This morning, we had a real breakfast (more than oatmeal made with a camping stove and bagels with peanut butter) for the first time in nearly two weeks! Naturally, the buffet was on the lower floor of the casino. Before leaving, we decided to try out the Buckwalter luck at some of the slot machines. Unfortunately, neither of us has ever gambled in a casino before, so we had to ask how to do it. We did not win big...or at all.
On our way out of Deadwood, we visited the Mount Moriah Cemetery. It sits on a huge hill overlooking Deadwood Gulch (the entire town) and has gravesites dating back to the mid-1800s, including Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. The cemetery is full of history, telling the stories of Deadwood and its citizens over the past 150 years.
Our next stop was Mount Rushmore. To get there, we drove through the beautiful Black Hills National Forest, where it seemed like the preferred method of transportation was ATV type vehicles, even on the highway. As we got close to Mount Rushmore National Park, the traffic got heavier. In fact, it was a little like shopping on Black Friday, which surprised us because it’s a weekday and still early in the season. (Our pass is good until December if anyone is planning a trip.) Honestly, we had mixed feelings about the experience. First, it was SUPER touristy and overly crowded. Also, Chad didn’t really agree with the carving of a beautiful mountain face and the way the rock debris from blasting was left at the base. However, we were impressed by the history of it and how it was constructed.
The only other stop we made was Wall Drug store, a weird tourist attraction in Wall, South Dakota. It’s one of those places that you see signs for every 30 yards for 100 miles, but after you stop, you’re not sure what it is or what you just saw. One cool thing is they have a Zoltar machine (80s movie - Big).
We reached our sixth state of the trip in the evening, Minnesota (king of the wind farms). The amount of windmills must nearly exceed the amount of people in some of these small towns! We’ve determined that Oregon is leading the way in electric charging stations, and Minnesota is kicking butt in the wind energy arena.
We did a lot of driving today. And being the first day of summer, it was also the first day of our trip that we didn’t have to wear our heavy down jackets. #winning
