I think I must have seen about 3 million bales of hay today and that's no exaggeration, this is definitely farm country. Headed across the Dakota border today from the south into the north and landed in Hazen. The drive was a long one, about 6 hours with hardly any stops but we didn't have any roadworks to contend with. It didn't start out too well this morning as we couldn't turn Nell on as she wanted to take us on one road and we wanted to go a different route so of course we missed our first turning. Fortunately Mike is good at reversing the trailer and once we got on the right road it was full steam ahead.
The landscape today was as flat as ever as far as the eye could see, and we drove on some of the longest, straight roads I've seen. I think they build the roads to go up and down just to give the drivers a little variety. North Dakota is pretty, very farmy but with lots of colour in the fields at least at this time of the year, but even though it's beautiful now I'm sure it's not much fun living here in the winter. The farmers were harvesting the fields as we were driving through, how do they drive those tractors in such straight lines?
The campsite is nice with sewer and internet, woo hoo; we are here for two nights. Not sure what if anything we are going to be doing while we are here, but it's possible that tomorrows fun will involve a bucket of soapy water and a brush with a very long handle. I'll keep you posted.
One more thing before I go to sleep, I'm sure there's a good reason but why do the Dakotans charge more money per gallon their unleaded gas than for the unleaded plus?

Mike: Boring drive! But landed in a great park! How can all the roads be soo straight? You can see 20 miles in the distance. I just set Serena on auto pilot!

Wow, what a storm we had last night, it rained like crazy most of the night and there was thunder and lightening to go with it; it rained so hard it woke me up several times. Everything is drenched this morning, I am so glad I'm not living in a tent. Mike took me back to the Black Hills today although I still don't have any really nice photos off them to show you; it's hard to take something so big when you're in the midst of it. We drove through the central hills and they really are fabulous; it was quite foggy after the storm so they looked very mysterious.
Today was finally the day for Tal-y to get a haircut so we dropped her off at Petsmart in Rapid City and left her shaking like a leaf. While she was getting all prettied up Mike and I drove to Mount Rushmore to visit Washington, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Jefferson; they are awesome. It's sort of weird looking at it as it doesn't look like it's carved out of rock, it's pretty cool. Even though it's BIG it doesn't seem to be when looking it at it head on; it's when you see Washington in profile that you realise just how big it really is. Messrs Borglum were very talented guys!
After leaving there we headed to see Crazy Horse but we only got a glimpse of him from a distance, we didn't go all the way into the memorial; maybe we'll come back when it's finished in about 100 years time. It'll be grand when it's all done but not so much right now.
We drove a little further south and headed into Custer State Park which was really cool as we got to drive the Needles highway. This is very scenic in itself with all the towering rock formations, serious switchbacks and piggy tail bridges, but the best part were the really narrow tunnels. The narrowest we went through was 8 feet 4 inches wide and 12 feet high, not very big at all, it was probably a good job I wasn't driving or Serena would likely be a little scratched up.
we had a really nice afternoon and Tal-y got a smashing haircut, all in all a good day.

Mike: and I thought Becc had a big head! Tunnels were cool!

Got to have a lie in today since we decided not to go to far. We visited the Vore Buffalo Jump first this morning which is basically a cliff that the Indians would run the buffalo off. They wanted us to pay $10.00 just to look at a hole so we decided not to and went instead to D.C. Booth fish hatchery in Spearfish. It was very interesting to see how fish farming was done in the past; not so different from today really. We got up close with some of the trout, some of which were over 15lbs and others that were just fingerlings; the hatchery releases over 50,000 fish a year into the waters around this area.
Spent a little time in McDonalds this afternoon, no not eating Big Macs, just getting online. Hopefully we can go back tomorrow and post this. I did notice something very refreshing today at McDonalds, since we’ve been here I haven’t seen any guys with their trousers pulled down below their bums; is that because it’s hard to mount a horse if your trousers are not pulled up?

Mike: Fireworks today also. They like to blow things up here A LOT!

Happy Independence Day. In honour of America’s birthday we visited the Badlands National Park. It was different than the other parks we’ve been to recently in that the landscape was very rocky and it all looked very bleak and desolate. It is easy to see why it became known as the badlands, it seems to be devoid of life although I’m sure there are plenty of species that survive there. We did get told off by the ranger for taking Tal-y off the designated paths; like she’d bother the sheep. We had another thunder and lightening storm on the way home and lots of rain as we stopped of in Rapid City to do a little shopping.
The fireworks are still going off here now and it’s after midnight, Tal-y is not impressed, she doesn’t like them at all, Mike on the other hand doesn’t seem to have any problem sleeping through the noise.

