Today, being a day off, I slept in late. I was up late after watching the entire Avengers Infinity War on Disney Plus. :) I got up and pulled the steaks out of the fridge to season them. I am going to fix them for a lunch/dinner today. I just need to find a way to cook them with the limited cooking items that the trailer has. Sorry no outdoor grill.
After getting some checkbook work done I decided I would head out today to visit the Minuteman Missile National Historic site. The main visitor center is only about 24 miles east of Wall. I went to the visitor center first, but found out that they were limiting the people entering because of the virus. The ranger was nice enough to give us a brochure of the historical site. I read over the material and was amazed that in its peak cold war time. There were 150 missile silos in this area of South Dakota. The other thing I thought was interesting is that the each missile did not have people at them. The people manned the controlled center, which was responsible for 10 or so missiles in the flight. So the missiles were just out there amongst the wheat and corn fields surrounded by barbed wire and some sophisticated motion detectors and monitors. I asked the ranger how quick the response was to an intruder and he said very quick and they were authorized to kill and ask questions later. Interesting. After visiting the visitor center I saw where the control center was for the flight in the area. It was not far from the visitor center and it is still furnished with items from the era. I asked about tours and they said I would have to call a number and pay a fee to make a reservation to get a tour of the facility. It is several feet underground and can only be seen by paying a tour fee. I was then told that they were pretty booked up through July. I will have to call and see if I can get a reservation for August if possible. I left the visitor center and drove down the interstate to where the only viewable minuteman missile silo is. The site is pretty bare and has some markings around it and the fence. The place was deactivated and the nuclear elements were all removed, but they kept the silo intact for people to view. You can't go down into it but they removed the top blast shield and put a window over it so you can see down into the 80 foot silo where the missile stands. It was pretty interesting and I have included pictures of it all below. One day I think I will venture out and see if I can find some of the other silo sites. The ranger said that when the missiles were decommissioned, the sites were emptied of any equipment and technology. Then the site was blasted and the blast doors sunk down into the silo. The land went back to the ranchers. He said that many of the ranchers left the fence up and used the area to store hay and farm machinery in. I would like to see if I can find some of these sites in South Dakota. He also told me that North Dakota and Wyoming has several silo sites and some have been preserved for historical sites.
After the steak dinner, when the heat went down, I headed for a walk around Wall.
p.s. Three miles and the heat stayed above 90 degrees. Stunk pretty good after the walk. Thank you Lord for showers.
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