7/12 - Rapid City – Interior - Day 27
 

Today we left the black hills. The area of great beauty and surprise for me. The destination is a location is called Interior. When asked if Interior was a city, the reply was, "well yes, technically". The theme for today was "gee it's hot out here, but it could be worse". Breakfast was at the Alex Johnson Hotel  then it was onward to the "Bad Lands".

For the past couple of days the locals were warning us about the "Bad Lands". As we traveled, we could see the land become more dry and brown. The Black Hills began to face into the distance while the open prairie stared to envelope us. Lunch was at a town called Scenic. That consisted of a gas station, bar and store. I had to take a photo of the sign over the bar that said "Indians Allowed". After lunch we entered the National Grasslands ( http://www.fs.fed.us/grasslands/ ) that had no grass and then the Badlands National Park ( http://www.nps.gov/badl/ ). Within a couple of miles, we were out of the park. Tomorrow we'll be traveling through the park more.

By mile 80 arrived in Interior. It consist of a restaurant, couple of gas stations and a bar. We found out that the bar opened at 2 and it was about 2:30 so we headed on over to the Wagon Wheel to have a couple of cool ones. Then finally onward to the KOA campgrounds. That evening we were shuttled back to town to the restaurant. The food was great!!

Keeping cool at lunch in Scenic.

Rick at the Longhorn in Scenic

Shopping in Scenic

Mars-like views near Interior South Dakota

Interior history sign

Interior is a really tough town, hun??