Sturgis & Deadwood

After our breakfast at Wall Drug we had a long day of driving and sightseeing planned – motorcycles and cowboys! First was more driving so I kept my eyes peeled for more fun signs since they seem to do that very well in this part of the world – I was not disappointed. Who would have thought that alligators might bite or that you could make wine from rhubarb?

And there were more firetrucks along the way for Firehouse Brewery – almost wanted to stop in Rapid City to check it out. These two were a bit more unique although they were all interesting.

 

 

Soon we reached Sturgis – home to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (started in 1938). We were not the only tourists in town but the rally wouldn’t happen for about a month so the streets were almost empty and not all the bars were open. But the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum was open and full of motorcycles – they really need more room as not everything is on display and many practically touch!

Before we left town we noticed a few other landmarks – a twelve step program building, a souvenir/leathers shop and at least one bar covering a block!

 

A short drive away took us back in time – the town of Deadwood has preserved a few blocks of Main Street that dates from the late 1800’s when Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok were in their prime.

We didn’t make it to the cemetery where they are buried but enjoyed all the old buildings. Casinos and tourist traps seem to be the main draw today. And there was a shootout in the street – the Old West is alive and well!

 

From there we headed to the small town of Custer for our next campground. Our neighbor helped around the campground but also volunteered as a re-enactor a few days a week in several nearby towns. He graciously put back on his costume (all authentic reproductions – although I think the guns are originals) for a few pictures.

It had been a very full day of driving and sightseeing – good thing we planned to take a day for relaxing before our next adventure.

Click here for Firehouse Brewing pictures, click here for Sturgis pictures, click here for Deadwood pictures and click here for pictures in Custer.

Badlands National Park

From Mitchell we continued west along Interstate 90 toward the Badlands of South Dakota. We continued to see signs for Wall Drugs – they are everywhere! Some are strictly informative.

Or they mentioned the many departments of the store.

Others are a blast from the past – free ice water was their original method of attracting tourists and the coffee is still only a nickel!

And some signs are just plain fun.

The signs definitely helped pass the time as the scenery didn’t change much! In addition to the Wall Drug signs I realized that I was seeing various fire engines beside signs for Firehouse Brewing – it was fun seeing the many different fire engines.

Eventually we crossed the Missouri River and noticed that the landscape changed to be more rolling hills than relatively flat – it made for a nice change.

Gas stations and a Mexican restaurant provided more great signs along the way.

In addition to signs there were cut-out sculptures in fields. I wonder if the stagecoach will reach safety before the Indians catch them?

One more sculpture and one more billboard before we reached the Badlands – dinosaurs are everywhere (including at all the Sinclair gas stations). And I’m sure the PETA people don’t know about this billboard!

 

Finally we reached Badlands National Park – both the Lakota and fur trappers considered this “bad land” to try to cross due to the extreme temperatures, lack of water and rugged landscape. Later pioneers and settlers also found it to be an extreme landscape – few stopped to settle but most continued on.  We drove the Badlands Loop Scenic Byway and stopped at numerous stops along the way – some were along the upper rim of the Badlands Wall and others were below the wall on the lower prairie. A fellow tourist took our picture – she had asked Charlie to take a picture of them (since he had a similar camera) and insisted on returning the favor.

Near the exit we encountered a huge prairie dog city – and had to dodge the crazy tourists stopping suddenly to take pictures!

It was rather late in the afternoon as we neared the park exit and saw this sign – but it wasn’t close enough to dusk for the bighorn sheep to be anywhere near the road.

After leaving the park we only had a short drive to our campground – we found a place to stay in Wall only a few blocks from Wall Drug! The campground was nothing special but allowed us to get up early the next morning and have breakfast at the famous drug store – which has grown from one storefront to a complex covering several blocks!

We ordered a typical diner breakfast at the counter, poured ourselves some good coffee and they quickly called our number! It was good food (especially considering the size of their dining room) and we were soon on the road to our next adventure!

Click here for general South Dakota pictures (you’ll see this album often as it covers several days of miscellaneous driving pictures), click here for Wall Drug signs, click here for the town of Wall and click here for the Badlands.

Detroit Area

I missed the Welcome to Michigan sign – got bounced so hard that I took a picture of the air above the sign! I probably should have called it in to the Pothole Hotline – but I’m not sure it would have helped. We found a reasonable deal on another fairground campground – close enough to Detroit that taking an Uber to go sightseeing was practical. With an address on Quirk Road it fit with our love of all things quirky.

 

The Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn is so extensive that we could have spent a lot more time there. We opted to only visit the Museum of American Innovation and they had to chase us out at closing time. Greenfield Village (seven different districts highlighting different aspects of 19th century life) would have been another good option for a full day of exploring.

There was so much to see – so after walking towards the DC-3 hanging in the center of the exhibit hall we started with a cup of coffee at the old fashioned diner!

Then we began with the cars – so many different cars. We tried to wander through them in an organized fashion and got sidetracked several times – but we always came back to the cars.

A display of clocks and another display of blown glass were situated in hallways off the main exhibit space – I’m sure many people miss them. We both love clocks – although Charlie is fascinated by the workings and I’m more interested in the decorative cases. There were many in this collection that were impressive. The evolution of art glass is pretty amazing – although the newer examples are not so much to my liking (I prefer the earlier examples). But the talent and skill are very much in evidence! The cases around the clocks and glass made it hard to take photographs due to reflections.

Back in the main exhibit hall we wandered through farm equipment as well as trains, airplanes, a stagecoach, buses and Presidential cars. Some of the airplanes were set up as if in use with single color statues of pilots, passengers, cargo, etc. – kind of eerie.

