Closeup of our headlight
I had to ask Larry where we started from this morning. It seems like a week ago.
It was a full day. We angled SE from Broadus, MT and cut across the corner of Wyoming into South Dakota. Then we went looped south into the Black Hills, took the Needles Highway scenic route, stopped at Mt. Rushmore and headed back north to Rapid City. In a way it reminded me of that segment from the Chevy Chase movie “Vacation” where they drive all the way to the Grand Canyon, nod a couple of times at the view and get right back into the car. I think we might be getting desensitized to grand scenery.
The roads of the Black Hills had sharper and steeper switchbacks than anything we had encountered in the mountains. Linda has a fear of heights so negotiating the narrow twisting roads with no shoulders and no guard rails did not amuse her. We did see some awesome vistas though.
By 7:30 pm when we pulled into Rapid City the guys were pretty tired from driving those hills without power steering or power brakes. We had seen some hotel signs along the way but we could not find them. We decided to look for one out by the airport which was on our route east anyway. No hotels there either. At that point we were 5 miles out of town, it was after dark and we were more than a little tired. And what happens but our alternator stopped keeping up with the headlights. It was one of those moments you laugh about after the fact. As it turned out, Merv found a way to make the alternator kick in, we stopped at a gas station and got directions and after some doubtful moments we found a nice hotel.
After settling into our room we went to a nearby Arby’s and rehashed the day. We even had a few chuckles.
Tomorrow we will head east through the South Dakota Badlands.
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- Back of our headlight
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- South Dakota landscape
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- South Dakota landscape
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- Black Hills. We didn’t see any of this in Montana
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- There were patches of dead pines in places in the Black Hills
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- Black Hills
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- Merv view
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- Along Needles Highway
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- There were 4 or 5 of these tunnels through the rock.
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- View on Needles Highway.
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- I knew better than to ask Linda to pose on these rocks.
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- Merv View
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- They gather downed wood into piles to help keep fires from spreading
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- Tree growing out of the rock
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- Larry and Linda at Mt Rushmore
So your heading home .? Good luck and hope no more flat tires ? had some frost here
last night but the leaves are not turning yet .Pretty soon though .Those are real nice pictures you have been taken .When do you expect to be home ? Ken
sure have enjoyed this blog…nice, nice job…and beautiful pictures…maybe you four could show this for our T-rific T’s Holiday get together?
stay safe and have a blast…lookin fwd to havin you folks home—don’t forget to stop and look at the cars at Murdo
hey and if you get these messages, please say Hi to Larry and Linda for me..thanks
To reply from ken, murdo must be a common hot spot, I was through there about 10 yrs ago and remember all the classics there! at any rate we look fwd to seeing you all when u get back!
Brett
This is probably not a good time to mention we’re expecting you to drive down to Texas in December.
You should know how much your readers envy your explorations.