Day 15 6/18/17:
This day started out a little rough. I got up around 5:30
and while I was in the bathroom, the campground host woke Don up in the tent
around 5:45. He asked Don if he paid for the night because there was no paper
on the clip post. Don showed him that the clip was falling apart and probably
didn’t hold the paper securely. We paid the day before and even put our car tag
number on it. I thought it was
interesting that quiet hours are until 6am but the man didn’t mind waking
people up at 5:45! After we packed up the tent, we stopped at the campground
host site to show the man Don’s ID and senior park pass. We were afraid that is
someone stole our money and there was no record of us paying, we needed to show
some ID. The man said it was okay but when I asked why he just couldn’t match
the paid car tags on his list to our site, he said he didn’t have a list of who
paid because they didn’t trust him with that!
Then we drove to Wall, SD and decided to get a hotel room. I
found a room online for America’s Best Value for $109 and booked it. When we
got there around noon, it was too early to check in so we did laundry next
door. After lunch at Subway we checked in, only to find out, there was a mix up
and our reservation was for tomorrow! Luckily, Wild Bill (the desk clerk) could
fix it for tonight. We got room 131 which was newly renovated and the owner
asked us to give him feedback about the room. After a shower and relaxation, we
went back to Subway for dinner and Dairy Queen for dessert. We ended up going
to bed early.
The mattress was so soft and comfortable and the TV screen
was nice and big! The bathroom door was a sliding door which I liked too! There
was a fridge and a microwave in the room. The internet wasn’t so great though.
Day 15 6/19/17:
We headed to Cedar Pass Campground and got our tent set up
on Site #46. We didn’t care for this site as much as #34 but we survived. We
stopped for lunch but we didn’t really care for the lunch menu at the lodge.
Then we did some hiking after lunch. We went to the notch but after seeing the
ladder, we decided not to complete the hike. I went up halfway for Don to take
a photo but then we left. In the afternoon we sat around the camp and relaxed.
Later a mother and her two sons arrived and we helped them put up their tent.
They were super nice! We went back to the Lodge for dinner which opened at 5pm.
After that we relaxed at the campsite until bedtime.
Day 16 6/20/17:
We had breakfast at the lodge around 7am and then went to
the Minuteman Missile Visitor Center. We drove to site D-09 for the ranger talk
which was excellent. Then we went to Wall and killed time until our 1:15 tour
at site D-01 which was the Launch Control Center. It was a fabulous tour! Even
though we paid for another night in the campground, we decided we would move on
so we drove to Mitchell, SD and stayed at the same motel we were in on 6/5.
They gave us the same rate instead of the higher summer rate.
Day 17 6/21/17:
We headed to Minnesota for my Zombie Knitpocalypse (knitting
retreat). On the way we stopped to visit the Jolly Green Giant. I will write about that in a separate post in case some people aren’t
interested in it.
Things I Learned:
1.
Not all campground hosts are nice.
2.
When the wind is blowing hard, it takes 2 people
to put up a tent.
3.
It is nice to help others (especially if they
have never put up a tent before!)
4.
We really enjoyed learning about the Minuteman
Missiles.
5.
It pays to get to a tour early. Everyone showed
up early and our 30 min. tour lasted an hour!
6.
There is a tour of the Titan Missile in Tucson,
AZ.
7.
People on duty in the Launch Command Center read
and studied for advance degrees.
8.
Their job was extremely stressful every time a
meal was delivered. They had to be prepared that this was an attack every time.
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