Mike: No problem! The badlands looks like a place you could invite your mother-in-law to stay.

Take me back to the Black Hills, the Black Hills of Dakota. Sorry you can’t hear me singing out loud, it’s wonderful.
You must have guessed by now, we drove into the Black Hills today, well at least the northern part. It was beautiful, very green and not black at all. I thought the actual hills were black, turns out the pines look black, but only from a distance; up close everything is vibrantly green. It was lovely driving through though, very calm and peaceful with the tall pines growing everywhere right up next to the road.
While in the National Forest we stopped of and visited Deadwood. We didn’t see Calamity Jane or Wild Bill just lots of gambling places; the whole town is made up of little casinos and restaurants and not much else. I was a little disappointed as I thought it would have been a little more ‘historic’.
We also stopped off at Sturgis which is where the big motorcycle rally is held every year in August; don’t bother going there any other time though (unless you have a mustang) as there is nothing happening there.

Mike: Mustang car rally in September (not horses). In Sturgis every other building is a biker bar. It seems The World’s biggest biker bar is here, but I didn’t go inside to check it out. I would not want to be here in August without my leathers.

Took my first shower outside of the trailer today. Not literally outside but you know what I mean. It wasn’t all bad, they were clean and had lots of hot water; it was a bit disconcerting though to have people I didn’t know walking just the other side of the shower curtain. I guess I should be grateful that the ladies shower curtains are a solid colour, turns out that the mens are clear plastic. According to mike men don’t care about showing everything off, I bet they compare!
After getting all clean we took a little jaunt in Wyoming to visit Devils Tower. Before getting there we stopped off in Sundance and said hello to The Kid; he spent some time in jail there.
Devils Tower was the next stop; it was the nation’s first national monument (thanks Teddy) and is very impressive. It can be seen from miles away and even from a distance it is very imposing. It is actually the core of a volcano that has been exposed over millennia although I like the Indian legend of how it came to be better. We walked around the base of it and would have climbed it if we hadn’t had Tal-y with us!!! There were actually a bunch of people at different stages of going up and coming down; it’s amazing how close they sounded when they were talking to each other even though they were a few hundred feet up the tower.
One last thing on Devil’s Tower, does anyone know, without checking Wikipedia, which movie the tower is best known for appearing in?
We passed through a number of other towns, some nice some not so nice. Never feel the need to visit a little place called Alva, WY. How can people live in such beautiful surroundings and have trucks full of garbage parked on the side of the roads, amazing and not in the good sense.
Our last stop today was Belle Fourche (pronounced Foosh) which is the center of the nation, apparently. We were hoping to check out the rodeo but it doesn’t start till tomorrow.

Mike: I wanted to see some BULLS and cowgirls riding them.

Up and off early this morning although we still didn’t manage to beat the heat, it’s horrible here. This side of Wyoming is much more interesting to look at than the western half, it’s quite beautiful. There is a lot of farming here and lots of cows. Also some actual hills and lots of red clay in the ground which is quite dramatic to look at.
We made it to Beulah today which is still in Wyoming and not North Dakota and we are spending the next 6 nights here until next Wednesday. It's a town with a population of 33 but it has a post office, a fire station and of course a huge bar. It’s almost in South Dakota, in fact we are the last exit of the freeway before crossing into South Dakota. It’s a really nice little camp ground, very grassy with a stream running through it, cute. There is only one problem, well actually two. First, no internet, in fact I don’t even have cell service here. More importantly, we do not have sewer for the next six whole nights, aarrgh. In theory this means that all tasks undertaken in the bathroom should be done in the bathrooms provided on the camp ground. I was all prepared to do this, showering and everything else in the little buildings across the road until Mike informed me that the toilets are not flushable ones but the holes in the gound – I just can’t do it, it doesn’t matter how many times he tells me how nice and clean they are, they are still just a hole in the ground, they can put as many moons on them as they like!
After setting up we took a trip to Walmart to give Serena some TLC; her second oil change in the last month but then I guess we are racking up the miles. We saw a cool thunder and lightening storm on the way back; I guess they are very common in this area at this time of the year. We picked up a movie to watch tonight, Avatar, what a waste of time, I was bored after the first 20 minutes, stupid film.

Mike: I think Becc is afraid something is going to jump up and bite her on the ass!