Saturday, 10 May Badlands, SD

Not like the film at all!
Nor as it sounds

The rain abated around 3am but roads still heavily drenched. Low cloud brightening with the passing Sun. Not inquisitive enough to show his face anywhere near SD. Meanwhile, Sacramento basks in 86c... Made use of the coffee and hot blueberry muffin to set me up for the journey. Original plan was to go from Keystone to Badlands via Scenic, onto Wind Cave, then return. Total mileage: around 255, but duration was around 8h 44m - tooo long.
Roads being as wet as they are, and the early roads on this route being unpaved (= unsuitable when wet), meant that I have worked a new route - all within 20 mins up getting up!
Plan B is: Keystone to Badlands via I-state 90 to Wall, then Interior to Hot Springs (for Wind Cave), Custer and return to Keystone. Similar mileage but only 4h 44m! Result!

Temp: 32f, Rain, Wind speed: 45mph
Having left Keystone at 07:12, by the time we got to Rapid City (16mi), the temperature dropped rapidly and we became embroiled in a snow storm which threatened to close the I-90.
Despite this horrendous weather, we ploughed on (almost quite literally!), for we were made of sterner stuff, true grit (not the stuff they put on the roads in England two weeks after the motorways are clogged with ice-trapped abandoned vehicles), but true grit!

Wall, SD
Popped into the cornucopia which is the ingeniously promoting Wall Drug. As seen in places as far afield as the Great Wall of China and Ircilik, Turkey! For our part, West Wittering also gets a name check in this eclectic SD mall!

Badlands
Established as a National Monument in 1939 and re-designated in 1978
244,000 acres
Comprises flat table-top plains, prairies, needle buttes and spectacular stratified rock formations.
Due to the high quantity of unexploded ordnance in the southern region, we were advised not to travel this route 'for our own safety'!...
...
...Survived!!

Hot Springs
Don't get me started!
[Censors again!!]

Keystone
Evening spent again in our new adopted 'local' the Red Garter Saloon and Casino!
[Censors prevent further detail here]
Met a charming couple, Debbie and Richard from Dallas, TX.
Debbie and Richard are from Dallas.
Debbie and Richard have come to South Dakota in May for a short break.
Debbie and Richard could have chosen to go anywhere within a similar throw - Cancun, Bermuda, Key West/Largo, West Indies!
Debbie and Richard chose South Dakota!
In May!
They won a free night's stay in a hotel in Keystone and so booked flights to Rapid City, hired a car and, just to make the trip worthwhile, added an extra five days to the itinerary!
Story: They didn't exactly win a free night's stay in the hotel - it was a raffle prize!
We posited that they could have probably got the sixth night free, simply by buying five in the first place!

Oil
Richard is a former petroleum engineer and told a story to make most Americans boil with envy. All chief employees in the oil industry across America (but chiefly in the 'Lone Start State' - engineers, chemists, economists and chief executives - are able to purchase domestic gas (that's petrol for all my English viewers!), for 10c per gallon. It used to be 5c but the 'credit crunch' has brought about some economies across the industry! Richard simply enters a code at the pump in place of his credit card number and the gas is his!
Sad to say that after numerous drinks that evening, we are still no closer to that 'secret code'! Still at $3.44 per gallon its still around £4.50 cheaper than we are used to!
Debbie, Richard, it was good to meet you - enjoy what South Dakota has to offer!