a basket and set it before me. It looked good. I was a little disappointed though. The brisket had very little smoky flavor, tasting more oven roasted. The sausage I didn’t care for as it seemed more like an Italian sausage rather than smoked sausage. The pulled pork and the ribs were pretty good. The ribs had some sort of seasoned dry rub which was mildly spicy but made my head sweat! The BBQ sauce was pretty good and if not for it the meats would have been pretty bland. The potato salad was pretty good and the onion rings were OK. My opinion is that if this it representative of KC BBQ, then give me Texas BBQ any day! Maybe it’s like the difference between Mexican food and Tex-Mex.

After dinner it was about around 4:30 pm so since I was near downtown I thought I would check out some landmarks, etc. The riverfront park was just a few miles away so I had Samantha navigate me in that direction. Unfortunately when I got there the road was closed and under construction. I looked at my KC map and decided to see if I could get to it from the other side of the park. Sadly, that side was also closed at the River District area.

From there I had Samantha navigate me to the WWI memorial and museum arriving just before 5 pm. The museum closed at 5 pm so I walked around the memorial for a while. After that I head back for the car to return to the hotel which I estimated would be around 6 pm. I had to go through downtown KC to get to one of the highways to get me back. At one point I noticed the temp near downtown was 91F. It’s been over a month since I was in temps like that when I was at Death Valley National Park. I better start getting used to them because it’s not going to get any cooler as I get closer to home.

WWI Memorial

Downtown Viewed from WWI Memorial

I arrived back at the hotel around 6 pm and went to my room to settle in for the evening. Tomorrow I will drive to Springdale, AR to stay overnight before heading home on Saturday. I could drive straight home tomorrow, but I have an opportunity to visit with Bill Phillips and his wife Kim. Bill and I worked together the last 5 years I was with Mars before retiring and I haven’t seen him in over 4 years or so. It will be good to visit and catch up. I may make a detour back to the WWI museum in the morning and visit in on my way since it’s only a 4 hour drive to Springdale.

See you down the road!

Homeward Bound – Day 1

Today’s Bug Count: Over 200 and Yesterday Over 200. The warmer temps really brought the little buggers out and some big buggers!

Big Splat among little splats

I got to sleep last night around 11 pm and was sleeping soundly when the clock alarm went off at midnight. I had not set it, so apparently the switch got moved by the cleaning staff. After searching for the source of the sound that was invading my sleep, I finally managed to find it and shut it off. Fortunately I went right back to sleep. Around 5:15 am I woke up because the room was getting light. I dozed for a while and finally gave in and got up a little after 5:30 am.  I walked to the window and looked out at clear skies and the sun low on the horizon shining brightly, invading my sleep!. I checked the weather on my PC and browsed a couple of news sites and around 7 am, showered and dressed and went down for breakfast. At breakfast I met a couple from Nashville who were on there way to Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone. After breakfast I returned to my room and packed up my things, checked out and loaded up the car. I headed out a little after 8 am for Sioux Falls.

About 6 miles down the interstate I exited to one of the Minuteman Missile silos that was mentioned as being a self-guided tour. It was about a ½ mile off the interstate down a gravel road. I walked around the site for a few minutes then went back to the car and headed on toward the Minuteman Missile Historic Site Visitor Center 25 miles further along the interstate. When I arrived there I watched the video and then asked about the tour to the other missile site where the launch control museum was located. Unfortunately Wednesday is the only day that tours are by reservation only, and the morning schedule was full. I was able to drive to the site and look around outside the fenced area. After that I got back in the car and continued on my drive toward Sioux Falls.

Minuteman Missile Silo – The missile is for display purposes only

I drove another two hours and stopped at Chamberlain for a rest stop and a snack and continued on. It was now almost 11:30 am Central time as I had crossed into the Central Time Zone. On the way to Chamberlain the sunny skies began to become overcast. The temps were in the mid 60s though.

