Out West 2016 - Day 5

May 31, 2016 (Tuesday)

Custer State Park

Custer State Park was $20 for a week long pass. True to the map, we saw all the animals indicated in the areas shown on the map! The free-roaming bison (buffalo) were awesome – they crossed the road right in front of the car!  There were a lot of little ones for our viewing enjoyment! It took us about two hours to drive thru the loop road.

The new Visitor Center recently opened and it was great!  There was a large variety of interactive displays and a lovely film showing different aspects of the park. 

Wind Cave National Park  "boxwork"

Our next stop was the Wind Cave National Park, which is the sixth longest cave in the world! There are 140 miles of discovered corridors covered with crystals. We were lucky enough to nab the last four tickets for the next available tour. We opted for the Natural Entrance tour ($12/adult). The tour took about an hour and 15 minutes and had us trekking about 3/4 of a mile. There were 300 stairs, most of which that went down (classified as moderately strenuous).  The Wind Cave is unique as it is one of the few caves that has “boxwork”. Boxwork looks like paper-thin intersecting veins which form box shape. There are many other cave tours available at this site. The cave temperature is 53 degrees year-round.

Needles Highway view

Once we left the cave site we drove to Mount Rushmore via the Needles Highway – some awesome views!

We found ourselves at Mount Rushmore in the late afternoon.  2016 is the 75^th anniversary of the Borglum’s masterpiece!  During the early 1920’s South Dakota Historian Doane Robinson envisioned the granite spires of the Needles to have Old West heroes. In the mid 1920’s the state reached out to Gutzon Borglum to carve the granite. Borglum thought that four presidents better represented 150 years of American history and would be more appropriate subjects for carving. Borglum also let it be known that the Needles were too fragile for carving.  By 1927, the final location for the carvings was determined. It took 14 years and 400 workers to complete the work. It really was awe inspiring to see the rocks up close and personal, much more spectacular than expected.  The video at the visitor center was excellent.  There is a parking fee at the site $11. We were told that once the loan for construction of the parking decks are paid off the fee will be removed. Interesting fact: Jefferson was originally supposed to be on Washington’s right side, but the rock was unstable. If you look close you can kind of tell that there was a head supposed to be there!

Mount Rushmore

It would have been nice to check out the back side of Mount Rushmore, but we kind of forgot about it when we were leaving and we were getting tired out. We did remember to get the Thomas Jefferson’s original recipe vanilla ice cream before leaving!  President Jefferson is credited with bringing the first written recipe for ice cream to the United States back in 1780! A large bowl was $6, a little expensive but it was yummy! 

Back near the hotel (Best Western Buffalo Ridge Inn) we had dinner at a place that my sister had recommended – Buglin’ Bull Restaurant and Sports Bar in Custer.  Most of us had to buffalo burger – not too impressed – it was overcooked and did not have much flavor.

Out West 2016 - Day 4

May 30, 2016 (Monday)

Badlands National Park

Per recommendations, we started the day early with arriving to the Minuteman Missile National Historical Site. Tours of the Delta-01 Launch Control Facility are limited to six people and the free tours fill up fast.  We arrived 20 minutes before the visitor center opened and there was already a large line.  We ended up getting on the 10:30 tour. Tours are available every 30 minutes.

Badlands National Park

While waiting for the tour, we checked out the fantastic visitor center and then headed just down the road to the Badlands National Park.  While at the Badlands Visitor Center, we watched the video and checked out the displays. We also had time to do a short hike before heading back to the Minuteman Missile site for the tour. The 40-minute tour was quite interesting; the guide was excellent. He was in the military and actually had worked in the building we toured.

Prairie Dogs at Badlands National Park

Minuteman Missile Tour

After finishing up the Minuteman Missile tour, we headed back to the Badlands where we finished driving thru the park loop. We saw a variety of wildlife, but the best wildlife was a couple of days later – so keep reading!

