October 16, 2009

• South Dakota 2009

  SOUTH DAKOTA 2009

   

  October 10 – SPEARFISH CANYON AND DEADWOOD

   

  My father and I went on a tour by President Tours Center, a Thai touring company.  There were 35 of us including our old neighbor Pimol Kusolpaisit.  She had traveled with my mother and me to Europe back in 2007.  25 of us took off on a United Airlines 757 from LAX at 8:26 am.  Earlier in the day another 10 people on this tour took off from LAX.  To curb our hunger we ate one of the sandwiches prepared by my sister-in-law Konie.  They were very good.

   

  Two hours later, we arrived in Denver for a layover.  However, our plane sat on the tarmac for 20 minutes waiting for another plane to depart from the gate we’re supposed to exit at.  At 12:31 pm, only 23 of us took off on a SkyWest CRJ200 en route to Rapid City, South Dakota.  A couple did not recall that Denver’s time (Mountain Time) is an hour faster than Los Angeles’ time (Pacific Time).  Instead of having one hour and eleven minutes to get to our gate, in fact we only had eleven minutes.  By not knowing, the husband took the wife shopping within the airport.

   

  It took 45 minutes to fly from Denver to Rapid City.  The temperature was in the high 20’s.  As it turned out, we had to wait a bit at Rapid City Regional Airport.  What happened was the earlier flight with 10 people experienced some engine trouble in Denver which delayed them for 2 hours.  Consequently they arrived after us.  We ate the rest of Konie’s sandwiches.

   

  Yours truly at Rapid City Regional Airport                                                                        My father

  
  

  Baggage claims

   
   

  Once they arrived, we all boarded a bus.  Our driver/guide is Randy.  During the drive, we could see that it had snowed.  A good deal of the surroundings is still covered with snow.  The skies were blue with clouds floating about.  It looked like the opening to “The Simpsons”.  As expected, it’s rural.  We drove by wide open fields with rolled bales of hay, tractors, cattle, and horses.

  
  

    South Dakota skies

  
  

  Hey, it’s hay!

  
  

  
  

  Yep, it snowed yesterday

  Along the drive we also passed by Sturgis.  It is most noted for an annual motorcycle rally where about half a million bikers converge for it.

  
  

  Sturgis, South Dakota 

  An hour and a half later from the time we departed from the airport we finally arrived at Spearfish Canyon.  There is a road that cuts into it.  Randy says that it was voted by some publication as one of the most beautiful drives out there.  I must admit, it was beautiful.  Notably, it was colorful.  It has light brown cliffs covered with dark ponderosa pines.  Interspersed within the pines are birch, aspen, and oak trees which feature multi-colored leaves from light green to orange, red, and yellow.  All of these things on this day were covered or sprinkled with snow.  It made for a most eye-catching combination.  It was an hour or so drive through the canyon but it was truly great while it lasted.  One appreciates the incredible beauty that nature has to offer.

  
  

  Spearfish Canyon 

  
  

  Bridal Veil falls at Spearfish Canyon

  
  

  

  Spearfish Canyon 

  Once we made it through the canyon, we passed by a town called Lead (pronounced Leed).  It is the home to Homestake Gold Mine.  It was active until January 2002.  According to Randy, at the time it was the second largest gold mine in the world.  What is left is a very large pit resulting from the mining.

  
  

  Homestake Gold Mine in Lead, South Dakota

  We arrived at Deadwood.  It’s a small town filled with casinos and gambling halls.  When we passed by one called Midnight Star, Randy told us that it was owned by actor Kevin Costner.  Back then it was one of these towns that embodied the Wild West.  Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are a part of this town’s colorful history.  During the 1870’s gold rush, gamblers and prostitutes converged on Deadwood with hopes to capitalize on the newfound wealth of the prospectors.  We stopped at Four Aces.  Inside my father won $6 from a slot machine.  I, on the other hand, lost $47 playing Three Card Poker.  Oddly, the Three Card Poker table was full whereas the blackjack table had only one player.  I guess folks around here are like me.  I prefer Three Card Poker over blackjack any day.  It’s just that on this day I cannot hit any real profitable hand.  It’s also a killer when they change dealers and he hits a 3-of-a-kind on his first two hands.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Deadwood

  We had dinner there.  It was a buffet that featured crab and prime rib.  My dad thought the crab was a bit on the dry side so I didn’t try any.  I did like the prime rib.  The fried chicken was very good and the grilled chicken was not bad.  Also not bad was the tortellini.  My father enjoyed his cheesecake and I liked my carrot cake.

