Our breakfast was a bit late, after we rushed out of the hotel since we hadn't gotten up too early. We left our bags with the hotel and walked across the street to a diner that was highly rated. Since the wait was a half hour, we decided it wasn't worth it and walked down the block to Alternative Fuel - a little coffee house. I ordered the farmer's quiche, which was good, but very greasy in the crust. My coffee was quite good, although Chris didn't like it as well since he's become accustomed to our Aero Press which makes good strong coffee. I walked back to the hotel to gather our bags as Chris walked up the parking structure to get the car.
As I crossed the street I saw a man in a wheelchair, who looked a bit unkempt, and his foot looked infected. I saw him approach a few women in front of me and asked them for something and the women denied him. He then came up to me and gave me his story - he was a vet and he was trying to gather money for a place to stay that evening. I couldn't hear the whole thing, he spoke fairly quietly. I asked him if there was a shelter around, thinking I could maybe help him find one if he needed it. Apparently that was where he was staying, but he wanted a good night's rest. I have no reason to not believe that. I don't know about the local shelters, but sometimes people are concerned about things being stolen in their sleep, or there may be people making noises, etc. I had almost no cash on me, and generally I don't give cash out to homeless, knowing all too often homeless have addictions. I will try to give food, if I have any, or if I can, I will buy food from somewhere nearby if I have time. I told him I'd be happy to buy him a meal (I could use my credit card). He said he had just eaten, so I told him I didn't have enough money for a room, and said sorry and he turned away. I often walk away from those situations feeling guilty for not doing more. I could have given him the few dollars I had on me, and really if he had used it poorly, that's on his head, not mine, but the $2-3 wouldn't have gotten him far on a hotel room either. I have served at a homeless shelters and I have helped organizations handing out food, backpacks, etc. from time to time. I know most big cities have programs for homeless and most homeless (perpetual homeless anyway) generally know where to go and how to get what they need. No matter what, I hope that man was able to get what he needed and can have a good night's sleep.
Chris was there with the car shortly after I had gotten our luggage, and we loaded and headed up to Deadwood. This time we didn't go on as much of a backwoods highway, it was a bigger road, but still quite a beautiful drive. We arrived at Deadwood, but I didn't know much about it, so we first drove into a museum parking lot, checked if it cost, which it did, so we decided to keep looking. A few more blocks up we drove right through the main street of the original town, and seeing what was there, decided to drive back to the free public parking with visitor's information. We went inside and the lady working there gave us some places to not miss, maps and we were off, deciding to walk up the road instead of taking the trolley. I needed to get in my exercise!
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| Main Street in Deadwood |
Main street is just crowded with old west history, or at least shops and casinos and restaurants playing off the history. Apparently there was a Chinatown here as well. I guess it shouldn't surprise me, but it did. The street was divided into upper Main Street where things were more reputable, and the "badlands" where things were not reputable. The Chinese had to be in the badlands, and among their more reputable businesses, they also ran opium houses. We learned later that they had tunnels underground because they were not allowed to be above ground after 6pm. It is really sad how much of our history is so segregated and built on racism.
One of the first places we came to was a saloon where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed. It was the original "No. 10 Saloon" (there was another across the street). The upper level was a series of shops with old west items (some antique, some new). There was a bar selling drinks. Apparently there was a fire shortly after Hitchcock was shot and killed that burned down most of the town. Also, there were a few floods, so they decided to rebuild the town on top of the old town. So, if we wanted to see where he was really shot, we had to buy a ticket for a 15 minute tour. If we bought a drink with the ticket, we'd save a dollar, so we decided we would do this, but not yet. I wanted to go catch the "True Tales of Calamity Jane" being performed down in front of the Tin Lizzie.
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| Wild Bill sat at the table, but this time his back was not against the wall. Jack McCall took advantage and shot him. |
"Calamity Jane" started a bit late, and she really didn't do that great of a job, I thought. A lot of people were gathered around her, but I felt like she told us a whole lot of nothing and nothing really that funny or that true. She was cut off when they started with a little melodrama in the middle of the street (they have performances all throughout the afternoon). This skit was better, and they had called the kids out and "deputized" them. The skit was about a man who apparently was shot in his head one day in the saloon and then walked around town with the bullet hole for something like sixty plus days. He died one afternoon in his hotel room, and it wasn't because of the bullet but because of a bone which had abscessed and become infected in his skull. Weird story...can you imagine a man with a bullet wound in his forehead just walking around your town?
