Saturday, May 21, 2022; Minuteman Missile National Monument and Badlands National Park

Saturday, May 21, 2022; Minuteman Missile National Monument and Badlands National Park

We were undisturbed last night and slept well.  The repaired propane line allowed us to use the furnace to keep the RV above 67˚F which is a comfortable sleeping temperature for us.  We woke about 7:30am.  There was no sign of any activity in the surrounding lot where we were parked.  We pulled the slide in and saw that we were parked in a gravel overflow inventory parking area of the Trail-EZE company.  

We drove through Mitchell and discovered that even though the Cabela’s store did not allow overnight parking, there were many RV’s and semi-rigs that had parked overnight in the Walmart parking lot just a few blocks away.  It’s nice to learn that there are some Walmarts that still allow overnight dry camping.  

Our first stop was the Mitchell Corn Palace.  

This is as multipurpose venue that currently is set up as a large auditorium to host the Mitchell High School graduation ceremony.  The exterior of the Corn Palace and murals lining the interior are covered with art made by nailing dried corn cobs to wood panels.  The theme for 2022 is “Under the Big Top” and features renderings of circus acts and related activities.  They redecorate every year with a new theme.  It currently costs $130K/yr to do this.  It appears to be good job security for corn cob artists.   It seems a lot like the Jelly Belly art but on a much larger scale.

We then headed south with Janet behind the wheel on I-90 through South Dakota.  The speed limit is 80mph, and although the RV will do that on the level, on some steeper hills, the cruise control could only hold 65mph.  But even then, we were either keeping pace with most of the traffic or passing slow pokes.  We were still driving through some severe cross and head winds.

We stopped to refuel in Murdo, SD where we found a station selling diesel for $4.999/gal.  We filled up with 15.009gal with 25352 miles on the odometer (10.1mpg).  We then continued towards Rapid City SD until we were distracted by brown signs pointing out Minuteman Missile National Monument and Badlands National Park.  We took the exit and toured the Minuteman Missile National Monument and learned about the Minuteman II silos that once dotted the landscape of 5 mid-western states.  

We learned that ICBM’s were based in the upper mid-west for two reasons.  The first is they were closest to Russia from a circumpolar trajectory, and the second was it was a very sparsely populated area so if the Russians chose to target our ICBM’s on a first strike basis, our major population centers would be spared.  However, recent events in Ukraine indicate the Russians wouldn’t think twice about dropping nukes on our most densely  populated civilian areas.  

The visitor center houses exhibits describing the mission of the Missileers who manned the ICBM silos and their supporting and controlling structures.  It is a bit unnerving to learn that there have been about a dozen incidents that nearly lead to nuclear exchanges caused by human errors and natural phenomenon.  It is also a bit unnerving to learn that the flight time of an ICBM from launch in Russia to impact over the US is only 30 minutes.  Therefore, if an attack is detected, a decision to launch a massive retaliatory attack must be made in under 30 minutes, lest our silo based ICBM’s all be destroyed on a first strike basis.  The solid fuel rocket motors in the Minuteman II ICBM’s made it possible to program, arm and launch ICBM’s in just a few minutes from the word “LAUNCH”.  

There is a launch control center near by but it is closed to visitors.  There is a training silo that was not destroyed as part of the START II negotiations to reduce the number of warheads and missiles the US and Russia have.  The training silo can be toured, and is located between the visitor center and Rapid City SD.  

They had a real live Missileer who gave a talk and answered questions in the theatre.  His lecture was followed by a 28 minute NPS film.  We recognized the lecturer’s face during the movie because he was interviewed in the movie.  

After seeing the Minuteman Missile visitor center, we hit the road and visited the Badlands National Park.  Janet’s Senior Pass got us in for free.  The usual admission is currently $30 per car.  It had been many years since we last visited the Badlands, but the last time we did that, it was much more crowded and hotter.  Today’s temperatures were in the 50’s, and it was windy.  We were comfortable in our jackets, but got occasionally sprinkled with light rain and hail.  There were plenty of people in the park, but there was no wait at the entry gate, and plenty of parking at each viewpoint for cars and RV’s.  

We did several hikes and the views are certainly unique.  We also managed to see most of the hallmark animals of the park including big horn sheep, black tailed prairie dogs and bison.  

We finished off the day with a visit to Wall Drug in Wall SD.  

We had planned on spending the night closer to Mt. Rushmore, but if we stay in the Wall Drug parking lot overnight, we can visit the Grasslands National Monument visitor center and the Minuteman Launch Silo site in the morning and make it to Mt. Rushmore by mid day. We ended up getting through our leftovers for dinner.