Scenes Along the Road on the South Dakota Prairie

 I continued on toward Sioux Falls and arrived at my hotel around 3 pm and checked in. The temps were in the high 60s and there were some occasional sprinkles in the area. I unloaded my things in my room and checked on the location of the falls on the Great Sioux River in Falls Park. I drove to the park, with Samantha’s assistance, and walked around the park complex for a little over an hour. Sioux Falls was known as the Queen Bee city and the Queen Bee flour mill originally was along the river at the falls where thy used the  hydraulic power of the falls to turn turbines for the flour mill, etc. All around the falls area were red rocks known as Sioux Quartzite and was used for building and paving materials. I noticed most of the buildings in the park, including the Queen Bee Mill site were built from this material. I left the park and had Samantha navigate me to the Cracker Barrel restaurant where I had dinner consisting of Chicken-n-Dumplings, Turnip Greens, Hash-Brown Casserole, Corn Bread and Ice Tea. Following dinner I returned to the hotel to settle in for the evening.

The Falls on the Great Sioux River at Sioux Falls and the Queen Bee Mill Ruins

A little “old” couple in their Ford convertible in Sioux Falls

Odd Looking Cloud Swirls in the sky.

Tomorrow I will drive to Kansas City, MO to stay for the night with a stop in Omaha, NE to visit the famous Pettit Bakery. At least my friend Bart Pettit says it is famous. His family has owned and operated the bakery since the 1950s, so it should be a nice side diversion. Once I get to KC I will have a decision to make for dinner. I have three BBQ places that were featured on "Diners, Drive-ins and Dives" that I will have to choose from. It’s a dirty job but someone has to do it!

See you down the road!

The Badlands – Day 2

I woke this morning, looked out the window and there was sunshine and clear skies. I dressed, and went down for breakfast. After breakfast I returned to my room and checked the weather. There was to be lots of sunshine, temps rising to near 70 and lots of Wind. I left the hotel a little after 8 am and drove to the park, reversing the route I took yesterday. At the Pinnacles entrance to the park I inquired about the Sage Creek Rim Road and was told is was open today.

I headed down the Badlands Loop Drive to Sage Creek and turned down that road. It was a maintained gravel road and was dry on the high spots, but still wet on the edges, but passable. I drove down Sage Creek approximately 5 miles, stopping at a couple of overlooks on the route. I ended at Roberts Prairie Dog Town and then returned to the Badlands Loop.

I drove toward the Visitor Center, 20 miles away to check on the condition of the hiking trails today. Along the way I stopped at some of the scenic overlooks I had visited yesterday, but today there was sunshine to help highlight the colors on the formations better than the overcast yesterday.

I arrived at the Visitor Center around 10:30 am and checked on the condition of the trails which were drying out but were still uncertain how passable they would be. I had planned to hike the Medicine Trail loop which was 4 miles round trip and headed up the road to that trailhead. I arrived a few minutes later, put on my hiking boots, strapped on my backpack and started out for the trailhead. About 200 feet down the trail I ran into standing water on the trail for long stretches for as far as I could see. Not knowing how it might be along the trail, given the starting conditions. So, I turned around and went back to the car, stowed my back pack and drove back to the main road.

I drove on down to the Notch Trail and Window Trail. Notch trail is a 1.5 mile round trip hike up the formations to an overlook of the White River Valley. It was a moderate to strenuous hike that required climbing a log ladder about 50 feet high. I put on my back pack and headed off. It took a little over 30 minutes to reach the summit so to speak. There were several places where there were “notches” in the formation from which you could see the valley below. After surveying the scenery, taking some photos and having a short rest and some water, I headed back down.

I returned to the parking area, stowed my back pack and started off on the Window Trail. It was a ¼ mile, boardwalk trail that ended at a natural “window” with a view of the badly eroded canyon. I returned to the car and had a trail mix bar and the rest of my bottle of water.

From there I drove on up to the Big Badlands Overlook and tool some more photos now that I had a day with sunshine. Since it is at one of the higher elevations, the wind was blowing much stronger than at some of the other overlooks.

After that I drove back toward the Visitor Center and Cedar Pass to take the road out of the park on the south entrance and drive to the Wounded Knee Massacre site about 70 miles away. I arrived around 3 pm and fortunately there was a flagman at a road construction site at the town of Wounded Knee. He asked if I was planning to turn west and when I told him why I was there, he directed me to a dirt road about 100 yards away that led to the site. It was a good thing, since there were no markers or signs indicating where it was.

