Day 35 - Badlands to Black Hills
Woke up to find Vicky was cleaning the windshield on the RV
using the stuff our new friends (who we met last night) had given us. It seems to work well. We then went over to the campground office
where they serve pancakes and sausages in the morning. Had a good breakfast (Quill and Cosette had
their usual raw cat food, not pancakes) and then packed up and hit the road.
We retraced the path we'd taken yesterday through the Badlands
National Park. The rock formations look different in
daylight, but we only stopped once - to examine the different grasses and
plants on the prairie. We learned that
early settlers introduced new plants to "beautify" the prairie, and
inevitably the introduced plants took over from the native plants. However, forest fires, which are a natural
phenomenon, wipe out the non-native
plants, but the native ones grow back.
Rangers are now using controlled burns to wipe out the "alien"
grasses and plants.
We continued past the point we reached yesterday and
eventually made it to the western exit gate.
If anything, the scenery we saw for the first time today was even more
impressive than yesterday's. This really
is a place to come back to and spend more time.
On the way out we saw more prairie dogs, some bighorn sheep
and a bison.
8 miles from the park gate, and we were in the town of Wall,
home of Wall Drug. "So what?"
you say. Well, all the way from Sioux
Falls along I-90 we had been seeing signs telling us
of the things one can do at Wall Drug, so we had to stop. It IS a drugstore, but also a restaurant,
soda fountain, western clothing store, gift shop, ice dream parlor and a whole
lot more, expanding over a city block.
We had lunch - buffalo burger for me - while the cats slept. In 1931 - during the Depression, a couple
bought the drug store and gave themselves 5 years to make it successful. This was a time when nobody in the town was
making any money, and the couple was getting nowhere. Then the wife had the idea of offering free
ice water to travelers on hot summer days.
They put signs along the highway - the precursors of the ones we had
seen - and the rest is history. They
still offer free ice water and 5 cent coffee.
We had the coffee and offered water to the cats, who refused.
Returning to I-90 we continued towards Rapid
City to find the wind was picking up. Nowhere near as bad as on Saturday but not
much fun either. We ended up making a
detour that took us through the center of Rapid City,
since we found some (relatively) cheap gas which is important considering how
much the RV uses. After leaving the
Badlands we were at first on the prairie but soon came into rolling hills and
by the time we reached Rapid City we were in hills, the famous (and beautiful)
Black Hills.
We were climbing all the time for the final part of the
journey to Custer, at an elevation of 5,318 feet. We're staying at Beaver Lake Campground for
the next week. Our site is quite
private, with great views of the forest.
The campground has rabbits but we didn't see any yet. On arrival we had a shock. The car was in tow. We'd locked it in Wall and when Vicky went to
unlock it with the remote, she couldn't.
I did unlock it with the key and found the battery was dead. We unhitched and brought the RV to our great
camping spot. Meanwhile, the people at the campground were very helpful and got
the car started for us with a charger. I
found a wire connected to the positive battery terminal that had a 20 amp fuse
in it, and this fuse had blown. I'd
later find out that this was part of the package put in to power the car ligts
and brakes from the RV when towing.
Still don't know why the fuse blew, but it hasn't happened again - touch
wood!
We then let the engine run for a while and drove the car into town to stock up on supplies. I sat in the car with the engine running
while Vicky did the shopping.
I discovered the "check engine" light was on, and
consulted the manual. It said the
onboard diagnostics had detected a fault with the emission control system. It shouldn't affect driving but ought to be
checked. I then checked email and found
we had several messages from "Hum", which is a diagnostic system for
the car that we got as part of our subscription to Verizon for phone service
and internet. They had notified me about
the battery problem yesterday, but being out in the country I hadn't checked
it. Today they gave me 4 mysterious
codes so I called their tech support line.
They said the codes had something to do with the transmission control
module. The tech asked me if the check
engine light was on. He said that since
it was solid and not flashing, and the car was drivable, I would probably be OK
but I should take it to a Ford dealer as soon as I could.
He also said it could be a false warning because of the flat
battery, in which case it would go away after about 3 or 4 drives.
So tomorrow, as well as visiting the Crazy Horse Memorial
and Mount Rushmore, we'll probably be making an
appointment with a Ford dealer. Never a
dull moment on the road - I wish there were a few. But this place is still beautiful and the
people are friendly and helpful.
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