NOTE: Internet here is SLOW and Scattered….I’m trying to keep this updated!!
We slept in! Day one was a long day of traveling! Pretty much non-eventful, except on little issue with the truck. At one point, we hit a rather severe cross wind, and the trucks built in Anti-Sway feature kicked in. After that, we had a couple of “faults” in the system. Traction Control and “Hill Decent” faults. Wouldn’t let me set the cruise control or put the truck into “Trailer Tow” mode. But, after about 100 miles of driving, it fixed itself and went back to normal.
The RV Park was nice and quiet, it was still HOT there. But the A/C keep us cool! Hence the sleeping late!
We head out for Rapid City. Still flat lands, not much to look at. Corn and Soybeans and the occasional sunflower field. Worse thing about this day is the strong wind from the southwest . Gas mileage down and we had to decrease speed to keep the trailer on our side…and right side up! On the way, we passed Heidi and Phillip Neighbor, they were on their way back from Rushmore, stayed at the same park! We arrived the day they left.
About 400 miles before you get to it, there are signs and billboards every half mile for “Wall Drug”. Promising everything from food to cowboy hats. I’ve heard of it before and drove by it a couple years ago. It sounds like it has everything there. Chris wanted to check it out! As we get out of the truck he says, “this place better knock my socks off!” Cause that’s all we’ve seen since we turned on I-90…Signs, Signs and more Signs!!
Well, he’s still got his socks on. It’s the worlds largest Tourist Trap!! That’s about all I can say about it. Now we know!
We arrive at Mt. Rushmore KOA, Palmer Gulch in the afternoon. It’s quite a place. Very large park, large office and gift store, a mini-strip mall with ice cream store, pizza place and candy store. There are LOTS of amenities. Horseback rides, pool, several play grounds, golf cart rental (it’s that big), ATV rentals (you can ride ATV’s on the roads here!)…all sorts of stuff. In the morning you can get on the chuck wagon and ride to breakfast and in the evening you can do the same with dinner.
It’s a kids dream…and a very family oriented RV park. Large, sites are on top of each other, pretty noisy with the ATV’s, golf carts and kids running around. Very close to the Black Hills, Custer State Park, Needles Highway and Mt. Rushmore. But NOT the Solitude we seek…..
I very special THANK YOU to cousin’s Kevin and Roni for making our stay VERY special. Kevin and Roni are “full-timers” and are work campers for KOA. We got “special treatment”!! And, they let us use their golf cart to ride around in. They will be there until September, they they are headed to south Texas on the Coast. Very special people!
We got to the campground early enough we decided to go to Hill City and eat something, look around at the shops (lots of “tourist” type shops) and then go to Mt. Rushmore for the evening light show.
Hill City is pretty small, several little shops, T-Shirt shops and a few restaurants. We ate at “Desperados”. Claims to be the oldest hand-hewed log cabin in South Dakota. Really nice inside, rustic, friendly staff. Menu was somewhat limited but it was good food. Expensive also. $21 for a Sirloin I could get in Springfield for less than $14. But, what do ya expect!?!
We walked around and went into a few shops. Bikers are starting to show up now. Sturgis Rally is next week. Stopped by the “Trump Store”. Got out of there and headed to Rushmore for the evening show.
It was open, however not all the things that were normally open were. Only the gift shop and the Ice Cream store. Not much on masks here or Social Distancing protocols. You occasionally see signs on the doors, but that’s about it.
You pay $10 to park, nothing else and that’s on the honor system. Went in, took some pictures and waited for the light show….but, there was not light show!!! We were disappointing!!! All they had was a dude with a microphone that gave a “Readers Digest” version of the people portrayed. Then we sang the National Anthem (which was pretty cool, everyone sang) and went home. My wife had been there years ago and she loved the evening show. Wanted us to experience it also. But, COVID-19 strikes again!!