We decided to go back to the No. 10 Saloon and have that drink, and gave in to do the tour too. An older woman in a blond wig with a black cowboy hat took us down the stairs where the owners had found furniture, gaming equipment, and weapons from the time period to decorate. A table sat in the corner and on top were hats and guns for us to use in our pictures. The lady did a good job of telling the story about how Wild Bill was playing poker and wasn't able to sit in his usual seat with his back to a wall. Jack McCall came in and shot him in the head from behind. This instantly reminded me how my dad always jokes (or at least I assume he's joking) that always has to sit with his back to a wall because of this story. I had forgotten that this was who he was referencing. Chris laughed when I told him because he remembered my telling that story before. The saloon had pictures up of Hickok, Calamity Jane, the city of Deadwood, and replicas of Hickok's guns. It was pretty good and I was glad we had spend the money to do it.
We continued up the street where there were many bikers driving their big fancy loaded bikes. Oe had a trailer and riding in it was their dog. That was a great scene. I know Sturgis up farther north is huge for bikers. We have seen so many bikers in these hills. We found the restaurant which Kevin Costner owned and had hung a several of his costumes from movies. We decided to go up and eat a snack to hold us over until dinner. We ordered a whole basket of fried items and it tasted so good. I was afraid I'd pay for that later, and I did. Fried foods don't mix well with me.
We continued up the street to the Adams Museum, where it houses several artifacts and the stories of Deadwood. It was an interesting museum, and I appreciated learning a bit more of the history. Much of this history is just glossed over in the history texts I used for school and we never really had time to go into it, so I don't remember much about these people or places. I did have fun skimming through a travel journal kept by Mr. Adams about his trip from Deadwood to LA in the 1920's. He and his family took almost the same route I had taken my first time to South Dakota!
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| Deadwood Gulch |
On our way down we stopped at a cute little coffee shop called the Pump House. It was in what looked like an old gas station/mechanic shop. They had it decorated in that theme and all their food was named after car mechanics. It was clever. On the other half was a glass blowing studio and much of the blown glass was for sale on the coffee shop side. Whoever was the glass blower didn't seem to be working at that time though. We took our iced coffee to go and began our three hour trek across the open prairie to Pierre, where we were staying for the night.
The drive out was so beautiful. From Deadwood, there were hillsides of flowers. In the prairies, yellow was joined by a lot of purple flowers. I had exclaimed on our way through Nebraska on Sunday that I knew what Laura Ingalls Wilder was talking about now when she wrote about her love for the prairie in the spring when it was all in bloom. I could just drive through these green hills for hours and never tire of them. We drove along the northern side of the Pine Ridge Reservation and found these signs that kept referencing a place call Wall Drug. I had never heard of it, and didn't know what to make of it, but they sure were clever at advertising. So many large billboards along the side of the road amping up the place, so Chris and I decided we should stop (we needed a restroom break anyway).
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| Wall Drug |
We finally reached Wall Drug and drove past these huge silos into a long, skinny, packed parking lot lined on both sides with several building designed like an Old West town. Come to find out that Wall Drug had been built by a man around his well where he served free ice water from to lure in the travelers. The travelers would then, I'm sure, buy from his store or eat at his restaurant. Clever. There were so many little stores, and even a travelers' chapel. I'm not sure how much is original and how much has been built up over the years, but wow there was a lot to see and do. They even had a "backyard" that had a playground for kids, one of those water areas where kids can run through and it shoots up randomly from the ground. No wonder we had seen this place listed on the back of shirts worn by a family in Deadwood as one of the places on their summer trip. It is a kids' paradise.
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| Well that Wall Drug built their business around and offered free ice water to get people to stop |
I slowed down (many of the highways are 75-80 mph) to around 60 mph and tried to coast our downhills (the road continually dipped and rose along our route). I was getting the miles we were covering to match the miles of the tank. In fact, I raised the mpg from 40.8 to 42.2. We got closer and closer...even just a mile or two out and nothing. No lights even shining in the distance to welcome us and make it feel like we weren't in the middle of nowhere. We did start to pass some farmhouses every now and then, and we were behind a few other cars, but it was just so crazy to me that we were approaching a capitol but you would never know it! We rolled into the edge of town and into the first gas station we saw with 5 miles left on the tank. The station looked closed, although teams of mosquitos were waiting to welcome us. We breathed a sigh of relief when we saw it was 24 hours - using a credit card. And they had diesel. Another sigh of relief. They not only had diesel, but they had premium diesel, off road diesel, and #2 diesel. I had no idea there were so many kinds of diesel. I was just grateful for the #2 that would quench the thirst of my faithful little Jetta.
We drove the extra mile or two to our hotel past the seemingly desolate shops. We made it discovered that Pierre was just across the river. Pierre, at almost 14,000 people, is the second smallest capitol in the US. You add the almost 3000 from Fort Pierre, an urban area of 17,000 is pretty small. My stomach was not happy from the fried food and coffee then added on top, so we skipped going out to find dinner and instead just bought microwavable soup at the hotel lobby. A few more hours and then to bed. We needed to try to get an early start to De Smet in the morning.
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