Our trip first venture of the season was to the Badlands National Park and visiting the Minuteman Missile Sites was great with one exception, the weather. It was cool and sprinkling when we left and during the entire weekend, it rained/sprinkled, was overcast and sometimes quite foggy. Not a weekend for motorcycle riding. However, all went well.
The campground
https://www.badlandsinteriorcampground.com/ was just fine. There were only a couple of other campers there so lots of privacy. It is the ONLY campground been at where the camper sat dead level side to side when parking w/o any adjustment. The temps dropped into the high 30’s at night so nice to have the furnace. Two detractors at the campground; there was no wifi we could connect to and only 4 TV channels, all public broadcasting that sucked; a cooking channel; a bad cartoon channel; and two others just as bad.
Friday evening after we arrived, decided to go into the very little community of Interior SD to eat. Only 3 places, 2 bars and a gas station. We chose the gas station (The Cowboy Corner) as had good reviews, checked before we left. Nothing fancy, very dated, just some tables and two booths. They serve only 1 item each evening. Friday night was chicken fried steak and it covered the dinner plate, underneath was two big scoops of mashed potatoes w/gravy. One order would have fed two with leftovers. Also came with plain lettuce salad and a roll. The food was wonderful. Finishing up, we were the only ones there and visited with the owner, a lady who runs the place and cooks too. Very friendly person.
About 30 minutes after we got back to the camper, wife realized she forgot her purse at the gas station/restaurant. I rushed back, only about 1/4 of a mile away, and got there just as they were closing and the lady had her purse. She refused the $20 reward offered, absolutely no way. Found out Sat. evening was prime rib dinners so went back Sat evening and had prime rib. It was awesome!! We were there late and visited with the owner again. Very interesting and friendly person.
Saturday we drove thru the Badlands but it was overcast, cool and misting/foggy so couldn’t see very far off. Still a nice drive and came out at Wall, SD. We drove to the Minuteman visitors center and went thru it then drove over to the Minuteman control center for the tour. We had the required reservations for 1:15 PM. It was a great tour and very interesting. The guide was retired Air Force and had worked there so very knowledgeable. After the tour there, we drove to the actual missile launch site where the missile silocover is 1/2 open/covered with see thru glass so can look down and see the actual disarmed Minuteman missile. Here is a link to some of what we saw at the Minuteman sites- the visitor site, the command site and the launch site:
Minuteman Missile NHS
Then we drove into Wall, had lunch and looked around, went thru Wall Drug (a real tourist trap) and drove back thru the Badlands to the campground. Still misty/sprinkling all day. Sunday AM we packed up and drove back home.
There were no issues with the camper and the Ram with the 6.4, 410 HP pulled the load effortlessly. Mileage was 10.3MPG so the horses ate well.
Looking to plan our next outing soon.
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