Bret Hobbs' Adventure in Retirement: Wall Drug Adventure 2020

Woke up semi early and had a couple sausage biscuits for breakfast then headed into town to do some laundry. The coin laundry was empty and I think doing laundry on Friday morning will be a good thing. Driving through town I see that two hotels are open now, but the Econo-Lodge and Super-8 are still closed. Several mom and pop motels in the area are also still closed, as well as a very nice cabin motel on the edge of town. I don't know if all of the mom and pop motels will ever open back up, as one has a for sale sign on it now. Sad. After laundry was done I went to the local grocery store to pick up a few things. The local grocery policy is that anyone who is from out of town has to wear a mask.

Once the laundry and groceries were put up I decided to head to Rapid City and do some hiking around Custer State Park, but the weather changed my plans. As I approached Rapid. I need to stop here and let you know what I learned about local speaking. The locals don't call it Rapid City they just say Rapid. Also the town near Deadwood that I visited is spelled Lead and I pronounced it like the metal lead, but I was corrected by the locals that is is pronounced leed. So I am learning to blend in better. Back to the story. As I approached Rapid ran started to fall in sprinkles. So I changed the GPS to head to Bear Country USA in Rapid. This is a drive through zoo that has several animals just roaming around. As an employee of Wall Drug I can get in free. Once you pay to get in you start on a one way loop through their park that ends at a place where they have animals in some great habitat for you to view. The drive part takes you first through the Rocky Mountain Elk area, then the Reindeer, then Arctic Wolf, then Bighorn Sheep, then Dall Sheep, then timber wolves, then mountain lions and finally the bears. I have included several pictures below and uploaded my favorite bear video on Facebook. The place was great and I highly recommend it to anyone with kids. The drive through part is great as well as Wildlife Walkway at the end.

Before I left Rapid I decided to go visit the place where Dad and I stayed when we took our motorcycle trip out west. The place was called Hart Ranch and it is a great camping, golfing and home community in a valley in the black hills. Dad and I stayed there about three days as we drove all around the Black Hills on the motorcycles. A great time.

A couple things happened on this trip today. One was coming up on an accident on I-90. As I came over a rise I saw several people crossing the road in front of me to get to a car in the grassy median. I could see from where I was that there were some serious skid marks on the road and it looked liked the car spun around before going off the road. I slowed down and rolled the window done to see if I could help in anyway. There were already several cars stopped and one of the guys said that they had enough help and thanks. The car off the road had its airbags deployed and there was an elderly couple being helped out of the car. The lady I saw had a nasty bruise on her head and she looked very shook up. Which I could understand if the airbags deployed. I drove on and said a prayer to God to help that couple and that their injuries were not serious. If I was to guess I would think that they hit one of the many Prong Horn Deer that are always around the interstate. I can't think of anything else in the area that would cause the airbags to deploy.

The second thing that happened was when I stopped off to get gas. The pumps were all full in my direction so I went around and came to the pumps in the opposite direction. After getting ut the guy who was filling up his tank next to me said he did not have any luck with the pump I was at as it would not authorize his card. I told him I would give it a shot anyway and put my card in the pump and pulled it out. The pump said to begin filling and I did. After about 14 dollars the pump shut off and I waited for the receipt. The receipt prints and falls into a little area where you have to lift a door to retrieve it. When I lifted the door I found several receipts in it. I pulled them all out and had to find mine. After going through 5 receipts I found mine and threw the other receipts away. Getting back into the truck I headed down the road and back on the interstate. I pulled the receipt out of my pocket and was putting in in my wallet when I noticed that the receipt did not acknowledge a discover transaction, but a Visa transaction. I thought maybe that was just a generic term for all credit transactions, but when I got to Rapid I stopped and used my phone app to contact discover to see if the transaction went through. I saw no indication that a charge was ever made. So my guess is that the guy who thought his card did not go through never gave it enough time and when I showed up it did not accept my card swipe but just continued on his card. I don't know what direction he went when he left. Could be a local or a tourist, but I think he will be surprised that his credit card was charged for my gas. So the lesson on this is that if you swipe a card on a pump and don't use the pump make sure the transaction is cancelled.

Back a the trailer now and writing this. Waiting for the rain to blow over so I can possible get my steps in with a walk around the town. I hope you enjoy the pictures and thanks for reading.