Day 34 - Rapid City KOA, 

South Dakota

Today the tickle began in my throat which caused me to cough frequently, then uncontrollably. Before we left for touring Custer State Park, we found out we didn't have any LP gas. So we drove up to the campground store. DH inquired about the gas and I bought ice. Since the store didn't open until 8 am tomorrow, DH said we would get the LP Gas on the road. 

On the way to Custer State Park, DH pulled over to change drivers as he felt tired. So I drove the rest of the way. MIL rode shotgun and DH took a nap in the back seat. I constantly had to pull over to let tailgaters pass me on the Wild Life Loop as I was doing the 25mph speed limit. We saw a herd of antelope, 3 deer, herd of American Bison, prairie dogs, 1 black-billed magpie, chipmunks, wild donkeys from afar and 1-red squirrel. DH practically slept through the whole loop. After the Wild Life Loop, I tried to follow signs for the Needles Highway except the signs totally disappeared at a dead end. One sign said Custer pointing to the left and the other way said Rapid City pointing to the right. So I kept looking at the idiot map. I drove down the same windy up and down with no guard rail road three times before I finally figured out where we were on the map. Google was useless as I had no phone service or Internet. As we were driving up the Needles Highway, DH woke up and took over driving the rest of the way. We took lots of photos. Afterward we drove down to the Crazy Horse Sculpture which is such a monumental task. We were there in 2002, so when they told us today that it was $28, we said no. Neither DH nor I were feeling that great so I turned the MDX around and at the base of the driveway. I took a long distance profile photo. I was driving and I recognized Hill City as being the town that we passed on the way to Mount Rushmore yesterday. So I headed there. Since it is off season most of the restaurants were closed. There was this diner with a big white sign with black letters that read OPEN. It was closed. Then we went to this restaurant with a big wrap around porch. The person taking names in my opinion was rude when she said in a snotty voice that they weren't taking anymore names as they were closing at 2:30. So we left and went to the Hill City Cafe. The food was fair but it may have been an off day for them. But the staff was friendly. We stopped at a supermarket in Hill City too to get things on MIL's list and French vanilla creamer for me. I also bought orange juice which I only drink when I am sick.

While there I searched for an Urgent Care type facility near me but they were closed on Saturdays. So I Googled CVS Minute Clinics but couldn't find any, but Walgreens implied they had one in an ad but that proved wrong. South Dakota prohibits clinics in pharmacies. The Pharmacy directed us to the Black Hills Urgent Care. I ended up not having pneumonia as the doc thought, but I have acute bronchitis instead. DH also was also sick. So we got our prescriptions and went back to the motorhome.

We are headed to Iowa tomorrow.