Day 46 South Dakota

Pop quiz # 3: What is the difference between bison and buffalo?

Remember yesterday when I wrote that I couldn’t get close to a bison even though I saw one in a field off the loop road, so I downloaded a picture? Well, things changed this morning. The dogs have been making me walk them as soon as the sun starts to rise. Today was no different. At 5:30, I started a short walk. We got 10 yards from the trailer and Madison started barking. I looked up and a bison was in the campsite about 25 yards away. I immediately brought the dogs back to the trailer. At about 6:00, Madison started barking again. I raised the shade and immediately saw a few bison next to my trailer. Shortly there was a small herd of at least seven and one came within ten feet of my window. Madison, who was very brave when one was 25 yards away, was now shaking like a leaf, but Gipper was calmly intrigued. The bison casually walked on through the campground. As I walked the dogs later, I was amused that they displayed signs telling us to pick up after our pets, even though the campground was littered with bison poop, very large!

I headed south from the TR National Park, along the same road (the TR Expressway) that I traveled up north the day before, headed for the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. Every time I passed through a small town, the speed limit would drop from 65 to 55, to 45, to 35, and to 25, and then back up again. As I passed the small town of Amidon, ND, I noticed the same police car next to the road that I saw the day before, but the cop in the driver’s seat looked like a mannequin. I googled it later, and they do indeed keep the car there with a mannequin, serving like a scarecrow to encourage people to slow down during the two-block town. There was also a sign at the entrance to the town claiming Amidon was the smallest count seat (population 23) in the country.

I continued through to Rapid City, South Dakota and then west for 15 miles on the Mount Rushmore Road to the park. The entire road was one big tourist trap with amusements, lodges, RV parks, restaurants, and souvenir shops all the way. Even the memorial seemed like a tourist area more than a national park. To be honest, I was not impressed. Mount Rushmore itself was smaller than I expected. One interesting thing about Mount Rushmore is that it is featured in the climactic scene in the 1959 film North by Northwest, rated as one of the top 100 films by the American Film Institute.

I left the park and drove east for another hour to my campsite at the Cedar Pass Campground in Badlands National Park. I didn’t have time to visit the park, so I will save that for tomorrow.

Answer to the pop quiz: Bison and buffaloes are very similar, but bison are native to North America and Europe, and buffaloes are native to Africa and Asia. So most American references to buffaloes should be bison. Bison NY? NFL Bison Bills? Bison Bill Cody?