Backward to Chamberlain

Mad Dash to Al’s Oasis

Yet another “included” breakfast missed, we drove up to Subway, where they make it until 11 AM; the only place in town where you can carry your breakfast away and eat it outside. Once finished, we declared we wouldn’t stop until Wall, and promptly pulled over two minutes later to photograph our last painted bison, which we had missed on our bison hunts on previous days.



Here are a few more. I think there must have been two dozen, including the one up at the Crazy Horse Museum, which is in an earlier entry.





This is my favorite:



And then we really did drive all the way to Wall, which for us is a prodigious feat. I mean, with the three dogs and the coffee and the soda and wanting to look at everything? The only reason we went so far without stopping is that we were retracing a previous route. Mostly. Because we had actually come into Custer the back way, and now we were going out the front, but with all the sightseeing we did, we’d seen a lot of that already, too.

So we went to Wall for a couple of reasons. First, we know how few chances there are to eat going across the state, so we had to get some lunch at yet another Subway. Second, I wanted a couple of bags of magnetite, one for me and one for my friend Jim. The plan was, if I didn’t get it someplace else, I’d stop into Wall Drug on the way back. Well, no rock shop we went to had it, so I went back, and while I was there, I got a bunch of stocking stuffers, too.

It was too early to actually eat lunch so we took it along and ate it in a rest stop where no dogs were supposed to be allowed at the picnic tables. But we put their cages in the shade with us and no one said anything. Of course, no one was there. No one much is anywhere in the middle of South Dakota.

And that’s one more example of how good dogs are treated like pariahs while children, no matter how badly behaved, are treated like celebrities. At the moment, I’m writing in Kentucky about other places and other times, but subsequent blogs will fill in the blanks. The point is, no matter who you are or how much money you have, if you have pets, you aren’t welcome in more places than any and every screaming, violent child. I may be mistaken, but I think in many cases, the laws prevent businesses from refusing to accommodate children, but they CAN refuse pets. Naturally, we take our business elsewhere; we have to. But given a choice, if you favor bratty kids over my dogs, you will not see one red cent of my money.

Our goal for that day was Chamberlain, on the banks of the Missouri River, a really beautiful little spot with a nice restaurant and one truly lousy motel. We saw it on our way out, and thought it was about as far as we could comfortably go in one day. If only we had gone farther! But we’ll deal with that next time.

Here you can see how pretty Chamberlain is, first from east of the river, and then from the west:

Bear Country

If I can ever get on-line again, you will hear about Bear Country, USA and the drive from Rapid City to Custer. One of the joys of travelling, along with bag drags and crazy, nasty people, has been the spottiness of WiFi availability. My computer and/or AOL may be part of the problem, too.

We were advised to go to Bear Country as far back as Glenn’s Tire in Clear Lake, where we had our headlight replaced. Very nice people!



So we headed there, after Wall. It was quite a short, and pretty, drive to Cedar Rapids, And Bear Country was right there on the road (along with the Cosmos, Reptile World and a place that sells huge busts of every president. Makes you grateful there’s no more room on Rushmore).

You drive through and see all the animals you hope to see in the Black Hills, just in case. The best part is the bears, which you wouldn’t want to meet outside your car anyway, and the mountain sheep/goats which are not usually visible.









The drive-through was a good deal, but at the end there’s a small zoo full of smaller animals and shrieking kids, so we skipped it, except for the adorable bear cubs, and this one big one, and drove on toward Custer.







We had a choice of two routes, and we chose 16A, which was a totally coincidental stroke of luck. It takes you in through the Iron Mountain road through Custer State Park. It’s all the things Joyce hates in a road: windy, narrow, slow. But spectacular, and not too much traffic, either, considering we were beginning the Memorial Day weekend. I guess everyone else went the other way that day, which is much faster. Here are some shots we took along that road.






Popped out the other end in Custer, which I guess wouldn’t exist except for Rushmore and Crazy Horse. The only chain restaurants are Subway and Pizza Hut, and we fell back on Subway frequently. We pulled into Super 8 and the fun began. Joyce went in to register, and reminded them about the dogs. They said we "should have told them” and paid for them, in advance. Really? How? Hotels.com doesn’t offer that option. They take pets. They don’t NEED any notice. Then they tried to put us on the second floor, and Joyce had to argue them down to the first floor. With three dogs, cages and gear for seven weeks, we are not climbing stairs! And no, there’s no elevator! So she asked where the luggage carts were, and they don’t have one! So major schlep by main force. On her way out, they reminded her the dogs can never, ever be left in the room. So how do we eat, or use the pool, or do laundry, or get the continental breakfast? Uhhhhh . . . okay, you can be around the hotel. Gee, thanks.

After a long ride and arguments Joyce went to Subway and got us sandwiches. They recommended we go across the street, and it was a cowpuncher dive. Several places that offered delivery don’t deliver until June. A lot of places allow smoking, also until June, when a new law takes effect.

And it will come as no surprise that the weather deteriorated overnight, and when we saw how awful it was the next day, we just went back to bed!