Day 1

Mari driving. Notice the proper
hand location 10 and 2.

We are on our way to the Black Hills, SD this year for our vacation. We left the Indianola a little afternoon. This year we are traveling in luxury. We rented a car from Hertz, a 2012 Dodge Avenger. This is a mid-size car with plenty of room and so far great gas mileage (30+ mpg). The dang thing has Sirius, satellite radio. Might have to get it in our next car. Any music, sports, talk or news nonstop with no interruption.

Seems like we have to stop frequently to stretch our legs. This time we stopped at a rest area in South Dakota. At the rest area they had the Mount Rushmore carving on a wall. They also had a Tee-pee sculpture.

Right now we are about 1-1/2 hours from Chamberlain, SD. We plain on stopping there for the night and getting up Saturday and heading the rest of the way to Custer, SD. We plan on going through the badlands and just take our sweet time enjoying the drive and taking pictures.

On the way to Chamberlain we looked up on AAA for hotels and found that AAA recommended the Best Western Lee's Motor Inn. With a quick phone call we made reservations for tonight, $60. Reserved a non-smoking room with a queen size bed.

We decided to go across the river into Oacoma, SD to try Al's Oasis for supper. Along our drive we noticed a few billboards advertising it and the homemade pies. Yep, you guessed it I was sold on the homemade pie. The place has a hotel, restaurant, gift store and grocery store. Mari had the salad bar and chocolate cream pie. I had the coconut cream pie. At $4 a slice of pie was it worth it?  Heck, yes! I thought the coconut cream pie was one of the best I had in a while. From here we went to the the hotel. It looks a little old but it is very clean. The room is nice, the bed is comfortable and is quite.

Well, that is it for tonight. We are going to get up and head towards Custer, SD tomorrow. On the way we may swing by the Homestead, Bad Lands, Wall Drug and anyplace else that trips our trigger.