On the Road – Travel to SD

 Today I left Wyoming and headed to Rapid City, SD.  It was a driving day and no museums were on the schedule.  As I pulled out of Laramie to get on the many state roads that would take me to South Dakota, I found myself behind this.

I hoped to get a side shot, but it was not possible as they turned left at the next traffic light.  I will tell you that it was a very nicely done custom with side exhaust pipes tucked in to the running boards and many other slick touches.

On I went to the first leg of the many connections to get to Rapid City.  I was enjoying the scenery and thinking about the wild life that I get to see.  There are Pronghorns and Mule Deer as well as Bison that you see as you drive these roads.

Then I noticed that my radar detector was no longer lit up.  It is on the same circuit as the cigarette lighter that I use to keep the laptop alive.  By this time the laptop battery was down to 40%.  I pulled the adapter plug out of the cigarette lighter socket and found it hot and melting.  Rats.  Not good.

I closed the lid on the laptop so it would suspend and stop sucking up power and running down the battery.  When a rest area came up I pulled over and swapped out the fuse.  That got the radar detector going, but the power adapter for the laptop was toast. 

I opened the lid and check how many miles to my next road change and closed the lid again to conserve battery power.  I only opened it up when I knew by mileage that a course change was coming up.  It would hold me until I reached Rapid City and a Radio Shack to replace the power adapter.

The countryside went through several changes and then I made it to South Dakota.  I came across this two-mile train carrying cars loaded with coal.  A few more miles down the road and there was another two-mile train coming the other way with empty cars.

One of the junctions took me through Hot Springs and the speed limit was down to 25 mph.  As I cruised through the town I saw a used car lot with some interesting old cars out front so I stopped and took some photos. 

As I was doing that a guy pulled up and asked me if I would like to see a couple of cars he had.  His name was Michael Crawford and used to run a used car lot himself.  In his yard were a ’55 Buick and a Packard of a similar vintage.  

It is always a treat to find these little collections.  You know they are out there, but finding them is very difficult.

After that I had about fifty miles more to go.  I found my hotel and then the local Radio Shack to solve my power problem.

Tomorrow there is what looks to be an interesting place called the Motion Unlimited Museum and Antique Car Lot.