I drove up the dirt road several hundred yards to the site, which is a cemetery where the massacre took place. I got out and began walking into the cemetery. A few minutes later and young Native American girl came up and asked if I was visiting the site and had some dream catchers she was selling, She was joined a few minutes later with other residents and items they had to sell or requesting a donation, etc. I spoke with some of them and heard about the details of the massacre, where the Calvary was positioned, where Big Foot was and his warriors, etc. It was interesting to hear them relate the incidents. After visiting the site for a while I got back in my car to drive to the hotel, which would take me back to the park and then out the north entrance to I-90.

I returned to the hotel around 5 pm. After that I unloaded some items from the car and rearranged things in the back seat to get ready for my drive tomorrow. I went to my room, cleaned up a bit and headed down the street to the Red Rock Restaurant for dinner. For dinner I had a Buffalo Burger. It was pretty good, but slightly different than a beef burger. The meat is not as fatty as say ground chuck, denser in texture and not as flavorful in my opinion, probably because of the lower fat content. After dinner I went and gassed up the car for the trip tomorrow and returned t the hotel.

Tomorrow I drive to Sioux Falls, SD to stay over for the night as the first leg of my trek homeward. On the way I plan to visit the Minute Man Missile Historic Site which is at the same exit for the park north entrance. I am glad I had another day at The Badlands and that the sun was in ample supply today compared to yesterday. It was windy though with gusts over 30 mph. Over the past two days I met people from Michigan, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ontario and Germany. Over the course of the past 5 weeks, I met more people from Wisconsin than any other location. Makes me wonder if anyone is left in Wisconsin or are they all visiting national parks in the west.

 Here are some photos from yesterday. I am having trouble downloading today’s photos and will post them when I can.

See you down the road!

Badlands Day 1

Note: I cannot download pictures from my camera because there are too many images on the memory card. I guess at this point I will have to wait until I get home to download the rest of the pictures taken on the trip since yesterday, because I don’t have a card reader that I can use to transfer the images. Bummer!

This morning when I got up it was overcast, cool and misting outside. I dressed, had breakfast and headed out around 8:30 am. I drove over to the National Grasslands Visitor Center here in Wall, SD to see what might be able to be seen at the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands which surround much of The Badlands National Park. After that I headed down I-90 a little over 20 miles to enter the park on the Northeast Entrance since the Visitor Center was on that end of the park. My plan was to work my way back to Wall on the Badlands Loop drive in the park. On the way I stopped at the Historic Prairie Home just outside the park. I then headed on down the road to the park entrance. By this time the rain and misting had stopped and the sun was trying to make an appearance occasionally.

Once inside the park I made my way to the Visitor Center, 5 miles away on the park Badlands Loop Drive, stopping at several overlooks along the way. I arrived at the Visitor Center around 10:45 am. At the Visitor Center I got my last stamp for my passport for this road trip adventure. I then talked with a Park Ranger about conditions in the park. All of the trails were wet and muddy from the rains the past two days, so hiking was not in the cards for today. The trails usually dry out pretty quickly and tomorrow the forecast is for sun, temp near 70 with gusty winds, so the trails might dry out for some hiking.

I went back to car and continued on the loop drive that would take me back to Wall about 30 miles away. Along the way I stopped at the various overlooks and trail heads, checking the trail conditions (still muddy). At the Big Foot Pass overlook I stopped and had my lunch/snack consisting of t a couple of trail mix energy bars and some water. I continued on after that along the loop drive, stopping at the overlooks. The weather varied from overcast to partly sunny most of the day, but by about 1:30 pm the sun was winning the battle with the clouds and temp was approaching 60F.

I arrived back in Wall around 2:45 pm and decided to visit the Wounded Knee museum. I returned to the hotel around 3:30 pm. Shortly after I arrived at the hotel, the skies which had been sunny began to darken again. I checked the weather and line of showers was moving up from the southwest.

A little after 4 pm I drove downtown (4 blocks away) to the Badlands Bar and ordered pizza for dinner. It was pretty good. While eating, the rain finally made its reappearance around 4:30 pm. After dinner I walked around the downtown area (one block long) browsing in the various shops, including Wall Drug, which takes up about half of one side of the street.

