6/13/20 Deadwood Trail and Wall Drug, South Dakota

6/13/20  Sorta following the Lewis and Clark trail, we take the back roads along Rt 7 out of Minnesota onto SD 212 and see only farm after farm, corn and cows, with a small town and/or a granary every now and then.  Have to watch gas tank closely as LONG distances between stations.  Lovely and way more relaxing than Interstate 90.  Driving 65 versus 75 increase our gas mileage from 10.2 to 11.5 until the headwind kicks up and drives it back down to 10.

Missouri River at West Bend

From the camper on the Missouri River at West Bend Recreation Area near Lower Brule SC, we have views of the vast grasslands and gently rolling hills that were once home to millions of bison. The area has a rich human history, too, having been home to several branches of the Sioux and Dakota tribes.  The river here forms almost a complete circle (west bend) which Meriwether Lewis in his journal in 1804 stated that to travel the bend by land it was 2000 yards, by river it was 30 miles.  Because they had so many boats and supplies they had to take the river route.  

Traveling along Route 212 and SD 14 we follow parts of the old 200 mile Deadwood Trail seeing signs indicating wagon train ruts from the 1874 gold rush.   We take a break at Fort Pierce (pronounced "Peer" by the early German and Scandinavian   settlers) which was the nearest port to gather people and supplies heading to search for gold in Deadwood, SD.   Although the Fort is gone the state house and fighting horse sculpture is beautiful.  

Deb at Wall Drug

Leaving Minnesota on 212 no "Welcome to South Dakota" greeted us, just the first of dozens of "Wall Drug" signs.  Deb pouts when John says we're not going through Wall this trip so he changes his mind and goes 20 minutes out the way to placate his loving wife.  What a sweetheart he is.  We get our free for vet's coffee and doughnut at the cafe.  It is worth the stop just for that doughnut!  Meandering through to the bookstore where we always find a treasure or two, we pick up some jam in another shop.  We love to buy jam from the local area when we travel.  It keeps a long time and soooooo fun to pull out papaya jam from Hawaii for our waffles in middle of winter or cactus jam from Utah.  Makes us get the bug to get back on the road! 

Fighting Horse Sculpture, Fort Pierce SD

Wall Drug Sign in  France WWII