   

  We returned to Rapid City.  Randy dropped us off at Quality Inn, our residence for the next three nights.  That couple that missed the flight in Denver managed to get here.  That night I was pleased to learn that the Dodgers had swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS.

  
  

  Our room at Quality Inn – Mt. Rushmore location in Rapid City 

  October 11 – MT. RUSHMORE, 1880 TRAIN, CRAZY HORSE

   

  It was a very chilly night in our room despite turning the heater on maximum.  A howling sound kept coming in through our closed door.  We then had our complimentary breakfast at the hotel at 6:30 am.  When we came back to our room for final preparations, we saw that it began snowing.  My father figured out that the sound was from cold air seeping in underneath the door.  Once he placed our shoes at the bottom of the door, the sound was gone.  Consequently our room got warmer.

  
  

  Left to right: Pichian Rojsiriwat (tour leader), Taveep Vathanasin (my dad), Pimol Kusolpaisit, Manida (don’t know her last name) poolside at the Quality Inn.

  At 8:45 am, we boarded the bus and off to Mt. Rushmore National Memorial we went.  It snowed the entire time.  According to Randy, the bus passed by a large hole (technically a natural depression) in the ground (800 ft deep, half a mile in diameter) called the Stratobowl.  In 1934-1935 it was a launch site for stratospheric balloons.  This project was co-sponsored by the National Geographic Society and the US Army Air Corps.

  
  

  
  

  Tidbits about the stratospheric balloon launches at the Stratobowl.  Pictures from The Journey Museum

  Once there we got off as I was armed with my digital camera and my father with the camcorder.  The sky was gray all day with snow still falling as we walked along the Avenue of Flags to Grand View Terrace.  The Avenue of Flags feature flags of every state in the Union.  The columns they are extending from also indicate when they became part of the United States.  Once there we gazed up and there were the world-renowned faces of former US Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln carved out of the mountainside.  I said to my dad in Thai, “We made it!”

  
  

  Mt. Rushmore National Memorial.  Left to right: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln

  
  

  Dad at Avenue of Flags with Mt. Rushmore in the background

  
  

  Me at Grand View Terrace

  
  

  Pimol Kusolpaisit

  I felt very satisfied to finally see Mt. Rushmore for myself.  They still showed quite visibly despite the snow.  We then went inside the museum.  It featured accomplishments by the four presidents, tools and equipment used to carve the faces, and background and factoids on how it was done.

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Inside Mt. Rushmore museum

  
  

  My father and I with statue of Gutzon Borglum, Mt. Rushmore’s architect.  Sculpted by his son Lincoln Borglum

  We then went down to the nearby town of Keystone.  There we had lunch at Ruby House Restaurant.  My father had turkey and mashed potatoes.  I had a buffalo steak and mashed potatoes.  This place’s décor is pretty fancy in an Old West kind of way.  There are lots of framed pictures hanging on the walls plus some Native American artifacts and some animal heads.

  
  

  
  

  Keystone

  
  

  My dad at the Ruby House Restaurant

  
  

  My buffalo steak

  At noon we took off for Hill City.  There we boarded the 1880 Train.  It is a train driven by a steam locomotive operating since 1880.  It only goes 10 mph but that’s fine since mainly it’s pretty scenic as the route cuts through its portion of the Black Hills and ended up back at Keystone.  We passed through countless ponderosa forests plus some spruce.  We also saw some turkeys, horses, and deer.  We also saw a flattened region called Battle Creek where in the past it was a battleground between the Sioux, Lakota, and other tribes.  Unfortunately due to all the snow, we could not see Harney Peak, the tallest mountain in the Black Hills.  I could tell that this is an old-fashioned train.  I could hear the wood creak throughout the trip.  Also there was no interior heating so it was as cold as outside.  However it does not take away from it being a nice, scenic ride through the Black Hills.

