Well, to say the least, it’s been an interesting day. Due to a rather severe (and long) thunderstorm overnight, we didn’t get up to take photos of the sunrise this morning like we had planned. Frankly, there wasn’t really a sunrise as the storm raged through night and early morning. Around 6:30-7am, the storm calmed enough that we could get out of the tent and break down without getting the interior of the tent soaked as well. A quick breakfast, and we were on our way out of the Badlands to the Minuteman National Historic Site visitor center next to the Badlands Trading post off I-90.
Upon arriving, we quickly discovered that both tours of the control facility were booked for the day. (There are only two, one at 9:00am and one at 1:30pm – we were told that reservations have to be made well in advance… you’d think with something apparently so popular, they could have more than two tours a day. I’ll grant them that Tuesday is an open house, but still, I don’t see a logical reason they can’t offer more tours, especially since Tuesday isn’t convenient for a lot of people (Kevin and I included). I did however get to speak to a National Park Service volunteer who has a son who is a math teacher and has taught in 8 different countries. (I swear, everyone I talk to either knows someone living in bush Alaska or teaches somewhere unusual. It’s a great conversation starter.)
We took a trip out to the control facility anyways, even though we couldn’t get through the gate, we took a few photos through the fence, we’ll see how those turn out once I get into processing. Then it was a small trip up I-90 to the missile silo location, where we got to see what one of the actual silos looked like. Luckily for Kevin and I, the park ranger who was telling us about the silos mentioned that Ellsworth Air Force Base has a training silo that has public tours.
Kevin and I hit the road again, bound for Ellsworth, armed with my Military dependent’s ID card and no idea how to go about arranging a tour. So, I did what I normally do when I’m in these situations, I called up my brother who is in the Air Force and found out that he has a friend who was/is stationed at Ellsworth. Though, by the time he was able to get back to me, we had stumbled upon the South Dakota Air and Space Museum and had just heard a loudspeaker announcement telling us to buy tickets for the Ellsworth AFB tour if we wanted to see the silo. (Thanks anyways though Scott!)
A few hours later, and many, many frames of historic airplanes later, Kevin and I hit the road to Rapid City in order to find some food before continuing on to Mount Rushmore and Wind Cave. Right after Kevin rolled through a car wash that is.
Well… to put it more accurately, I headed for Rapid City and unbeknown to me, Kevin pulled over at the entrance to the I-90W on-ramp due to a horrible metal-on-metal sound coming from his front, driver-side tire. Thirty seconds down the road, I’m in construction and don’t realize for a few minutes that Kevin isn’t behind me. My phone was working by this point (must have gotten wet the night before – my keypad had stopped functioning) and my first call went straight to voicemail. I actually make it to Rapid City before I get through and find out what the situation is. A 10 mile drive back and Kevin and I have an hour wait before the tow truck arrives (or as one billboard we passed a few hundred miles before proclaimed, the “toe truck”).
Into Rapid City we go, to one of the two Subaru dealerships in the entire state (they’re both located at extreme ends of the state – good thing this didn’t happen in the middle of the state) to find out that the car wash had dislodged some mud and stone and a stone had gotten caught between the rotor and a piece of metal meant to protect the rotor. While they’re fixing that, we head out to find food (our first since the morning) at a nearby sports bar. While there, we find out that there’s a severe thunderstorm watch in effect with a nearby town reporting golf-ball size hail.
Deciding that camping in that would be… painful, I call billeting to find out that they’re full for the night. So, we ponied up the money for a hotel room and managed to pick the most expensive Super 8 either of us has ever run across on Tower Rd. in Rapid City. Our luck didn’t stop there as Rapid City apparently has no night life on a Monday evening. So, we went and saw the new Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, which wasn’t really all that bad, certainly not as bad as I feared it could be. And guess what… as of 12:48am, no hail or thunderstorms.
In the morning, Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave and who knows what else. To close, a picture of Kevin and I, along with a B-1B Lancer at the South Dakota Air and Space Museum.
Travel Distance: 130 miles