6/27 - Rapid City, SD

We’ve been lucky not to have smoke from the wildfires for the past two days because the fires are getting worse.  The 77 acre Crow Peak fire that covered us with smoke near Spearfish on Saturday has now grown to 1,000 acres and is out of control.  One of the fires near Sundance, WY, is over 13,000 acres. 

Beautiful picture of the Crow Peak fire before sunrise on Saturday (taken by a weather watcher, not me). 

The first item of business today was repairing the water heater…..again.  (This has been one of our more troublesome fixtures.)  It’s a dual-fuel heater (gas and electric) so unless it completely blows up…..like it did last year….we’ve always got hot water on the gas side.  It was the electric side failing again……frozen rocker switch.  Found a camper parts store in Rapid City which fortunately had a part Jim could make work.  Then a stop at Menards to get wire nuts and check out what a Menards store looks like.  It’s a huge version of Lowe’s which includes groceries.  Very nice place.  Jim got the water heater repaired while I took care of some business issues. 

We had saved our grocery shopping for today because our next two stops are in places that don’t have grocery stores.  The closest ones are about 20 miles away from each campground and we don’t want to have to drive 40 miles for things we should have got before we left here.  So we trotted off to the commissary only to find it is closed on Mondays.  Who knew?  I so do not expect such things that I didn’t look at the days and hours they’re open which is painted on the window.  Rats. (I know now all commissaries are closed on Mondays.) Groceries would have to be obtained at Walmart on the north side of Rapid City because the nearest “real” grocery store is much farther away on the south side.

After lunch we went to downtown Rapid City since we hadn’t been in that area previously.  It’s small but very neat and clean with wide streets and a great feel to it.  Because Mount Rushmore is so close, the town has turned itself into the City of Presidents by putting life-size bronze statues of all the presidents on street corners around the downtown area.  We were close enough to John Adams and John Quincy Adams to see that they were both quite short……not much taller than I am.

President John Adams at the Rapid City Main Street Square.  He was also George Washington’s vice president, referring to the role as “…..the most insignificant office that ever the invention of man contrived or his imagination conceived.”  When he became president he had his hands full with problems caused by the war between France and England. (Were they ever not at war?)  The Navy Department and the Marine Corps were created under Adams and the capital was moved to Washington, DC. 

Rapid City Main Street Square has this great splash pad with water spraying all over the place.  It was a delightful sight with small children running and playing and shrieking and laughing all over it.  A cute little girl was running through it trying to stay dry.  It looked like she was quite successful.

The historic Hotel Alex Johnson, built by Alex Carlton Johnson who was a vice president of the Chicago and Northwestern Railroad.  He was a great admirer of the Black Hills and the Lakota Sioux tribe.  He began work on his hotel the day before construction started on Mount Rushmore in October 1927.  This hotel is reputed to be one of the most haunted hotels in South Dakota with Alex Johnson himself still there.  He stayed around after his death in 1938 to make sure everything continued to run right.  The SciFi channel’s hit show “Ghost Hunters” did a special segment on it.  They experienced significant paranormal activity throughout the hotel.

The Firehouse Brewing Company resides in a renovated firehouse.  It’s a snazzy looking place which serves pub grub along with beer.  Unfortunately we had already eaten lunch or we might have tried it.  They have a winery next door so have everything covered.  Their advertising is amazing…….billboards accompanied by real fire engines (all obviously old and retired), some standing on end, for many miles on I-90 between Sioux Falls and Rapid City.  They really get your attention as good advertising should.

Huge grain elevator on the rail line just two blocks from downtown.  We’ve seen a lot of grain elevators in our travels but I can’t recall ever seeing one this nice.  Dakota Mill and Grain is a public grain warehouse and agronomy center.  Very impressive.

On our way down I-90 we passed this strange sight.  A very small car with two mattresses inside and three on top……an accident waiting to happen.  We were glad to get away from it before the mattresses blew off or the car went airborne.  What idiots.

We paid a visit to the gigantic and beautiful Black Hills Harley-Davidson dealer on the west side of Rapid City so Jim could drool over the bikes of which they have a massive number.  I saw a sign advertising rentals so asked if they rented them during Sturgis bike week.  We were told they rent between 400 and 500 that week……they have them shipped in to meet the demand.  They said bike week is not the time to ride if you want to see the area (duh) which basically becomes a parking lot paved with motorcycles.  I didn’t get a picture of the dealership but no one will miss it. Unless you’re really into motorcycles one Harley dealership looks pretty much like another with the exception that this place is the Cadillac of dealerships and its sister store in Sturgis is the Yugo.  Wait…..that means one doesn’t really look like another……

We were successful in our hunting and gathering at Walmart.  Nice store with very nice employees.  This reminds me to mention that everyone we’ve met here has been friendly and helpful.  Not one sourpuss in ten days!

Tomorrow we’re moving 250 miles north to Medora, ND, so we can visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park (and, hopefully, more buffalo).  We’ll be well away from Rapid City before the arrival of the severe storms which are forecast for tomorrow afternoon…….heavy rain, high wind, hail and tornadoes.  This is certainly an opportune time to leave town. 

We have enjoyed our time in the Black hills area so much we’re going to try to get back here for the annual buffalo roundup at Custer State Park at the end of September on our way home.  A lot can happen in three months but we hope to be able to pull it off.