Day Three - The Day of the Jackalope

Greetings all and welcome to Day 3 of the Tate Family Adventure. Just as a disclaimer - we've been writing our blog on the road from location to location, but the only problem is that lately, we've been traveling across rural spaces and have limited internet access until typically when we arrive at our lodging locations in the evening. We're going to try to catch you up for the play-by-play, but for now this is as close as it gets.

Anyways, we got up at our typical time (circa 6am) to leave Rapid City and grabbed our continental breakfast on the go as we headed toward Wall, South Dakota. Wall is a tourist trap located in the heart of South Dakota where the famous "Wall Drug" drugstore is located. Since its creation (who really knows when - this place is ancient) Wall Drug has expanded far beyond your local run-of-the-mill pharmacy. In fact, the place now has souvenir shops, rides, attractions such as a large animatronic Tyrannosaurus-Rex who feeds every 15 minutes, and even a King Kong-sized Ape that plays the piano and sings show tunes. Yes, Wall is a fascinating place full of excitement and entertainment for all ages. It's also a place that has probably the largest collection of taxidermy animals I've ever seen (my sister was very fond of the hundreds of "jackelopes" which are a combination between a jack-rabbit and an antelope).

Just another image for you, for anyone who's seen the "Goofy Movie" there's a scene in which Goofy takes his son Max to his "favorite childhood attraction" which happened to be a really bad "possum ranch" with poor shows and special effects. Anyways, Wall South Dakota is kinda like that experience. Yet, we appeased our father for reliving his childhood trip cross-country and took some very amusing pictures on the over-sized jackelope, with a miniature Mt. Rushmore, and on various other statues and models scattered through the place. I must say, although it's a tourist trap and pretty tacky, I thoroughly enjoyed myself too.

We left Wall around 10am and headed north past Rapid City again and toward Deadwood, South Dakota. Deadwood is home of the legendary "Wild Bill" Hickok and Calamity Jane. Now, since I'm a history nerd here's the down low. Wild Bill Hickok was an Wild Western gunslinger during the 1800's out in South Dakota during the gold rush days when the west was rapidly expanding and people from all over the globe were moving out west to seek their fortunes. Bill Hickok actually was born in Illinois and became a professional marksman by the age of 14. He was actually involved as a sharpshooter, scout, and was a member of the Union army (worked with General Sherman) and was close friend with General George Custer. After the Civil War, Hickok was a US Marshall for some time in Kansas, and became known for his quick draw and fast guns after confronting a rogue and shooting him through the heart "before the man ever raised his gun." Soon after, papers sensationalized Hickok and he became quite a legend of the West. He moved to Deadwood in 1870's because he actually was responsible for the death of his own deputy while he was a sheriff in Kansas (Hickok was in a shoot out and his deputy came up behind him and was accidently shot in the process), but lived in deadwood as an unemployed legend who loved his drinkin', women, and gambling. The reason Deadwood is even on the map today is because at 4pm in the afternoon on August 2nd, 1876, Hickok was gunned down in Saloon #10 by "Crooked Nosed John McCaw" who shot Hickok in the back of the head while he was about to win in a hand of poker. Hickok's poker hand, 2 black aces, 2 black eights, and a red nine of diamonds, is now known as "Dead Man's Hand" and Deadwood has become a historical Wild West town ever since.

Now when we arrived in Deadwood, we checked out the visitors center and parked and located some lunch at the Saloon #10. After eating bar food, we stayed at our table because in the afternoons in Saloon #10 - Wild Bill Hickok himself shows up on the hour to do a question and answer session with curious visitors and a reenactment of his death is shown too. After the show, I had to meet the man myself, so Dad and I actually got pictures with the gunslinger at his own poker table. Fun Fact: Wild Bill ate, poured his coffee, and did any other miniscule tasks with his left hand so that his right hand could always be available to draw his six-shooter (he also always sat with his back against a wall so no one could sneak up behind him - the one time he didn't do this, was on August 2nd). Dad also got some gun slinging lessons from Wild Bill as he taught my father how to do a "drop and twist draw" or something like that. Basically - Wild Bill wore his guns with the butts facing outward, very unlike the western movies you may have seen or how cowboys are portrayed by Clint Eastwood. This is because Wild Bill could draw his weapon faster by grabbing the gun by the trigger, dropping it down, and flicking his wrist upward rather than having to pull the entire gun out of the holster and re-level it with a target. Needless to say, all of this was quite the educational experience.

Anyhow, after some time with ol' Bill himself, our family decided to take an official tour of Deadwood with a touring company. Our tour guide was a hysterical local who's one-liners and constant banter kept us laughing the entire hour long tour in addition to providing some quality info. I'd definitely say it was a successful experience, and would recommend it to anyone interested in visiting Deadwood, South Dakota. Also, turns out our guided tour of Deadwood was done by a touring company owned by Kevin Costner. We were able to even go into a few of the restaurants that had all of his costumes from his movies (Field of Dreams, the Bodyguard, Dances with Wolves, Robin Hood, etc). There was also a casino in Deadwood known as the "Celebrity Hotel" which showcased famous props, costumes, and other items from movie sets over the past decades. This included a wand from one of the Harry Potter films, the Aston Martin James Bond drives in "The Living Daylights," and even a life jacket from "Titanic." Who knew Deadwood had so much going on!?

As you can imagine, we were pretty tired after our jam-packed day and needed to still make it back to Denver for our hotel. So, we jumped back in the rent-a-car and drove the almost six hours through South Dakota and Wyoming and back into Colorado to return our vehicle. We ended our day watching the sunset over Wyoming's open prairies and called it a night by twelve. Tomorrow's adventure will include an all-day train ride from Denver to Salt Lake City, Utah through the Rocky Mountains! I'm stoked for a relaxing day of travel, and I'm sure pops is too since he doesn't have to drive!

If you're listening along with our adventure, here are the tunes you should get for your Ipods:
Wall, South Dakota - "Wonderwall" ~Oasis
Deadwood, South Dakota - "I Shot the Sheriff" ~Bob Marley

See ya in Utah!

~Josh