MWRT 2025 – Trip to Deadwood South Dakota

The road west through the southern half of South Dakota came with a marked difference in terrain, farmland crops, and weather. I took my time driving so that I could see a few of the highlights along the way with the standout being the Badlands National Park.

The road to Deadwood travels through Sturgis South Dakota, home to the Sturgis Motorcycle annual rally, which starts August 1st, this coming Friday. The road was filled with cycles, mostly mounted by septuagenarians. Some looked a bit older than that even 🙁

My first stop was at a very unique place known as the Corn Palace. All the murals which adorn the exterior of the building are completely redone every year with a new design. Those murals were quite remarkable.

The farmland in this state apparrently is more coducive to growing a few different crops besides the corn and soy bean fields I’d been seeing so far. In particular, the sunflower fields were quite striking in full bloom.

Many beautiful valleys and river crossings along the way. There was a roadside rest stop which featured an overlook of the Missouri river where a bridge constructed in honor of the Lewis and Clark Expedition because that troup had stopped along there journey to rest and dry all their gear after continuous rains were encountered along the way.

The drive though the Badlands National Park was very amazing. I have driven through Rocky Moutnains and Hill Country and other areas but this Badlands was truly unique. This is a terrain formed from soft sedimentary rocks with clay-rich soils. My photos really don’t do it justice.

I finally arrived in Deadwood. I checked into the Holiday Inn and went for a walk around. Immediately ran into Deadwood’s most famous citizen.

T

he town of Deadwood is filled with the bikers with there Harley’s cruising loudly up and down Main Street. I stopped in the Tin Lizzie casino to see if there was any Blackjack games to play for a little while and sat down at a table with one other player. The place was relatively quiet, it seems, because Sturgis is where the action is with all the bikers setting up camp and enjoying the festivities.

My play at the table was a 2 Deck game with a bit different rule than I’m used to playing which showed when multiple times the dealer had to correct my play. The rule I wasn’t used to is that one can only double down on ten or eleven. I’m so used to doubling a nine against a dealer 3-6 that I kept trying to do that. Oops, can’t do that.

One of my goals for this trip was to run into another Blackjack Player that was connected with the same community that I’ve been a member of for the last year and a half. I’ve been on the look out to pick one out of the players I’ve met but none have shown the same style of play that I’m accustomed to using. But on this evening I noticed the young man playing on my left was playing similarly to myself. I barely thought about it before putting it out of my mind as I’d had a couple of beers and needed to focus my attention on my own play.

A bit later when I took a bathroom break, I met the young man on the way back to the table. He struck up a conversation and he too had noticed my play to be similar to his own and turns out we both are part of the same online community of Blackjack players. How funny that this would occur like this and on my last stop before heading to Glacier National park. We agreed to meet up while he and I are in town. That should be some interesting conversation.

Today my first order of business is to see some sites including Mount Rushmore, should be epic!