I returned to my hotel room a little after 5 pm and started downloading my pictures, or least that’s what I had hoped to do until I kept getting a communication error. Finally, after re-installing the camera software, I checked the camera user guide and discovered the problem is having too many images on the memory card to download to my computer, So, I guess this means I won’t be able to post any more pictures on my blog until I get home. I will work on it some tonight as I can delete some pictures from the memory card to possibly get to a point where I can download them to my computer.

Hopefully tomorrow will turn out as forecast and I can possibly hike some of the trails. If that doesn’t pan out I may drive down to the Wounded Knee Massacre site.

See you down the road!

A good Day for Spelunking

I woke this morning a little before 7 am, looked out the window and it was dreary and raining. I checked the weather and rain was forecast all day with temps rising from the mid 30s to mid 40s. I showered, dressed and went down for breakfast. After breakfast I got all my things together and checked out of the hotel. I then headed toward Wind Cave National Park about 7:45 am to arrive around 8:15 am, which I did. Once I arrived I went to the Visitor Center and bought tickets for the Natural Entrance tour at 8:40 am and the Fairground tour at 11 am.

I milled around the center looking at the exhibits until it was time to go over the gathering area for the tour. The Natural Entrance tour enters the cave adjacent to the original opening to the cave which is where it gets it name from the sound the wind makes as it enters or exits a small 15 inch opening to the cave. The tour lasted a little over an hour and I returned to the Visitor Center to await the second tour. I went and got a snack and then went and viewed the park video. Afterwards I made my way to the elevator building where the Fairground tour started from. This tour explored the middle and upper levels of the cave and took almost two hours.

Wind Cave has three major formations throughout the cave, Boxwork, Popcorn and Frostwork. Boxwork was first discovered in Wind Cave and the cave accounts for 95% of the known Boxwork. Popcorn and Frostwork are the same calcite crystals but form differently depending on the evaporation rate of the wind in the cave. Popcorn looks like it sound and Frostwork forms spiky crystals due to faster evaporation of water in the formations.

Original Wind Cave Entrance where it was first explored

Boxwork Formations

Popcorn Formations

Frostwork Formations

After the second tour I went to the car to drive on to Wall, SD on the north side of The Badlands National Park, leaving around 1 pm. I asked Samantha to navigate us to Wall and she had me turn south out of the park instead of north. Looking at my map, I had an idea of where she was leading me. However, when she wanted me to turn on a country road that cut over to another highway which is where I needed to go, the road was a sandy, gravel road and I wasn’t going 8+ miles on it given the weather conditions. So, I asked her to take us through Hot Springs a few miles further down the highway since there was an intersection with the highway I needed to get to there. In Hot Springs she directed me down a couple of side streets, assuming it was a short cut to the route I needed. However, one of the streets she wanted be to turn on had no street sign and after trying to make adjustments to her “Recalculating” directions, wound up in a dead end. So I back tracked back to the original highway and made it to my route by my maps. After that she navigated me to Wall, SD just fine. The trip was rainy with temps in the mid 40s most of the way. About 30 miles from Wall the rain all but stopped and I made to Wall around 3 pm.

Rainy Drive to Wall, SD

Wall, SD is known as the home of the original Wall Drugstore. Along the highway were numerous signs touting the drugstore and encouraging travelers to visit it and the complex around it which included a Jackalope and animated T-Rex, restaurant, mining company, emporium, art gallery, etc. After I checked in at the Super 8 and relaxed a while, I headed over to the Wall Drugstore which was several blocks away. I walked around the complex for a little while and around 4:30 pm went to the Wall Café for an early dinner since I hadn’t had any lunch.

After dinner I went and gassed up the car for tomorrow’s excursions into The Badlands.

Signs for Wall Drug on the way to Wall, SD

Wall Drug Complex Downtown Wall

Some of the venues in the Wall Drug Complex

She doesn’t say much. I wonder if she can navigate like Samantha?

The forecast for tomorrow is for cool temps (50s) and 60% chance of showers/storms. Maybe by the afternoon it will start clearing since the forecast for Tuesday is sunshine and temps around 70. We’ll see how it goes. Hopefully I can do some hiking on Tuesday if the weather clears as forecast.

See you down the road!