Tuesday, May 8, 2007

Changed our minds again

First off, despite the promises...

...no internet access yesterday. And my warranty replacement aircard will not work either. Jackson has no native Sprint service, so I cannot call and debug, so... grrr. So, now I post yesterday's info, and in a few hours I'll tell you about today.

Anyway, we touristed a little in Rapid City, bought a few things, walked down their "art alley" and saw the nicest, cleanest, best-stocked gun store I have ever seen.



Ellsworth Air Force Base is about 5 miles from Rapid City, and has a free air museum, so right before leaving town, we went there. Turns out it was some security status thing, so there was a huge line to get in. For everyone, not just the museum. We lucked out, and the gas station let us park and walk, and the AF Security guys were mostly very nice and didn't mind at all as we walked thru their security cordons (they were doing the car searches in the museum parking lot). Interesting assortment of gear; from LC-2 and helmets worn to the kevlar, to aftermarket armor carrier vests. The best dressed was the dog handler, and Alison actually asked if we could take a photo (she liked the dog). To my total lack of suprise, he said 'no.'


Alison saw the phrase "hot springs" on the highway map and it turns out she has always had a secret dream to visit one, so we suddenly reconfigured our trip on the fly, and went to Thermopolis instead. This worked out, and we'll tell about it in the next post.

We also stopped in Deadwood for a sort of lunch/dinner. Cool that its right in a tiny mountain valley, but that's it. Everything is ruined by the faux-history, and way-too-new buildings to take advantage of the tourists, and apparently the lax gaming laws in SD.


Because of the two-lane US routes, Alison wanted to drive. Because its fun, and reminds her of home. Really dramatic scenery, and I took far too many photos to share now.



We also saw some wildlife. While still on the plains, there was a herd of antelope. We got a video of them milling, then running away. Its cool, but I am not gonna bother uploading it from the road so you'll just have to take my word for it.



A reasonably lovely, casual vacation travel day, rounded off nicely with a speeding ticket for Alison...

...and a late dinner at a nice, local hamburger and ice cream stand in Thermopolis.

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