South Dakota, Continued..along with Wyoming

On Thursday we woke up and drove into Wyoming to see Devil's Tower.  It is basically a huge rock formation that looks like a giant tower.  I loved the Native American folk story about the rock.  Basically, 7 sisters are out walking and picking wild flowers.  They come across a pack of bears, who begin to chase them.  The sisters run and run and climb up onto a large rock. But the bears are there, scrambling up the rock to get them.  So they pray and pray that the rock can protect them, and it does! It begins to grow and grow and grow, up into the sky.  The bear continue to claw and claw at the rock, but they can't climb it.  Finally the rock grows so high that the sisters jump up into the night sky and become stars.  We now see them as the Pleiades.  You can still see the bears claw marks on the tower.

Apparently Devil's Tower remains a sacred place to many Native American people.  People can also climb it! We watched a group trying, but others said they had been there for hours and appeared to be stuck. It sure is a sheer climb!

We left Devil's Tower and headed back to SD for a ride on the Alpine Slide.  It was basically a shallow cement curved path down the mountain in a single-rider little cart with hand breaks.  You take a chair lift up and slide down. It was actually great fun!

The next morning we left SD headed for Minneapolis.  On the way we stopped at the Badlands.  This is NOT to be missed.  REALLY gorgeous - it like you entered another planet with colors you haven't seen before. These pictures do NOT do it justice.  It is really amazing. I highly recommend it.

Just before you must stop at Wall Drug and get some donuts.  It is as horrible a tourist trap as South of the Border, but that is what makes you have to stop! 

We also drove past the Corn Palace, following a little highway mishap whereby somebody let us run out of gas while on a one-lane construction zone with very little shoulder.  Since it wasn't the dear hubby, please assume it was one of the kids.    But something about the Baby Jesus made out of corn makes me giggle every time.

That is the end of our SD adventure, for now!  We stayed with my friend Ed, who is a great example of someone who completed changed his life! He left the rat race of DC and moved to SD to own an RV park.  Gotta love it!  We can absolutely see why he loves and, and we will be back!

Megan