Once done with the drive loop we stopped by the Delta-09 Launch Facility (missile silo) – the missile is very large! It was mega hard to get a photo, so you will just need to go visit the site if you want to view it.

 Continuing west, we made a pit stop at the famous “Wall Drug”. Tons of souvenir stuff, but not much else.

We were able to stop by the Ellsworth Air Force Museum, which was recommended by our Minuteman Missile tour guide. The museum was free and definitely worth visiting if time allows.

We checked out the town of Rapid City – “The City of Presidents” – finding all the president statues!

South Dakota Air and Space Museum at Ellsworth Air Force

Crazy Horse Memorial

The Crazy Horse Memorial was having a weekend food drive, so we spotted and bought some cans of food – this allowed us to enter the site for free. The normal fee, at this time, is $28.00 per car.  The first blasting at Crazy Horse was back in June of 1948. The sculptor for this memorial was Korczak Ziolkowski. The memorial honors the Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, who was killed at Fort Robinson in 1877. The project started in May 1947 with $174.  The 20-minute video in the Visitor Center provides excellent background about the challenges faced while construction.  Crazy Horse’s face was completed in June 1998. The current focus is on Crazy Horse’s hand and the Horse’s Mane area. In 2015, 170 tons of rock was removed from those areas. It is going to take many years before the sculpture is complete. We ate at the restaurant and it was excellent. The local favorites were very tasty!

We stayed the night at the Best Western Buffalo Ridge Inn in Custer, SD. Custer was a cute town – throughout the town are a number of hand-painted buffalo sculptures. 

Out West 2016 - Day 3

May 29, 2016 (Sunday)

Waterfall at Pipestone National Monument

The first stop for the day was Pipestone National Monument ($3/person or free with annual pass). We watched the 22-minute film (interesting) and checked out the museum exhibits in the visitor center. American Indians have quarried the red pipestone found at this site for many generations, per the video it looks like very hard work to get to the correct stone.  The Indians use the pipestone to carve it into pipes which they use for prayer. It is believed that the pipe’s smoke carries one’s prayer to the Great Spirit. There was a nice 3/4 mile trail to enjoy that took you around to some quarries and a very nice waterfall. Allow an hour or two to really check the place out.

Sioux Falls

We stopped at Sioux Falls for a picnic lunch at Falls Park. The park was very beautiful and would highly recommend stopping to check it out. Parking was a little tough near the top of the falls area, but there appeared to be parking available farther downstream.

Continuing west, we stopped in Mitchell, SD to visit the Corn Palace. The exterior is all decked out in corn art – it is actually pretty amazing.  Each year the theme changes – 2016 was the “Rock of Ages”. There is not a lot inside to see other than souvenir stuff to purchase. There was also information on the inside talking about how much it cost to replace the murals - $130,000 per year! Also, it said that twelve different colors of corn are used and they are cut in half lengthwise and then nailed into place.

Corn Palace

Pierre Capital Building

 Next stop, the capitol of South Dakota - Pierre. The capital was constructed between 1905 and 1910 for about $1,000,000. A large addition was added in 1921. Another lovely capital with a lake and nice memorials. We had dinner at one of the TripAdvisor recommendations – Big Tom’s Diner.  It was decent and quite cheap. For dessert, we found a little ice cream place called the Cool Spot. We stayed at the Quality Inn in Pierre.

Out West 2016 - Day 1 & 2

Friday, May 27

Time for another adventure!  This time we are headed out west – mega road trip with my parents who are celebrating their 40^th anniversary! We left after work, hoping to avoid some Chicagoland traffic.  We stopped along the way for dinner – Applebee’s in Jackson. We stayed at the Quality Inn & Suites South in Joliet, IL for the night.  The room was decent and the breakfast was also good.

