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28th May 2010 |
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28/05 Day
12 Today was going to be a fairly marginal day for thunderstorms, and the major risk was across North Dakota, too far for us to realistically travel. There was a small potential for storms close to the tri-county point of the Dakotas and Montana though, and we decided to make the fairly modest drive northwards to be in this risk zone. En route, there were plenty of touristy things to get our teeth into. We left our hotel in Chadron in a leisurely fashion, although we were a little concerned that spent bullets were found around the car! We headed north-westwards out of Nebraska and into the stunning countryside of South Dakota. Specifically, we headed into the Black Hills National Forest whose hills, mountains and rock pinnacles were very different to what we were used to. After lunching in Custer, we headed up onto the mountain prairies where we spotted more prairie dogs and deer. There were plenty of wild bison roaming around too, searching for shade and water as the temperatures soared to 30 degress Celsius under clear blue skies. We paid a visit to Mount Rushmore to see the stoney faced past-presidents, before continuing northwards to our hotel in Rapid City. This hotel not only had a nice pool and hot tub, but it also had a large sauna. There was nothing else for it but to have a hot-off, whereby we took the temperature of the increasingly steam-filled sauna to around 150 degree Celsius and last to leave was the winner. After a couple of sessions, it was decided that red eyeballs, tingling legs and burning lips were probably serving as a warning and we left. Our evening grub was across the road at the local Ruby Tuesday's and skies were still clear. It was increasingly humid though and there was a risk of isolated overnight thunderstorms in the area to keep our interest. Total mileage: 128 miles |
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Welcome to Nebraska...
This was lying on the carpark next to our car this morning - |
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The countryside bordering
Nebraska and South Dakota was big and pleasant. |
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The upland
grasses of South Dakota were home to some of these beasts, including
deer, bison, and bison-riding birds. Of course, we heeded all warnings
to stay in our car whilst taking pictures...... kind of.
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| Baby
beasts and full sized beasts. We were sure we could smell them from here! |
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Yet more prairie dogs were popping in and out of the meadows. Cute!
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We stopped off at our
usual haunt for lunch, this time in the foothill town of Custer. |
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Next
to the Subway was a carwash, and attached was a dog wash! This chap
seemed far too enthusiastic to head inside. Probably his first time.
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The Crazy
Horse national monument in the Black Hills of South Dakota... well it
will be when it's finished, as the head is the only part on show of
what will be an entire rider on a horse! May take some time....
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The focal point of today's semi-tourist semi-storm chasing; Mount Rushmore.
Helen and Matt make a beeline for the rocky heads. . . |
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heads seemed a little smaller in person than I imagined but were still
the size of an average UK hill. . . |
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took on the small trail which took us right to the bottom of the monument,
essentially to get a view right up their noses. And yes, Lincoln does
look like Frankenstein's monster. |
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prairie dogs were top trumped for cuteness today, as chipmunks scurried
around the tourists looking for some grub. |
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I'm lying though... All of my photos today could have been simply zooms
of this vending machine. Classic American tourist venue at its best! |
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Today's malfunction. To save embarrassment, the owner of this nice rip
will remain nameless. But it wasn't me! |
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