Cowboys, Badlands, and Tourist Traps

There was one more item on our bucket list for this trip. Roger wanted to ride on the Cowboy Trail out of Valentine, Nebraska. Why? Because it is there! It’s not in the Rail-Trail hall of fame yet, but we want to be prepared because we may never pass this way again (Prom, 1975). We drove 220 miles from Custer to Valentine for a 30-mile gravel ride. You may think us daft, but it was all done in the spirit of adventure and exploration!

Less than three thousand people live here, but there is art in the tiny downtown in addition to four banks, a very cool mural and a brewery!

It’s a very long building – the panoramic function on the iPhone was the only way to capture the entire mural.
Carved bricks of the train and the wildlife are very impressive.
The aptly named “Bolo” brewery was a fun experience. Free popcorn…and everyone there knew each other!

Oh yes…we did do that ride, which started from our hotel parking lot. The trail goes 195 miles across the northern part of the state. Our ride went through the Sand Hills of Nebraska. There’s sand under all of that grass, which is all that grows here.

Not much to see out on this unpaved rail-trail.

Trees only grow where there are creeks and rivers. We didn’t see much of anything except a very impressive and tall trestle.The trestle is at least 140 feet high over the valley and the Niobrara River. It was about a quarter of a mile long and sort of scary (for me) to be that high up.

Here is what the railroad bridge looked like.
This is the view as we were riding over the trestle.
At the trailhead we saw the only other people riding on the trail that morning.
They are very proud of the trail, and the town branding. It is everywhere you look!

We have to get to Rapid City, SD for our flight home, but first we have to take the bike apart in Valentine as there is one more day of sight-seeing ahead.

Bike deconstruction in progress in our hotel room! Still cleaning slurry and mud from two weeks ago.

The 220-mile trip to Rapid City will take us to the very famous tourist attraction city of Wall, SD. Talk about small towns, this one has a population of around 650! There were probably over 650 people in the Wall Drug Store that morning. It’s HUGE. In total it’s about the size of a city block and has individual shops, clothing stores, a donut shop, an ice cream fountain, a 500-seat cafeteria, a candy shop and so much more.

It goes on and on and has many different entrances.
A look at just one of the rows of shops inside. This isn’t a tourist trap…it’s a vortex.
There is something for everyone here, especially the children.
I’ll bet you thought we would be enjoying the ice cream shop, but we got a tip about the donuts.
Our donut tipster was not wrong! Cake-like and delicious!

Wall Drug Store is about 80 miles from Sturgis (the famous motorcycle rally is still a week away when we are there) but it’s only 12 miles from Badlands National Park. We are thrilled to make the pilgrimage and use our Senior National Park Pass, a savings of $30!

We do a quick drive-in visit. It’s pretty impressive and looks sort of like a sandy Grand Canyon.

From the Badlands, it’s only about an hour to Rapid City, our destination for the flight home. We discover that there is a dinosaur park very close to downtown. Admission is free and it’s on the Register of Historic Places. This sounds like a win-win situation.

Notice the year. This was part of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to get folks working during the depression.

The Black Hills were a fertile locale for the discovery of dinosaur fossils and this park was established to attract tourists coming to see Mount Rushmore. It has seven dinosaur sculptures and a terrific view of the city. And did I mention it was free?!?

This guy (Apatosaurus) is 28 feet high.
A toothless T-Rex. Evidently, all of his teeth were stolen just after the park opened. They were never replaced.

On Interstate 90 coming into Rapid City, there were miles of billboards and old firetrucks advertising the Firehouse Brewing Company. We are suckers for good advertising, and this was where the last night of our 16-day journey was celebrated.

Pretty authentic since this was once the firehouse.
The American Wheat beer was good.
We shared this 16-ounce prime rib dinner. It was only $36, which is a bargain. More meat before we go home and become vegetarians!
Donuts and ice cream in the same day? Don’t tell!
Before we go, check out this view of the Nebraska prairie from our car. It’s a big country out there.

For those wondering, the Rapid City airport was a pleasure as it has seven gates. It’s a far cry from the monster that we have in Atlanta. We made it home and are looking forward to our next adventure, which begins at the end of August. Spoiler alert: more tandem riding is planned.

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