Day 7 -- Belle Fourche to Gettysburg, South Dakota -- 201 Miles

Right now we're sitting on a bluff overlooking a section of the Missouri River that has been dammed and expanded into a lake called Oahe. The sun is close to setting, and we're anxious to see if nature plans a spectacular sunset. Our camp tonight, called Bob's Resort, is one that Concetta found using her trusty IPhone and it's great. There's lots of room between each individual RV space, it's quiet as a church, and there's a pretty nice restaurant called Bob's Steakhouse just a 10-minute walk from our door. I guess Bob must be doing alright for himself since he also owns the tackle shop and mini-mart up at the front entrance to the camp.

We spent most of the day rolling east along South Dakota Route 212. Just as yesterday, we saw lots of farm fields of corn and hay. But new today was quite a few acres of beautiful yellow sunflowers. I looked diligently for a side road that would have allowed me to pull the RV in among the sunflowers for a cool photograph, but I never saw an opportunity. I did grab an opportunity to photograph one of the large hay bales I've been talking about. Concetta wondered just how I was going to get on top of the thing, but naturally I MacGivered a way.

This morning, before we hit the road, we decided to visit the museum in Belle Fourche. The exterior of the museum grounds looked so inviting as we passed by yesterday afternoon on the way to our campsite, that we knew we just had to check it out before we left town. Thank goodness we did as the interior of the museum as even more spectacular then the outside.

As you probably know if you've been reading this blog through our several trips around the U.S., Concetta and I visit a LOT of museums. So we've become amateur connoisseurs of such establishments. Believe me when I tell you that the Tri-State Museum in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, is perhaps the most marvelously and expertly displayed collection of artifacts that we have ever seen in a small town. Each and every topical display provided a museum-goer with all the information they needed on a given subject without adding too much or too little in the way of visual displays and informational placards. Simply put, we spent an extremely enjoyable ninety minutes learning about everything from the history of kitchens and cooking, to the military experiences of a number of local boys who fought in various conflicts through the years. One such local military aviator even flew with Jimmy Doolittle's Tokyo raid during WWII.

One of the first things I saw as we arrived on the museum grounds is a piece that I've only seen in person only twice in my life -- that of a horse-drawn ice saw. Back before the days of refrigeration, ice was the commodity that everyone wanted for household use to keep things cold. Everyone had an "icebox" in the kitchen and the occasional visit from the iceman was commonplace. Placards placed in the home's front window were used by the housewife to request that the iceman stop that day.

The ice was collected each winter from local lakes that had frozen over to a depth sufficient to support considerable weight. To make it easy to harvest the ice, a system was devised where a horse-drawn ice saw would be pulled across the lake in lines about two feet apart. Once done, the ice saw would then be pulled repeatedly across the lake at ninety degrees to the first lines of travel about four feet apart. The saw would not cut the ice all the way through, but would leave a about a fourth of the ice to be cut by hand. This kept the blocks together until it was time to separate them and float them to the ice house. Ice houses would be located adjacent to the cutting operation and would be super insulated, usually with saw dust, and were able to keep ice frozen all through the summer months. Ice houses were a great place for men to work whose regular jobs were curtailed or eliminated by winter weather.

Once inside the building I was totally dazzled by the professional look of the displays. One that took my eye did so because we had so recently passed on Route 212 a Bentonite plant. Until we saw the plant and the many trucks on the highway hauling the Bentonite product, we had no idea such a substance even existed. According to the information sheet at the museum, "Western Sodium Bentonite, the mineral of 1,000 uses -- from face creams to fertilizer, laxatives to lubrication oil, paper to putty. Bentonite plays an important part in everyone's lives."

Bentonite, if I understand correctly, is a product of volcanic ash falling into an inland sea that once existed in the central part of America between 135 and 65 million years ago. Later, thanks to plate tectonics, the inland sea was pushed upwards and the inland sea was dispersed. But while the ash was being deposited in an on again, off again process, other sediments were deposited on top of it and ultimately compressed the Bentonite into layers. Most of the Bentonite deposits are in the Big Horn hills of Montana and the Black Hills of South Dakota.

So, you're probably wondering why anyone would care about Bentonite. Well, the most obvious reason is that the museum's brochure lists no less than 160 different products that use Bentonite to some degree. Everything from animal feed to batteries, from cardboard to cleansing agents, from dynamite to insulation board, and from water softeners to sewer pipes. And there are still 152 other common everyday things I haven't mentioned. They even mix this product with the material you're using at the local pottery center if you're learning to throw clay pots. How in the world have I never heard about this stuff before?

The next display to really take my interest involved a local Belle Fourche native named Donald Smith. Lieutenant Donald Smith, United States Army Aircorp, piloted the 15th B-25 Bomber to take off from the aircraft carrier Hornet on April 8th, 1942 for the famous Doolittle bombing Raid over Japan. After successfully conducting the raid, Lieutenant Smith, running out of gas, was able to crash land his plane off the coast of China and Chinese peasants helped the crew to safety. When Smith and his crew were eventually rescued and returned to duty, Lieutenant Smith was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and was promoted to the rank of Captain. He also received the Military Order of China from Madame Chiang Cai Shek.

Sadly, the now Captain Smith immediately returned to active duty in World War II and was shot down and killed while flying another bombing run over occupied Europe just seven months after his rescue. As the saying goes, all gave some and some gave all. But still a pretty impressive record for a distinguished son of Belle Fourche, South Dakota, population (today) of just 5,000 people.

While I was looking at all the "manly" stuff, Concetta was completely captivated by about thirty lineal feet of displays on the subject of food and cooking. You know me, I like to eat, but cooking isn't my thing. So it was that not until I had looked at everything else did I wander over to see what the cook in this family was doing. Well, come to find out, the food and cooking displays were just as fascinating, and just as well done, as what I had been perusing.

My favorite food and cooking display, one that Concetta also liked, was the origin of the Betty Crocker cook book. At one point the parent company of Gold Medal Flour ran a contest wherein people were encouraged to complete a puzzle then send in their results. If the puzzle was correct, the respondents would get a free pin cushion in the shape of a Gold Medal Four sack. Well, as sometimes happens, the contest was far more popular than anyone predicted. Rather than a few women responding, some 30,000 women not only sent in their contest response, but they sent in their favorite recipes along with requests for other recipes. The response was so massive, that the company decided to sponsor a cookbook.

But what to call the cookbook? The company director, a male, wanted at first to put his name on the cookbook. But cooler heads thought that a woman's name would be better. The director relented and requested suggestions for a woman's name. The name Betty was eventually decided upon since it sounded sort of homey and friendly. The name Crocker was similar to the director's name of Croker. The famous signature for Betty was derived from one of the secretaries at the home office who was judged to have the nicest, clearest handwriting. So there you have it. Mass marketing in the making.

Well, that's all for now. Tomorrow we'll be heading for the eastern border of South Dakota. Stay tuned for all the adventures that lie ahead. And when you decide to join the Happy Wanderers on the road, we wish you happy travels and exiting destinations! Please see the map below for our progress toward our Ohio destination so far.