DAY SIX Mitchell, S.D. to the Black Hills

(Photos: Nora, Michael and I outside at the campsite near Mt. Rushmore. All other photos are at Wall Drug.)


We went over our route last night and decided we didn’t need to be in such a rush to finish sightseeing in S.D., so we had a leisurely morning planned. We nearly froze last night, though. It was so windy at the campground that the RV was continually shaking and moving all night, even with a big rig parked about 12 feet away, blocking the wind. It got really cold, too, and we had to fire up the furnace. It didn’t seem that cold at 9p.m. when David considered getting the space heater out from underneath. We were both up a lot last night checking on the kids and adding blankets. Nora’s cabover bunk is great, but it is an acrobatics act to try to put blankets on her while standing on the dinette bench. I ended up keeping Michael in bed with us the last time I got him to feed him. We made it through the night, and David made pancakes in the morning. Thankfully for me, David did all the outside stuff, including feeding the dogs and emptying the tanks and taking down the leveling blocks, etc. It was freezing outside and I had no interest in going out there. Nora and I read Dora’s Chilly Day together. We were just getting ready to pull out when I discovered Michael had pooped so much that his PJs were soiled. Fresh pajamas and a clean diaper and 5 minutes later, everyone was buckled in and on the road. Apparently the long driving days are starting to wear on Nora a bit. David was getting her off our bed to put her in her car seat and he asked her, “Do want to go for a ride in the big car?” She said, “Noooooo.”
Another cute Noraism: I taught her what eyebrows are and she calls them eyesbrow, which sounds a lot like ice-brow. Took me awhile to figure out what she was talking about.
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The wind hasn’t let up at all, which is making driving tricky for David. We are doing lunch on the road, and it was a bit of a challenge getting sandwiches together while trying to keep from crashing into any appliances. It was also dicey opening the fridge, as I never knew when a gust of wind might send a glass jar of spaghetti sauce flying out at me. It is also raining. A campground I phoned from the road said it is supposed to go down to 17 degrees tonight there. Our plan is to make it to Wall Drug for dinner, then go another hour to a campground in the Black Hills near Mt. Rushmore. The weather stinks, and I’m glad I’m not driving, but it does work out well that this is a driving day. If we have to be cooped up in here anyway, at least we are going down the road. A big challenge so far has been getting a weather report. I forgot to check weather.com last night when we had Internet access and there are almost no TV stations or radio stations with news. The best we can do is the 5 seconds of weather you get between songs on music stations. I did check a newspaper in Walmart yesterday, but it said 50 and 60s and sunny all week, so that was not too accurate. Even though we are driving west, it should have been partially accurate for a couple days. We haven’t changed latitude much since then. I guess it would make sense if we could see a TV weather report and watch how the fronts are moving across the country, but there is no TV out here, even with our big antenna up. As I’m typing this, we just passed a sign saying we are entering the Mountain Time Zone. A few miles back, we passed a fancy big Class A RV that was off on the side of the road. It looked like their awning had somehow not been locked closed and had come open in the wind and ripped partially off. That’s an expensive mistake or malfunction, whichever it was. They looked a bit like the RV in the Robin Williams movie with the awning broken and flapping in the wind.
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Pulled into Wall, SD with 1/8 tank of gas remaining. Gas is 2.63 so we aren’t going to fill up. Hopefully it will be cheaper in Rapid City.
Paid a visit to Wall Drug, a huge drug store and restaurant complex that started when a tiny drugstore tried to lure passing tourists to stop in the nearly abandoned town of Wall, S.D. by putting up signs along the highway advertising free ice water. The ploy was so successful the place is a big tourist destination, and signs are legendary. Apparently there is a sign in Kenya stating how many thousand miles it is to Wall Drug, and advertising free ice water. It was fun. David bought Nora a fancy polished rock for 42 cents. We put it in her pocket and she spent her time at Wall Drug mostly asking to take it out and look at it. We ate at the café there, which was quite pretty with its wood walls, wood floors and Tiffany-style stained glass ceiling. Nora noticed it before I did. (“Light! Light!) We had to get all bundled up even to get out of the RV it is so blustery. After we all got hats and coats on, David got out to walk the dogs. I had Nora practice saying “Wall Drug,” but she had gotten distracted by the time he came back. I tried prompting her with, “Nora, tell Dada where we’re going!” and she just stared at him. He said, “Wall……” to try to help her, and she said, “Wallpaper?”
Anyway, we had fun at Wall Drug, but Nora’s morning nap on the road didn’t really keep her going through the afternoon and she had a full-on temper tantrum when I insisted we go to the bathroom to change her diaper rather than having her continue to push the umbrella stroller at a snail’s pace through the crowded aisles. She was actually kicking and crying in my arms as I carried her, which I don’t think she has ever done before. David got himself a new cowboy hat to replace the leather hat he has had for 17 years. All the cowboy hats look really good on him with his long hair. We got back on the road about 5:15 p.m. We’ll be stopping at a Flying J to gas up, and then we’ll have another hour to the campground where we are staying.
The sun is out! We haven’t seen the sun since Saturday, I think. We seem to have driven out from under this low pressure system we’ve been under for more than a day. It is all clear skies in front of us. I guess that’s why it is supposed to be so cold tonight.
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Pulled into the Crooked Creek RV campground near Mt. Rushmore in Hill City, S.D. David says the lady at the office, Michelle, is really nice and helpful. The roads aren’t paved and the sites are right on top of each other, but there is wireless Internet and it is close to everything we want to see. At dinner we made a toast (Nora and I were drinking water) to staying two nights in the same place. Tomorrow we get to drive around and see the sights and we don’t have to “get” anywhere. That will be nice. At dinner I told Nora that she was going to sleep in her upstairs bed, and then when she woke up in the morning we were going to go see some very exciting and interesting things. She looked at me seriously, paused appropriately, and then said, “Ketchup?” We all started laughing hard, including Nora, who is never one to be left out of a joke. David said, “Oh geez, Nora,” and Nora kept repeating, “Oh Geez” over and over.
We had a nice quiet evening, with David doing a bit of planning and emailing on the computer while I read a novel I picked up at Walmart. Michael had a good evening, too, because I held him while I was reading, and I think he was getting sick of being in the carseat all the time and not being held much except to eat.