   

  
   

  1880 Train at Hill City station

  
  

  All aboard

  
  

  This train is cold

  
  

  Deer!

  
  

  Turkeys!

  
  

  Old tungsten mine!

  
  

  Battle Creek 

  
  

  From Keystone Randy took us to see the Crazy Horse Memorial.  Similar to Mt. Rushmore, it is sculpted from a mountainside.  However it is far from finished and whenever it is, it will be the largest stone carving in the world.  The only part that is finished is the face.  However they still need to do his hair, body, arms, and the horse.

  
  

  Crazy Horse Monument 

   
  

  What the Crazy Horse Monument is supposed to become in the end

  This is supposed to be a sculpture of the legendary Sioux chief Crazy Horse.  It was begun in 1948 by Korczak Ziolkowski, an assistant to Mt. Rushmore’s architect Gutzon Borglum.  Ziolkowski accepted this project after Chief Henry Standingbear asked him.  Standingbear was impressed with Ziolkowski’s sculpture Paderewski.  Though Ziolkowski has passed on, the project continues via his wife and ten children.  There is no set timetable or completion date for the Crazy Horse Memorial.  It is also completely funded privately and through donations.  They turned down two $10,000,000 grants from the US government.  I would love to come back to see it upon completion but considering the massive scale of this project and how much more they have to go, I fear I will not be around when that time comes.

   

  In addition to the unfinished monument, this place also houses a large Native American museum.  It is filled with art, crafts, tools, pottery, and much more.

   

  
  

  Native American museum

   

  
  

  Shop inside museum.  Pimol Kusolpaisit looking for some new jewelry, perhaps.

  We were supposed to go to Custer State Park.  However, the snow made the roads too dangerous to negotiate especially with our tour bus.  Due to this, Custer State Park was lopped off our itinerary.  We returned to Rapid City and it would be the last we would see of Randy.

   

  Back at Rapid City, we had dinner at Mongolian Grill.  It was not bad since we paid a bit over $10 per person for all-you-can-eat.  Back at the hotel I learned that the Angels had finally beaten the Boston Red Sox in a postseason series.  Now we’re one step closer to a possible I-5 World Series.

   

  I placed a towel at the bottom of our door.  By doing so, there is no more cold air seeping in.  There is no more howling sound.  Lastly, our room is now toasty.
  

   

  I noticed some places one might see on commercials but never see back in Los Angeles.  The notable ones are eateries Hardee’s, Long John Silver’s, and Golden Corral.  Also I saw several branches for First Interstate Bank.  I thought they went under but I guess they just no longer exist out in Los Angeles.

   

  October 12 – THE JOURNEY MUSEUM, WALL, BADLANDS

   

  We had breakfast again at 6:30 am.  It is not snowing anymore.  However, it is still cold enough where the snow from the night before has not melted.

  
  

  At 8:30 am we met our new driver/guide.  His name is Dave.  He took us to The Journey Museum.  Normally it opens at 10 am but this time they let us in when we got there (~8:45 am).  The museum depicts the history of the Black Hills starting with its geological and paleontological history.  Then it was its archaeological history and later to the Native Americans and finally the settlers.  My favorite part was seeing the prehistoric fossils on display.  There was a duck-billed dinosaur, an allosaurus, and a tyrannosaurus among others.

