Lincoln Highway
Day 25
Today was a relatively easy driving day. We were on highway 14, a nice 2 lane highway . No mountains or hills to climb. It was a pretty drive and everything was green, not the brown we expected. The reason it’s so green is because MT & WY have had a lot of rain this year.
Wyoming is the least populated state and I would believe it. Only a few houses dotted the countryside and they didn’t seem to be near any town. We didn’t see that many cattle or horses either, just wide open spaces.
Spotted Horse is on the map as a town, but all we saw was a really cool store that we had to take pictures of. It had a Standard Oil sign and next to it was an American Flag and a rearing spotted horse statue. The store, itself had lots of hand printed signs tacked to the walls and posts advertising candy, beer, whiskey, burgers, ice cream and soda. The store didn’t look open but there was a couple working in the yard nearby. After a few minutes the woman came over, asked where we were going and said we should leave before it got too hot. I guess they didn’t appreciate us being there.
At New Castle we turned south towards Custer, SD. We forgot that the Black Hills also have twisting roads and again we were climbing up at a slow speed. I think Steve has had just about enough white knuckling the mountains. Tomorrow’s straight roads on the prairie will be a welcome sight.
Finally we made it to Custer. It’s obviously the height of tourist season as the traffic was horrendous for such a small town. The sidewalks were filled with people going in and out of the stores and of course, I was one of them. While I looked in a few stores, Steve sat outside on a bench in front of The Custer Senior Center Gift Shop and rested.
We have been to the Black Hills many times and this is the first time I was ok skipping the tourist attractions like, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse and other things. I think we both are really tired and anxious to get home, but the one thing I did want to do was drive in Custer State Park in hopes of seeing a Buffalo.
At the gate to the park we asked the Park Ranger for a day pass, but they only sell 1 week passes for $20 bucks! We bought it, but it was a waste of money because look as we might, no buffalo anywhere were in sight. Poor Steve had to drive 30 extra miles for nothing. I was bummed, too.
As we left the park and headed for Rapid City it started to rain; the first we’ve had on this entire trip. We skipped driving anymore twisting roads in the hills and went to the main thoroughfare, a busy 4 lane divided highway. Rain is bad enough, but then it got worse. We had our 4th flat tire. Now every tire on the car has gone flat. This time, though, we didn’t have any turnouts to go to, only the shoulder of the road.
We sat a minute or two until the rain let up a little, then Steve went to work. The stem of the inner tube was ripped off, so that inner tube is toast! We can’t have another flat, so those of you who pray, please pray we won’t.
It was a lot scarier this time being on the shoulder of a busy highway when it was raining. I kept praying the cars and semi’s coming at us, would see us. Most of them moved over and soon the spare tire was on. We headed to the motel where Steve worked on the car some more in the rain, before coming in to clean up. Finally, it stopped raining and luckily, a Culver’s was next to the motel so we walked over there to eat.
One last thing I wanted to see in Rapid City was Art Alley and it was only 2 miles away. Art Alley is an informal site for graffiti artists and in 2016 Rapid City decided to make the site into a formal community project. It’s unusual, but I think it’s a great idea for the city to promote and I was glad Steve felt refreshed enough to take me there.
Rapid City is also known as the City of Presidents . On every corner of the city is a bronze statue of a past president. The project started in 2000 to make downtown Rapid a must-see destination. We took some pictures of the statues that were near Art Alley before we headed back to the motel, where Steve went promptly to bed and was asleep immediately.
Tomorrow our destination is Huron, SD, before our last day on the road to home.
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