June 25, 2013: South Dakota-- Badlands to Black Hills

The plan for this morning was to get up early and get some sunrise photos.  But, I woke up at 4:30 am and it was already too light and the sky was cloudy was a big dark cloud to our north - just like yesterday.

We drove up to where you can do a few short hikes to a viewpoint that gives a window through the rock walls over the sculpted rocks spread out below.

The clouds were starting to move northeast, but we didn't have the patience to wait an hour or more just to get some pictures.  We wanted to get to the Black Hills and get settled for golf tomorrow morning.

We did take the westward scenic route and did manage to get some interesting photos at a few lookouts with clearing skies. 



We were originally going to take Hwy 44, a rural road west to the Black Hills, but Jack wanted to stop at Wall Drugs.  So we went up to I90 and made a quick tour (our second visit) of Wall Drugs and then headed west on I90 to Rapid City.  the winds from the north were fierce and I noticed one of our storage bay doors flapping open.  We pulled over and I closed and latched it, but as soon as I got going again, it flew open.  I woke Jack up from his nap, we pulled off at an exit and he worked for /2 hour trying to fix it by moving the latch mechanism so it would catch more securely.  Back on the road, and the bay door next to the previously broken one flew open.  We stopped twice more to relatch the second bay and finally got to Rapid City without tearing the bay doors off by their hinges.  As soon as we got off the interstate and changed our direction of travel (and the direction the wind was hitting the RV), both bays stayed closed and no more problems.  Those broadside wind gusts were just too much for the latching mechanisms.  We will have an RV repair place try to replace those mechanisms so we don't have to go through that again!

We got to the southern Black Hills region near Hot Springs to a campground near the golf course.  No TV here, but good internet so I updated the blog a few days.