Left the Badlands this morning and travelled the back road across the open plains back through Rapid City and on to Sturgis. All you motorbike fans would know that Sturgis is famous for the huge motorcycle rally that is held here in August every year where 30,000 people decend on the place. Normally there is only a couple of thousand people live here. So the town might bulge at the seams in August but at this time of year they appear to be struggling. Quite a few empty shops and the ones that are open all sell the same touristy t shirts etc.( Mostly last years Stugis rally shirts). We went into the information centre where the motorcycle museum is but didn’t bother going in the museum as it is very small when you compare it to the one at home in Cooloongalook. Anyway, we booked into an RV park just as it was starting to rain and what do you know there was another tornado alert on. The wind got quite strong and the rain got quite heavy and then the sirens went off which usually means you’re in imminent danger so we jumped out of the van and ran up to the office. There were only 3 other campers in the whole park so we didn’t crowd the office out too much. Anyway, the lady in the office (who was from Florida and only minding the park) wasn’t sure what to do either so she rang the authorities who told her they had let the siren off by mistake. The tornado did eventually touch down on highway 73 between two little towns about 80 miles north east of us called Howes and Faith and destroyed a farm shed and a small school. Luckily there was nobody in either at the time.
Gambling Saloon in Sturgis
Deadwood, Home of Wild Bill Hickok – Tuesday, 25th May 2010
On to another small town but this one has a huge history. Anyone who has watched the series “Deadwood” would love this town. It’s all there and if the walls could talk. There are saloons everywhere you look and lovely old historic buildings. They’ve even kept the old train station that was once the centre of town and now use it as a tourist information centre. By allowing gambling in the town they can fund the restoration of the buildings which is working out quite well. We climbed Boot Hill to the Mt. Moriah Cemetary and visited Wild Bill Hicock and Calamity Jane’s gravesites and that was another weird thing we noticed. Only in America can you make money out of a cemetary. They charge you a dollar each to walk in. Now, I know it’s not much but I was offended at the principle of making money out of a graveyard so I promptly asked the woman ‘What if I was here to visit a relative?’ and her answer was there are no relatives left of the people in here. Now, what I want to know is who put the fresh flowers on some of the graves in there. I think she told me a furfy.
Wild Bill and Calamity Jane’s graves
We also had a tour through the Adam’s house which was built in the late 1800’s by one of the original people that came to Deadwood when the gold rush was on and one of the very few who became rich there. Although having money didn’t make his life any better as he lost his daughter at the age of 28 to typhoid and then lost his wife to cancer and within three days of that he lost his other daughter at the age of 33 during childbirth. The child also died.
Adams House
We also went through the museum which was really good and had a very comprehensive collection although we were not allowed to take photos. The characters were all in there including Diamond Lil who ran the whorehouse.
After we left Deadwood we drove through Spearfish Canyon and on to a state recreation area called Rocky Point. This is a beautiful place but quite windy. I don’t think there is anywhere to escape the wind in Dakota and Wyoming. We are now only about 20 miles from the geographical centre of the United States and a couple of spectacular lightning storms in the distance.
Rocky Point
No comments:
Post a Comment