 

We toured a “house of the future” that never caught on – only one was ever built other than the prototype. It had some nice features but was quite small and not very flexible. There were furniture exhibits (not related to the futuristic house) as well as wood-burning stoves and sewing machines.

 

And then of course there were more cars – some exotic, unusual and fast ones.

 

Another Uber ride took us back to the RV and we prepared for moving on down the road tomorrow!

Click here for many, many more pictures from the museum and click here for just a few miscellaneous Michigan pictures.

Ohio

After we recovered from Lenny and our tour of Niagara Falls we headed for our next adventure – but first we had to get around Lake Erie! Unfortunately we did not plan ahead and file the appropriate paperwork to go through Canada (and get back into the United States) with everything that is on board the RV. So rather than traveling to the north of Lake Erie (the most direct route from Niagara Falls to Detroit) we had to go around the south – back through New York, Pennsylvania and then Ohio.

As we made our way around the lake we managed to avoid the garbage truck in Buffalo that previously sideswiped us and broke a running light (not noticed until we reached Niagara Falls) as well as get through Pennsylvania to arrive in Ohio! We didn’t go far before we found a campground for the night.

Next morning we headed for Cuyahoga Valley National Park hoping to see Brandywine Falls and perhaps take a short hike. For some reason we had trouble finding any of the Visitor Centers and when it looked like we found the right road we were over the weight limit! Eventually we found the road to Brandywine Falls and finally arrived – and the parking lot would not accommodate our large RV. A rather frustrating day – and not a picture was taken!

At that point we gave up and headed to a campground in Sandusky for the night. We finally got an answer to what all the fluff floating in the air was – seeds from cottonwood trees. It looks like overgrown dandelion seeds puffs and is rather thick at times. The campground was nice – big trees and a few bunnies to entertain the kids.

After a good night’s rest we were off and running – following Lake Erie again. We passed Oregon before crossing the Maumee River in Toledo. Then we headed north – leaving Ohio behind.

 

Sorry – no Flickr album for these few Ohio pictures – let us know if you absolutely need to see a higher resolution photo (or alternative Oregon sign or bridge photo).

Niagara Falls

More farmland and tree-lined highways on our drive from the campground and back into New York. Signs for towns with names from far away – Rock City and Cassadaga are well known as tourist attractions in the south, Dunkirk is a famous French city. And a rather questionably named camp! Another Walmart stop then we headed along Lake Erie through Buffalo and got settled in our campground in Grand Island – outside Niagara Falls.

 

Waterfalls are kind of our thing – we kid that we’ve been to most every waterfall in the area where we usually vacation (north Georgia & western North Carolina). Some waterfalls that we’ve hiked to may have been as tall but the sheer width of Niagara Falls makes them so much more overwhelming! We opted to take an Uber from the campground to Niagara Falls State Park and planned to see as much as we could on our own but once we got to the park we changed our minds and decided to take a tour as we could see more, in less time, for a relatively reasonable price. We didn’t cross into Canada but from what we could see I have to agree with someone I heard saying that the US side is more nature oriented and the Canadian side is more touristy (although tourists are the name of the game on both sides).

Our tour guide was Lenny – a big kid full of information. First stop was the farthest away – Whirlpool Point. The river narrows after the falls and goes through rapids before making a sharp turn – the water is moving so fast that it turns back on itself creating a whirlpool in the turn. The Canadians run a cable car across the whirlpool.

Next stop was Terrapin Point on Goat Island – separating the American side (Bridal Veil & American Falls) from the Canadian (Horseshoe Falls). The edge of the island sticks out to the edge of the falls so the views are fabulous – complete with rainbows! We watched several of the Maid of the Mist boats from the US and Hornblower Cruises from Canada take tourists as close as possible to the base of the Horseshoe Falls – all wearing disposable rain ponchos (blue for Maid of the Mist and red for Hornblower). Then we headed for Cave of the Winds where we received sandals and yellow rain ponchos so we could walk along several levels of boardwalks and decks near the base of the Bridal Veil and American Falls. It is definitely windy – and although they have a Hurricane Deck, I’m not sure the winds are quite hurricane force. I was extra careful not to step on the bottom of the rain poncho going up and down all the steps – and I held on with both hands when I could since it was so wet and slippery!

Once back up at the top we had a bit of time to explore Luna Island (that separates Bridal Veil Falls from the American Falls) and look back down on where we had been just a few minutes previously. Once again we were right at the edge of the falls!

Before leaving Goat Island we made a quick stop at the Three Sister Islands – three small islands named for sisters connected by bridges that allowed us to venture a bit farther into the Niagara River above the falls.

Our last stop was at Prospect Point for the Maid of the Mist cruise and view from the Observation Tower. We still had on our sandals from the Cave of the Winds so with the addition of the blue rain poncho we were ready. Charlie got some nice pictures of the base of the American Falls (and the Cave of the Winds area) but everything was too white and wet sitting in the center of the Horseshoe Falls for any pictures there. We also noticed birds hanging out on this rock – not sure of the species.

After the cruise we took in the views from the top of the observation tower – great views of the American and Bridal Veil Falls but the Horseshoe Falls were hidden by Goat Island and only the enormous spray cloud was visible.

It was now time to say good-bye to Lenny – he was so much fun and full of information. Obviously he knows where to find props for jokes – posing for the passing wind shot. He has also taught several birds and squirrels near Prospect Point to recognize him (he whistles a distinctive short tune) and can feed them from his hand. Lenny offered to share his bird food with any of us interested in attracting the birds – some of the young girls in our group had good luck attracting them.

We called Uber to take us home – tired but full of amazing memories.

Click here for all the Niagara Falls pictures and click here for the miscellaneous New York pictures!