South Dakota and Minnesota

8/18/2010

Sturgis Rally

We spent 6 days in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Our visit coincided with the 70th anniversary of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally so we shared the road with approximately 700,000 motorcycles!  Since we have visited this area before, we didn't see a lot of the tourist attractions but instead focused on family.  We spent our first 3 nights in the Deadwood area with Linda's uncle and aunt.   We visited Spearfish Canyon which is lush and green with beautiful waterfalls.  We also visited the Mt. Roosevelt monument which was built by Seth Bullock, the sheriff of Deadwood during the wild west days, as a tribute to his good friend, Teddy Roosevelt.  We did a lot of hiking that day...in sandals I might add!  We also went to to Sturgis to see the rally and that was an experience!  While the bikers were throughout the Black Hills, the main area was Sturgis.  There were motorcycles of every shape and size. 

Badlands National Park

Badlands National Park

From Deadwood, we drove to Rapid City and spent 3 nights with a different aunt and uncle.  While there, we visited Wall Drug and the Badlands National Park.  Wall Drug was just a tourist trap and very disappointing but the Badlands park was beautiful.  It is a huge natural barrier, 100 miles long that has been sculpted into fantastic pinnacles and gullies by the forces of water.  Lots of prehistoric fossils and wildlife in the area as well.  Well worth seeing, even for Linda's uncle who has lived here for over 60 years and never been...until now.  He went back to his restaurant the next day and told all of his customers how wonderful it was!  Most of them hadn't been there either.  Sunday the 15th of August, Linda celebrated her birthday with her aunt (same birthday) and we left for Minnesota on Monday. 

Birthday girls

Corn Palace

On our way to Minnesota, we stopped in Mitchell, S.D. to see the Corn Palace.  It is the only building in the world decorated with corn.  They redo it each year in a different theme.  According to Pete, it's a lot of corn!

In Minnesota we had our first view of the Mississippi River and our first experience with humidity.  Everything is green and clean here.  The houses and yards are immaculate.  We stayed in a campground on the river last night and followed the river up to Red Wing, MN.  Very cute little town with lots of unique shops (Pink, I need my shopping buddy).  Great Mexican restaurant too.

Mississippi River

We are on our way to Wisconsin which is just across the river.  Cheers!

 
* This is our first post using our new Verizon broadband.  It has been a challenge trying to find WIFI spots.  Now we don't need them.  I can work on it going down the road.  Life is good.