South Dakota and some...Report

[illusion]

I started this thread some time ago about this trip.

I am now writer and dont have English as my first language, so please have that in mind. Just a short report from this small trip.


Well now its done, it was a nice trip..!

We landed 1 oct in Minneapolis about 0630pm, got the car headed straight for the hotel(Radisson 5min from airport). Not complete true, we headed straight to Rei becuase I already had packaged waiting there for me ;). Next went on the road, we startet early just because we couldnt sleep. Woke up at 4 am, but didnt feel on start driving before 6 am, so a very early start! We rented the car from Alamo and got a nice car (2011 Jeep Grand Cherokee), I am happy we upgraded to this size when your driving long hours.

2 oct We headed down 169/60 before entering I-90, must say cruising in 75 mph in new car isnt to bad. The weather where great and everything was set for a good trip. They are doing some road work on I-90 theese days, many places you needed to slow down (we drove it on saturday so no one working, just slow speed).
We didnt stop much just kept going, wanted to get as far west as I could in that day. We did stop in Michelle to see the corn palace(not something that is a must) and Murdo to check out that Car collection/museum, it was a nice little thing to check if you like old stuff... The goal was to reach Kadoka, but seens we started early we pushed on. I think we got to Badlands between 6-7pm, the sun started to go down (it did go down just before we left the park).

Badlands for me was OK, my wife liked very much. It is something you should see if you are going to SD, nature does show off ;) here..

After Badlands we went into Wall and just found a Super 80 and stayed there over night.

3 oct We started the day with finding Wall of drug. Even when Wall of drug is a big tourist trap, we liked it. An hour was enough for us, I only regret I didnt take the free water!!

Then we headed into Rapid City, we just did short stop there. As we are from Europe we find things like wallmart/target a little interesting (needed to drag the wife out of there). Then the we went down 16 to the Bear Country park. It was a small park but it was very fun to get that close to the animals. We actually had a bear standing looking in the side window.

Then we headed down to Keystone a nice little town just did small walk around then got in the car again and went to Mt Rushmore.

Must say I got a little dissapointed in the Black Hills, it is very tourist orientet. Sceially when you come to the small town, other then that its a great place.

Mt Rushmore not much to say everyone have seen it some time, but of course its a must in that area. We headed down the Iron mountain road and it was a great drive. Loved the small tunnels and going from 2 lane to 1 lane around some trees, that was a very nice drive. Well we went into Custer park, it was a nice drive but didnt give me much. Ended up in Custer that night a stayed in the Holiday inn (wasnt sure it was a motel or hotel, but I found out quickly it was a hotel $100 night).

4 oct We headed up to see the Crazy Horse and must say that it was very nice to learn the story behind it. Very impressing how this one guy started all alone in the mountain. Want to go back in some 10-20 years and see the progress. Then we headed up to Deadwood ont he way there we stopped and rented ATV`s and went into the mountain for a couple hours. Was nice to get out of the car and do something else. Deadwood failed me, it seemed to me it was all about gambling and resturants, we did see Wild bills grave but after that we left. Went past Leads and did the scenic route to spearfish. It was a nice scenic drive between Leads and Spearfish, nothing standing out just overall scenic..

From Spearfish we went on to I-90 again and drove towards Devils Tower. We came to Devils Tower at sundown just like in the badlands. Devils Tower really impressed me, we where lucky having the sun going down and just 4 other people there. So it gave a special feel to it with the sun going down and it was all quiet there, we just sat down and starred at it for a while.

Had to drive in the dark to Belle Fourche, wasnt very smart as Bambi was out playing by the road..
Must say that I have never seen so much roadkill before in my life.
Stayed at Motel 6 in Belle Fourche it was ok for the price.

5 oct We headed east again on 212, I did try to find some info here if someone had driven the 212.
Must say that 212 is lonely road and straight as an arrow, we passed a sign after BF that said "no service the next 72 miles". That was a very nice stretch of road, it really showed how the plains are. After a full day on 212 you really get borred... :) We stopped that night in Willmar.

6 oct We just took is slow and went to Albertville outlets then stayed in Monticello at Best Western.

7 oct Another slow day and went into Minneapolis and Mall Of America Stayed our last night in Super 8 Bloomington.

8 oct Started slow and just went to the mall to get the time going before going to the airport.

Overall it was a nice trip, blue sky and sun everyday... Only regret that we didnt take it a little slower. This is my second Roadtrip in USA so still learning...

Google map:

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UT...,22.302246&z=6