Chapter 7, Ellsworth Air Force Base Museum, 2026

Our next stop along our trip was the Air Museum just outside the gate at Ellsworth Air Force Base near Rapid City, South Dakota.  For those of you that might travel there in the future in a BIG RV, you might want to call ahead like we did to see if there is room to maneuver and park in their parking lot.  

We are in a 45' motorhome towing a Honda CR-V and we are pretty long and wide. The nice lady we talked to before we arrived suggested we come straight into the parking lot and head straight toward the building.  Then, right in front of the building is a roundabout that let us reverse direction and then park next to the B-29.

When we got to the museum, what we found out is that the roadway outside the museum gates is narrow and so is the entrance gate and we had to wait for oncoming traffic to pass before we were able to swing wide and enter the narrow gate straight on. 

We followed the path of the yellow line I placed on the following picture and parked at the red circle and it worked out great.  

The museum had lots of interesting displays and we learned about something we had never heard of.  They took a big balloon and suspended a ball under it and let it go This model shows what it must have looked like.

Imagine what it would be like trying to get out as it is falling from 66,000 feet.

One of the interesting displays they had was an actual B1 bomber cockpit that was used as a simulator. It would allow entire flight crews to simulate a mission from engine start through an attack mission, and finally an approach and landing.

They must've had to spend hours in the simulator in order to complete an entire mission.  This is the pilot and copilot crew position.

The simulator must be a very cost-effective way to train crews for the B1 bomber, because they are immense and must cost a fortune to fly and maintain.

They also had a mock up of what the control room of an underground missile silo would look like. The two operators seats were separated by quite a distance, and the principle was that the only way to fire a missile was to turn two keys at the same time, and the keys were too far apart for one person to do it. 

 

It kept one crazy person from firing the whole works, but I'm not sure how they could make sure they didn't have two crazy people down there at the same time. Apparently their system worked because I don't think we've had any unauthorized launches.

 

There were a total of 150 underground missile complexes located in South Dakota and another 150 located in North Dakota, Wyoming, and Montana. They have deactivated all of the South Dakota, Montana and Wyoming sites, but the North Dakota sites are still active.

I would have loved to be at Mount Rushmore on the day that this happened!

They had lots of beautiful static displays outside, and even though we had seen many of these types before, it is always amazing to see it again, and remember all of the people that built, maintained and flew these things.

 

This is a B-29 bomber, similar to the Enola Gay which is the bomber that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan.  It is huge.

 

It makes our huge motorhome look small.

 

We let the pictures do most of the talking on this episode.  It was a very nicely done museum and now we are heading out to Hermosa, South Dakota to continue our explorations. 

 

We will keep you posted on our adventures and we hope you get a chance to get out and do some exploring too.

 

Tom & Suzie

Chapter 6, Sturgis, Deadwood, and Lead South Dakota. 2026

 After we left Thermopolis, Wyoming, we continued to experience unbelievably wide, open spaces.  Frequently, we were the only vehicle on the road for miles.  We eventually left the rolling plains and began to climb up into the Black Hills.

As we climbed higher into the hills, we began to encounter the remnants of last winter's snowfall. The roads were clear and dry, but it was windy and cold. I don't think this northern country is a place I'd want to be in the winter.

Then it was back down toward the high plains.

Suzie finally got an action shot of the antelope.

After arriving at our campground for the night, we then took a day trip to Sturgis and Deadwood, South Dakota.  Sturgis is famous for its annual motorcycle rally, which is held in August.

It May, the town seems kind of quiet and tame.

When we were in Sturgis and Deadwood in 2009, when the motorcycle rally was in full swing, it wasn't quite so quiet.

Or tame.

It did not take long to check out Sturgis on this trip, and then we proceeded on to Deadwood.  If you have ever watched the HBO TV series call Deadwood, this is the town where that happened.

Many of the events depicted in the HBO series, actually happened here, and the saloons, hotels and stores are still here and open.

I mentioned that there were quite a few motorcycles here when we visited in August 2009.

This is just one parking lot. There were several large parking lots like this that took the overflow from all of the motorcycles that lined both sides of Main Street.

The next day, we drove to the town of Lead, (pronounced Leed), which is just up the hill from Deadwood, where we met with friends who moved here from Northern California several years ago. They bought an old fixer-upper house that they are remodeling and repairing.

They have already done a huge amount of work and the house was very cozy.  It wasn't that cozy because they still go back to California in the winter time to visit with friends and family and avoid the harsh winters.

They took us to an old gold mine that the town was built around.  It is called the Homestake mine. Here is a link to a short video that describes the establishment of the mine and the town.

Link to video about the HomeStake Mine (after watching the video by clicking on the blue numbers, hit the back button to get back to the Blog) 

 3:21  

Eventually, gold mining was ended at the Homestake mine, but miles and miles of deep tunnels were left along with a huge open cut.  The open cut is over 1500 feet deep.

This is a model showing where all of the mine shafts are located in the hillside behind the open cut.  It is very difficult to see exactly where all of the mind shafts are, but you will get the idea that this was a huge underground operation.

This next diagram depicts the basic layout of the shafts and drifts of the mine and reminds us that it is 8000 feet deep.

In order to get down into the mine, large elevator cars were raised and lowered, carrying miners, mining cars and supplies into the mine. This is one of the original mining cars.

As you stand inside the main car and look up, you can see a video of what it would look like coming up from 8000 feet in this mine shaft.  You would also remember that 60 people or 10,000 pounds of cargo could ride in this car. Since I have extreme claustrophobia, I wouldn't be happy riding in this car with two people down 8000 feet.

After the gold mining operation was abandoned, scientists discovered that the deep mine shafts could be used for advanced physics experiments.  

The scientist figured out how to build a huge tank at the 4600 foot level of the mine in order to help discover neutrinos. This is a section of the tank. The sections were actually small enough to fit into the elevator car.  Once at the 4600 foot level, the sections were welded together, forming a very large tank.

 

 This is a description of that experiment.

 

 

Now, the experiments continue, and here's a short video. That explains what they're doing now and shows you what it's like inside the tunnel.  (after watching the video by clicking on the blue "Watch", hit the back button to get back to the Blog) 

watch

 

That's enough for this chapter of the blog.  We hope you are enjoying them, and soon, we will begin preparing the next chapter.  Try and get out there and explore some of this amazing country.

 

Tom and Suzie