Left South Dakota for Wyoming, stopping at Devil's Tower, the US's first national monument. Pretty impressive site. Walked around the base and took a lot of photos from every angle. It was a super hot day again, humid and around 100 degrees out. Then drove through Wyoming to end the day in Billings, MT where we'll do a little shopping before heading home.
Left for Mount Rushmore this morning, did the president's walk to get a close view and ended up taking about 50 photos of the mountain at different angles. Impressive, but not much to do there. Checked out the town of Keystone nearby, (where we had delicious Subway pizza!) , then drove the winding road to Custer State Park. There we did the "wildlife" loop, saw some Buffalo, burros, and deer. Mostly outside of the wildlife loop :). The drove Needles highway, which was very curvy, but had great scenery throughout. Ended the drive off at Sylvan Lake, where we walked around the lake before heading to Deadwood. Made a brief stop for a wine tasting on the way. Strolled through Deadwood, which seemed to be a big gambling town, before settling in Spearfish for the night at Bell's Motor Lodge.
Started the day out driving to South Dakota. Belle Fourche was our first stop at the geographical center of the US. Then onto Sturgis, home of the world's largest motorcycle rally. From there we drove to Wall to check out the world famous Wall Drug Store. Stocked up on free ice water (which we need as the temperature topped out over 100 degrees!). It's a HUGE store with tons of souvenirs, a few restaurants, games and a spray park.. as well as an actual pharmacy. Been around since 1931 and it's advertised all over the world. Afterwards we drove the scenic tour through Badlands National Park, similar to Drumheller, but much larger. Took tons of photos. Spending the night in Rapid City at the Foothills Inn. Black Hills tomorrow.
Left Saskatchewan for North Dakota, just about driving all the way through to South Dakota. Pretty uneventful day, until we got stuck in some crazy construction in North Dakota... Gravelly roads for 24miles, all while I was freaking out over our 1/8 of a tank of gas.. Gas light came on, Jacky remained calm and was willing to walk for gas, but we learned my car can go at least 40km on empty. Rest of the drive was less nerve-wracking, except for the bird that faceplanted into my windshield (our 2nd bird casualty of the trip :( ) The badlands of North Dakota are very pretty, it's a nice drive south. Spending the night at the Bowman Inn and Suites in Bowman, ND (which is pretty quiet, everything was closed by 8pm, except the Kum and
Go convenience store/gas station.
Day two we decided to drive into Manitoba, Swan River was our destination of choice. We were told it had many "outlets". Meaning there was a Tims, A&W and and some stores. Compared to Sturgis it was a shopping mecca! Came back and walked through town a 2nd time, discovered outrageously expensive pizza ($54 for an XL!), this small town has 5 churches, and I walked a dog for the first time! Max is Jacky 's dad's adorable teacup yorkie.
