Tuesday - September 22

Well this day didn’t start really great. James and I went to the hot tub last night and the chlorine level was extremely high. I didn’t shower when we got back and during the night I itched and stung from the chlorine. Not a lot of sleep. I got up at 5 a.m. and took a shower and then, after breakfast, I took a Benadryl to stop the itching and boy was I sleepy. We left Hill City, SD, headed to Spearfish Canyon but took a wrong turn and wound up in Deadwood. We didn’t stop there but it appeared to be a historic town where 70% of the buildings are now casinos! Since Spearfish Canyon was several miles in the opposite direction, we decided to continue to the geological center of the U.S., located in Belle Fourche, SD where we made pictures at the monument (that is me standing near the monument.) From there we went into Wyoming headed to Devil’s Tower. Again, another handiwork of God. This tower has literally RISEN out of the earth through erosion of the land around it. We have several pictures but I selected the one with James and the tower several miles in the background. That picture gives you a good idea of the size of the tower. There is another picture where an artist created a sculpture entitled the “Ring of Smoke” and it is positioned so that you can see the tower through the sculpture. This is one of the few pictures that we have together. We then headed toward North Dakota, following Mz Lizzie’s direction (our GPS). She took us on some more back roads named as highways through an old town named Hullet, Wyoming, where the stores reminded us of western pioneer days. The countryside is beautiful with hills that are three different colors (terracotta at the bottom, light gray beige in the middle, and a golden brown on the top.) We have really enjoyed the countryside. Then we entered North Dakota. There are miles and miles of road and pasture land. Very few homes and no towns. We stopped at one country store and there was a sign “TOWN for sale – store, gas pumps, house and 6 ½ acres.” That is how far apart everything is. We finally got to interstate 94 and thought it would be easy to find a hotel at Dickinson – no luck – EVERY hotel in town was full and we had to drive another 20 miles to find a room. There we learned that the rooms were full because a tornado hit Dickinson a couple of months ago and there was significant damage to two apartment complexes. Between the people living in hotels, the construction workers, and the fact that hunting season has opened, everything is full in that area. The one good thing about the late ride was the sunset. Absolutely beautiful! We are really tired and plan to sleep late tomorrow for a change.