The Big Move Road Trip - Day 13

The morning of Day 13, I woke early because I heard that the free tickets to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site go quick.  They open at 8, I was there at 7:20, and I was probably #35 in line.  The good news was that since I was solo, I was able to get a ticket to the 9:30 tour.  The tour was interesting, it was from the Cold War and how we fought from so far away. The ticket was only for the launch control facility anyone can get to the site of the missile, which was a few miles away, I stopped there hours later.  The missile site has an audio tour that you can use your telephone to access.

I then headed to Badlands National Park and drove through the park from East to West.  The Eastern end seemed to have more hiking trails and was very busy with tourists.  I started on a trail or two...but I didn't hike it so long, people were everywhere.  I am not too big on crowds so I didn't spend as much time here as I probably should have...I thought there would be other areas of the park that had trails, if there were, I missed them.  The park did have a good number of turnouts and viewing areas, I stopped at all of them.  Near the end, I took the dirt road in hopes of seeing some animals, and it paid off...I saw a bunch of bison and mountain sheep.

From Badlands, I went to the Missile Site (from above) and then went to Wall Drug...I wasn't going to stop there, there was nothing I needed, but it was early and well, I saw about 200 billboards along the way that I figured, why not.

After a little ice cream, I headed towards the Black Hills.  My first stop in this area was the Cosmos Mystery Area for a fun, unforgettable tour.  

 Since it was still 'early', I had time to do one more activity, I decided to take a tour of the Big Thunder Gold Mine.  The tour was OK.  It was not a successful gold mine and my tour guide was trying to be funny...but just wasn't, I found it more distracting than anything.  I could have panned for gold...but didn't because I'd rather not do it at a site like that and if I ever have children, it would be something fun to do with them.