  
  

  The Journey Museum

  
  

  Edmontosaurus annectens

  
  

  
  

  Allosaurus

  
  

  
  

  Purussaurus brasiliensis

  
  

  
  

  Tyrannosaurus

  
  

  Tyrannosaurus teeth vs my hand

  
  

  Claws vs. my hand

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Holographic Native American woman telling a tale

  In the Old West-looking area there was something on the carpet that said “Step Here”.  My father and I did.  We then heard a gunshot.  Next, the wall of pictures we were looking at became transparent and it showed four guys playing poker but one of them was dead on the floor.  It turns out it was Wild Bill Hickok.  He was shot by Jack McCall while holding a pair of aces and eights.  This became known as the Dead Man’s Hand.

  
  

  Dead Man’s hand

  There was also a saddle exhibit and ones depicting the various animals in the area.  There were lots of stuffed animals here.

  
  

  Yeehaw!

  
  

  Me and a replica triceratops fossil

  On the way to Wall, we passed by Ellsworth Air Force Base.  It is one of the two places in the county that houses the B1 bomber.  The other is in Texas.  At 11 pm, we arrived in a small town called Wall.  The best known thing here is a drugstore called Wall Drug.  It was the original one ran by the Husteads.  Back then, drugstores would offer ice water to visitors.  Mrs. Hustead suggested putting up signs on the roads leading to wall to advertise about ice water being available at Wall Drug.  Little did she know that the signs would bring hordes of visitors to the little town.  Now Main Street, where Wall Drug is located, has shops, museums, and eateries lining it. 

  
  

  
  

  Wall Drug signs

  
  

  The Hustead’s Wall Drug Store

  
  

  
  

  
  

  Main Street in Wall

  My dad did a little shopping.  Inside one of the places there was a little gallery of heads of various antelopes, a stuffed polar bear, fish, birds, and other animals including a wolverine hide.

  
  

  Where my dad shopped and there’s a wildlife museum, too

  
  

  
  

  
  

  The Wild Life Museum

  We ate at Cactus Café where we each had a chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes.  Then we had to bolt.

  
  

  There are two dead deer tied to the ATV in the back of the blue and white pickup.  We ate at Cactus Café.

  
  

  My chicken fried steak with mashed potatoes and garlic bread

  Just before the entrance to Badlands National Park, the bus made a quick stop at a place where they have what looks alike a large yard filled with holes.  Living there are prairie dogs.  I couldn’t get a good picture of them.  There were three that showed themselves.

   

  At 1 pm we arrived at Badlands National Park.  We stopped at the Window Trail.  All around us we could see these dirt mounds of various shapes and sizes.  Dave said that this whole area was underwater in the distant past until the sea receded.  They were mostly brown and gray but the taller ones still had some snow clinging onto them.  Some of them looked like palaces and pagodas.  All were created from water erosion.

  
  

  Scenery from the Window Trail, Badlands National Park

  Inside we watched a film inside the Ben Reifel Visitor Center describing the park.  There were also some fossils on display (e.g. titanothere horn, archaeoterium fossil).

  
  

  Fossil of Archaeoterium, an ancient piglike animal                           Depiction of what it should have looked like

  
  

  Titanothere horn                                                                   Depiction of a titanothere

  
  

  Me at Visitor Center

  

  
  

  Scenery around the Visitor Center

  Later we came to a certain viewpoint.  It was the most breathtaking view in the park.  To our right and below us we could how deep these wavy cliffs and canyons went.  Ahead of us were more badlands formations.  It was mesmerizingly majestic.  We even saw a rabbit on the side of the walkway.

  

  
  

  Badlands National Park

  The yellow mounds in the park were not very discernible because they were snow covered.  Dave had to point them out to us.

  
  

  Our new friend

  
  

  
  

  More new friends

  
  

  The Yellow Mounds

  The Ancient Hunters viewing spot is the last stop in the park for us.  We saw a deep canyon ahead and to the right.  Snow was still evident everywhere.  This place is slightly like a cross between the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon.  It is large like the Grand Canyon and has hoodoo-like formations like Bryce Canyon.  But all in all, what this park features stands alone as its own formations and its beauty speaks for itself.

  
  

  Ancient Hunters viewing point, Badland National Park

   On this trip we were expecting Mt. Rushmore to be the highlight but we were more impressed with Badlands National Park.  This is the absolute cannot-miss on this trip.

