July 15, 2015, Wednesday, Mitchell, SD
Day 76

An early drive to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site to get some tour tickets which are hard to come by as the tour is offered every half hour from 8:30 to 3:30 and each only accommodates 6 at a time. We get 2 tickets for 2:00, the latest still available. And off we go to the Badlands National Park entering from the East. The park has an about 40 mile scenic drive with stops along the way for viewing or hiking. We hiked the door trail and the window trail.  The grayish-black sedimentary rock called Pierre (peer) Shale is like a hard clay. In some places the rock is reddish and other places yellow or green. The southern end of the park exits at Wall, SD, home of Wall Drug.  A quick stop there and I pick up a BBQ sandwich to take out for lunch.  There was no mention of the type of meat in the sandwich and I did not want to ask.  Regardless, it was good. Rosemary had a yogurt we packed in the cooler. Back to the Minuteman launch facility tour.  The 6 person limit is due to the small elevator to go down underground where the nuclear bomb safe living container housed the 2 missiliers. Our luck, we were paired with a family of 5 adults each one could have been a contestant for the Biggest Loser show.  The patriarch was about 6'3" at least and must have been close to 500 lbs. The others, 4 females, were not far behind. The elevator capacity was 2000 lbs and I am sure we were over gross. Worse than that, Rosemary and I were squished firmly in the elevator with the 5 jumbos and the tour guide who could not even reach to close the door without another closing it halfway. The tour was fascinating and demonstrated the redundant fail safe conditions and the safety procedures to avoid an unauthorized launch. After the tour, we visited the missile silo which is 11 miles from the launch facility. Both places are right next to I-90. The guide indicated the main reason behind the interstate system was to provide for troop and military equipment movement. Believable, I guess, given the state of the cold war in the 1950's. Late drive to Mitchell, SD, Walmart and arrive about 10 pm after a quite full day.