Chamberlain, SD to Sheridan Lake in the Black Hills

We had a quick breakfast of oatmeal, coffee and hot cocoa as the sun shone on the bridge across the Missouri.
Then off we went. When I gassed up the car, I noticed a sign saying "Don't leave the gas pump unattended, you will have to pay for any spilled gas." Sure enough, I heard a click after our tank was full, but the gas continued to flow out of the nozzle. I couldn't get it to stop. I pulled the nozzle out and pressed the tip against the ground, but it kept flowing. I finally got it to turn off. When I started the car there was a huge explosion, and flames covered the bikes and the back of the car. No, that was the part I made up. No flames, just a pool of about a galon of unleaded on the pavement. I told the gum-smacking girl attendent about the problem, but I had a feeling that they weren't going to fix it. Could they really view that dangerous situation as a profit center?

Anyway, our next obligatory stop was Wall Drug. The Hustead's opened it in 1931, but because the town was so small, they just didn't get enough business to survive. Thousands of tourists drove by Wall, to get to Mount Rushmore, but they never stopped. Ted then had the idea of putting up signs on the highway for "Free Ice Water," and when they got back from erecting them, there was a line out the door.
Wall drug was actually pretty amusing, with a fascinating collection of western-themed paintings.



We worked hard to counteract the effects of our healthful breakfast.


And then, it was on to Badlands...

I was surprised to see a flock of pelicans overhead, who had perhaps taken a wrong turn somewhere.

Nice scenery.
We stopped to fix some lunch at the visitor's center. They had a machine for getting ice, but I noticed that there were some quarters stuck in it. A little work with my Swiss Army Knife's tweezers, and I was 25 cents richer!

We fixed a simple lunch,

and then we were on our way.

We traded 12 miles on a washboard dirt road (Gunilla was so happy to be on a dirt road, that she jumped out of her window mount) to see some prairie dogs,

and buffalo (aka bison).

An hour later we were now coming to Rapid City. The clouds were so dark and ominous, that I started wondering whether our 16-year-old, heavily used tent would still do a good job of repelling water. Because of this, we stopped at a huge outdoor store, and purchased some tent waterproofing spray.

We had some pretty hard showers while scouting out campgrounds, but Lena didn't bring up the "M" word once, and we ended up at the Sheridan Lake campground in the Black Hills of South Dakota. The weather kept the campground from being full, and I set up the tent while Lena set out the rotisserie chicken that we'd picked up at Wal-Mart. I applied the water repellent spray with a cloth (the spray part didn't work), and the rain started just as I was finishing.

Dinner was great, and only a little wet; It wasn't as dreary as it looks here.

After dinner, we headed in to Keystone to nab some wifi, and update the blog. This young bighorn (?) sheep was at the entrance to the campground, and seemed to be shedding his winter coat.

Halfway to Keystone, the heavens opened up. This was a major-league thunderstorm, and we had to pull off the road twice due to lack of visibility. I didn't have much hope for the tent, which had all our sleeping bags and pillows set up inside. Lightning strikes came every 30 seconds or so, with some being very close.

They didn't have any WiFi in Keystone, so we just hung out and had some soft-serve ice cream. I took these pictures to give you a feeling for the intensity of the rain.



As we sat there, we considered our options if everything in the tent was soaked when we returned. The first was to leave the tent overnight, and stay in a hotel. We checked a Keystone hotel, but the only rooms they had left were the honeymoon suite and some other expensive suites. The second option was to suffer through a cold wet night. A third was to sleep in the car at the campsite. Fourth, we could pack up all the soggy stuff and head off to a less-populated area and check into a hotel.

Finally, the rain let up a bit, so we got in the car and headed back to the campsite. As we drove in, we saw the two young women in the neighboring site packing up their water-saturated tent -- not a good sign.

I jumped out of the car, and went over to the tent to rip open the door. Would everything be dry, or would it be a sodden mess? Would we be having a major mishap?

Find out in our next post!