   

  We returned to Rapid City and had dinner at Hong Kong Buffet.  As you can guess, it’s an Ameri-Chinese buffet.

   

  Back at the hotel, we watched Huston Street blowing a save and ultimately the Colorado Rockies’ season ended.  It sets up a rematch of the NLCS between the Philadelphia Phillies and the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The night concluded with a very exciting Monday Night Football game with the Miami Dolphins defeating the New York Jets 31-27.

   

  October 13 – COMING HOME

   

  We had breakfast at 8:30 am which is after most people.  We then gathered the last of our stuff.  At 9:30 am we left the Quality Inn.  It was both rainy and windy on this day.

   

  In Rapid City we drove along Main St. and St. Joseph St.  On various corners are statues of past US Presidents.  Not all of them are there yet.  About 3 new statues are introduced each year.  Some of the ones that are present include George Washington, John Adams, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, John F. Kennedy, and Dwight Eisenhower.  There are plenty of others I cannot recall.

  
  

  Our pictures with John Adams in Rapid City

  The bus stopped off at a store called Prairie Edge.  Inside they have a wide selection of Native American stuff.  They have hides, beads, clothing, musical instruments, toys, and artwork.  I briefly tried a flute and a gourd piano.

  
  

  Prairie Edge store

  At ~10:30 am we arrived at Rapid City Regional Airport.  The group of ten that arrived after us on Saturday took off on a 1 pm flight.  Our flight is scheduled at 3:55 pm.

   

  During the wait, my father and I had lunch at their deli.  He had some tasty chicken tenders.  I had a pretty good bacon cheeseburger.  Tour leader Pichian Rojsiriwat then also had a burger.  He and my dad chatted for a while.  As kids, they were old schoolmates back in Thailand.

   

  Come 3:45 pm, we knew that our flight was late.  Pichian frantically communicated with a United Airlines person about our flight being late and the need to connect in Denver.

   

  We finally took off around 4:48 pm.  Our SkyWest CRJ200 landed in Denver at ~ 6:01 pm.  Our connecting flight is scheduled to depart at 6:12 pm.  My father and I tried to get there hopefully to get them to wait a bit.  However, it’s a really long walk from Gate B91 to B29.  When we finally got there, the plane just taxied from the gate.

   

  Pichian managed to get us another flight at 8:24 pm.  He, along with my father and I, were on standby.  During the wait, my dad and I went to Sara Lee Sandwich Shoppe for some dinner.  I ate a Cuban Style sandwich and he had what they call the Mountain Topper.  They were not bad.

   

  Fortunately we were able to board the flight.  It was a pretty turbulent flight for our 757 making me wish we could get there sooner than later.  Playing was “The Brothers Bloom” starring Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, and Mark Ruffalo.  We arrived at LAX at 10:40 pm.  It took a very long time for people to get off.  I didn’t understand the delay.  It was a bit rough because it was the hottest I had ever felt inside an airplane.  I was beginning to sweat quite a bit.

   

  Finally they let us out.  I was so relieved to be out of that hot plane.  My brother and mom were there to pick us up.

   

  I needed this trip.  It’s the first real trip I had taken since February.  I really enjoyed my time in South Dakota.  Living in Los Angeles, I don’t see snow so this was a welcome change.  It was great to take a trip with my father.  Most of my past adventures were with my mother.  We both had a terrific time.  I had a good time everywhere I went.  Spearfish Canyon was beautiful.  It was neat seeing the little towns of Deadwood and Keystone.  I’m glad to finally see Mt. Rushmore.  It was what I hoped it would be.  I thought this was going to be the highlight of this trip but everything was upstaged by the unique natural beauty of Badlands National Park.  My father agrees.  I would strongly recommend for anyone to come to the Black Hills and see all it has to offer.  Take the drive through Spearfish Canyon.  Of course come see Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial but you must include Badlands National Park as part of the itinerary.

  
  

  Last look at the Badlands

  • 12:46 pm
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