Saturday, May 28

Herbert Hoover Boyhood Home

We got an early start on the day, as we do most mornings of this trip, since we had a lot of miles to cover! Our first stop for the day was the Herbert Hoover National Historical Site, in West Branch, Iowa.  The site is free to visit, but if you want to visit the Presidential Library and Museum there is a $10/person fee. Our visit started at the visitor center, where we watched the 12-minute film and checked out exhibits. Leaving the visitor center, we took the self-guided walking tour of the grounds and historic buildings. We spent about an hour at the site. Some interesting things we learned including that Hoover was the first president born west of the Mississippi River, he was an orphan at the age of nine, the first Quaker president and he did not take a salary (he gave the money to charity).

Des Moines Capital Building

Traveling further into Iowa, we visited the capital in Des Moines. The capital was a pretty one (Renaissance style) with large grounds near it – lots of memorials and some art installations.  The building was constructed between 1871 and 1886, and is the only five-domed capital building in the country! An amazing fact is that it was built with a total cost of $2,873, 294.59 and the audit showed that only $3.77 was unaccounted for during the 15 years of construction! The central towering dome is constructed of iron and brick and is covered with 23 carat gold.

From Des Moines, we headed north to Albert Lea, where we stayed at the Comfort Inn.  We had dinner at a place called The Green Mill. It was good but a little pricey.

Kentucky Derby 2016

May 6, 2016

Kentucky! Here we come! My sister had made a list of 27 things to do while she was 27 and the Kentucky Derby was one of those items. I had booked tickets a few months prior (you can get presale prices that way). I had also booked accommodations pretty far in advance. We ended up camping about an hour east of Louisville in Carrollton. There were some campgrounds closer, but they were booked up by the time I got around to booking. The campground we stayed at was a Kentucky State Park called General Butler. We had site 3, which was close to the entrance. There was a pretty large drop off just off the edge of paved asphalt loop, but at least the site was level. The park also had quite a few cabins and a hotel.

Kentucky State Capitol - Frankfort 

After setting up the camper, we headed to the Kentucky State Capitol area, Frankfort. Our first stop was the Buffalo Trace Distillery. Free tours are offered on the hour, or during busy times (which Derby weekend is), every 30 minutes. The tour was about 1.5 hours long by the time the sampling was done. The site is a Historical Site – the buildings are from the late 1800’s. During the tour we got to see 3 buildings, the barrel storage building was neat as was the labeling building.

Buffalo Trace Distillery

Leaving the distillery, we headed downtown. There were many buildings with historical markings along our way to the capitol. The capitol was pretty. One big positive was that it was easy to find free parking.

In the evening, I helped my sister Pam finish her hat for the derby. Highly recommend using safety pins to secure flowers to your hat and remember the hats are the most important part of Derby Day besides the horses!



May 7, 2016

Derby Day at last! We parked about 5 blocks from the track in a Boy Scout sponsored parking lot ($20). The walk to the track was about 20 minutes. We arrived at about 10AM, it was not overly busy and we made it through the lines pretty fast. We could have brought so much more stuff in with us, they were very lenient on what people were bringing in.

Derby Outfits

Places to sit were plentiful when we arrived, but by mid-afternoon it was getting very crowded. We had brought a blanket, which was a very good call since people respected your space that way. We had also brought chairs and some food and drinks. The people watching was great and the bathroom lines were not as long as expected.

Derby day was very nice weather wise – other than the heavy rain that rolled in. The rain only lasted about 5 minutes and the blanket did a decent job of keeping us dry. Some people had the right idea and brought in a trap instead of blanket. The sun reappeared and dried us out in no time.
Lot of bets were placed. My mom did the best out of us all, losing less than $5. My bets seemed to always finish one place lower than I bet on.

We were not lucky on your picks for Derby winner, except for my dad, who put down $2 on Nyquist to win. My sister had her money on Exaggerator and I had my money on Gun Runner.

May 8, 2016

It was a rainy day in the month of May… We had to pack the camper up in the rain. Traffic was majorly backed up all the way to Cincinnati, but after that the rain tapered off and it was an uneventful drive.