Hail to the Chiefs

When preparing for and planning this trip with the Corvette, there was one thing that worried us about having the Corvette out in the elements for an entire month: A hail storm. We do have a storm cover for the car, but given everything else we needed to bring in the limited cargo space - it just wasn’t practical to bring the cover along. So what do you think the odds are of hitting a hail storm during a trip like this. Apparently, about 100% for us.

During the later evening hours after we got into Hot Springs, SD several thunderstorms rolled through the mountains in succession. Lots of wind and lots of rain for periods, but they were in and gone quick. Somewhere around 11:00pm, another blew through with 3/4″ hail stones. It lasted a terrifying 5 minutes before it turned completely to rain and became clear that the hail portion of the storm had ended.

Fortunately, no damage to the car…..just shortened Jeff’s life by a couple of days. Beyond that, the rest of the evening was uneventful and the following day was a perfect day to make the trek to Deadwood, SD.

Our first stop for the day was at the perpetually in progress memorial for Chief Crazy Horse. This thing is huge and only partially completed. In fact, they are kind of just getting started with this thing. It’s hard to say how big this things really is except to note that all of Mount Rushmore would fit up where Crazy Horse’s face is. They are saying this thing will not be complete for at least another 30 years.

Here is what the memorial is going to look like when it is done.

Along the way through the grassland areas where we also saw lots of Buffalo, these cool little Prarie Dog dudes kept popping up. Rule #1: Don’t feed the Prarie Dogs – it will set you back about $1000 in fines if they caught you. Apparently people food is no good for them.

USA Road trip Kodak picture location numero uno:

After hitting the major monuments and making the drive down the Iron Mountain Road through the mountains, we circled back and headed north again up to Deadwood, SD. This town, originally a gold mining town where Wild Bill Hickock lived (and was killed with his Ace’s & Eight’s dead mans hand of poker), is now a little gambling oasis in the mountains. It kind of reminded us of the older area of Lake Tahoe only without the lake.

Tomorrow we head form Deadwood over to Devil’s Tower and on to Cody, WY to setup for the next day through Yellowstone, Grand Teton and in to Jackson, WY.