When I was just under 2 years old, my parents took a road trip to the Badlands and the Black Hills in the fall of 1956. I know very little about that trip, but thought it would be interesting to try to recreate it. So a couple months ago I started searching through boxes of photos and slides to find anything related to that trip.
Google Lens was instrumental in identifying landmarks they had photographed, and allowed me to plot a course to recreate as much of the trip that they had documented.
The current interstate highway system didn’t exit back then, but thought it should allow me faster point A to point B travel than they experienced, so I relied a lot on I-90 westbound and I-80 eastbound, with a fair number of US highways and local roads in between.

So finally, after nine years of ownership, and a couple weeks of planning, my wife and I set off in my 2007 XK convertible on a proper road trip. I tried to restrict the number of driving hours per day to something reasonable considering the sights that would be on tap for that day, so we could enjoy the trip, without feeling like we were constantly on the run. My plan was for an 11 day trip, touching 7 states. Starting in Illinois, going halfway up Wisconsin, crossing the lower part of Minnesota, lower South Dakota, western Wyoming, northern Nebraska, central Iowa, and back into Illinois.

Some highlights from the trip.

Thunderstorms in Wisconsin:


After the storm in Minnesota:


Picked up some apples in Minnesota for the trip:


Visiting the Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, MN:


Buttoned up for the night in Wall, SD:


Outside a decommissioned Minuteman missile site:


Training missile down in its silo:


Entered the Badlands National Park:


Views while hiking in the Badlands:



A landmark that Google Lens helped me find:


The Badlands has more than rock formations, like a big horn sheep traffic jam:


bison:


and prairie dogs:


When you’ve got an itch, you’ve just got to scratch:


Parked in front of Wall Drugs, of highway billboard fame:


Zoom in, you’ll see our next destination…


Devil’s Tower in Wyoming:


Back in South Dakota, and sleeping for the night in Deadwood:


A stop and hike at Mt Rushmore:


By lucky planning, we got to the Crazy Horse Memorial for the evening laser light show, which was to be the very last show, after 17 years of putting on that show:


The last image of the last laser light show at the Crazy Horse Memorial:


A cabin for the night at Sylvan Lake Lodge in Custer State Park in South Dakota:


The following day was the Volksmarch at Crazy Horse. An event that is held twice each year, in which people are allowed to walk up onto the arm of Crazy Horse at the memorial and be face to face with the carving. If you zoom in, you can see people already up there:


Face to face with Crazy Horse:


Crazy Horse’s left hand is huge:


A stop along the Needles Highway in Custer State Park:


A burro checking out my car along Wildlife Loop Road. This guy was actually rubbing his chin on my headrest:


Think he approves of my car:


Now his buddy wants a peek too:


Bison along the Wildlife Loop Road in Custer State Park:


Aspens changing color along Iron Mountain Highway in Custer State Park:


Exiting a pigtail loop on Iron Mountain Highway:


Settling in for the night in Keystone, SD, not realizing that…

We’d have a view of Mt Rushmore illuminated at night from our hotel:


Approaching Scott’s Bluff National Monument in Nebraska:


A storm was blowing in, literally, as we approached the Courthouse and Jail Rock. The wind was sand blasting us, the tumble weeds were flying, and we were soon pummeled with pounding rain. On the highway we were able to drive out from under the storm:


When we got to Omaha, we checked out the zoo, highly rated, and we recommend it.
We spent a long time watching the baby elephants:


Ok, not a Jaguar, but a pretty cat:


This guy’s thinking of where he’d go if he had a Jag:


Previous generation parked 2 stalls away at the zoo:


Last fill up in Iowa before hitting the last leg for home. The Walmart in the background reminds me of all the Walmart stops we made on this trip. I came up with a new advertising slogan for them, for all road trippers: “Walmart, America’s restroom”:


I used Trip A for daily records, and Trip B for the entire trip. Really impressed with the final numbers, never seen my range that high, and 60 MPH average over 2610 miles, gotta love SD’s 80 MPH speed limit (when you consistently exceed the limit by 10-15 MPH).


And a final note, the car performed flawlessly, pounding rain, wind storms, and beautiful top down drives. We had a blast.

 

Great trip! I've visited a fair few of these places myself, and it brings back good memories of family vacations in decades past. Though, if I had been driving a Jag at the time, maybe it would have been even better.

 

Great post.

I always enjoy reading about US road trips because I'm never likely to be able to do them myself.

Graham

 

Thank you for sharing your wonderful trip. Great post!

 

What a trip!
Thanks for sharing! That's exactly the America I want to see someday (and how I wish to do so)!
Beautifull places and always the most beautifull car of the parkings !

 

Kj07xk:
Great thread, loved seeing that buffalo turn its head to stare at your topless Jaguar.
XKRick

 

Yeah, that V8 rumble gets their attention!

 

Way cool. Any chance you have your route in a document that you'd be willing to share?

Steve

 

Oh man, I wis I would have known. We could have connected in Minnesota. Great trip! I love the black hills area. We've done several road trips out there and back roads to Devils Tower is breathtaking (hopefully you left the freeway @ Spearfish). Maybe next time...

 

Hey Sean, I did think about contacting you prior to the trip, but we had a lot packed into the trip, with a hard deadline to get back so my wife could attend a funeral. Hopefully next time.
Actually left the freeway at Whitewood, and took 34 up to Belle Fourche, the “Geographic Center of the Nation”, before heading west to Devil’s Tower, and came back on locals to Deadwood.

 

Oh, and Minnesota sure takes its speed limits seriously. Think I saw more speed traps on that stretch of I-90 than all the other states on this trip combined! Slow locals on the road saved my keister more than once!

 

Great thread - long time since I did any touring in the states.

 

We did almost that exact trip 20 years ago in my 2000 XJR. Great road trip we enjoyed it immensely. I will add two foot notes:

1. Picked up a small stone chip on the windshield. Stopped at an auto glass shop in Sheridan Wyoming. The tech said leave it alone as it was very small and probably would stay that way forever.
2. On the way home stopped for gasoline just outside of Omaha and noticed that the front left had head light had been heavily damaged. It was on a Saturday afternoon, called Jaguar road service. they could do nothing for me. Light still worked without the front lens. Had it fixed when we got home to Chicago. As I remember the repair cost around $250 because the whole light had to be replaced.

All in all one of our great road trips.

 

Here ya go (kind of long).

 

Got a chance today to clean up after the road trip:


Getting a bath and scrubbing off the bug splats.


Finally clean.


And waxed!

 

Luckier than me.

I recently got back from a 5000 mile trip across France and Spain, washed my F-Pace and shortly after a neighbour reversed across the street into the side of it.

https://www.jaguarforums.com/forum/f...appens-274054/

Not happy but I'd have been more upset if it had been the XK.

Graham

 

Thanks. Much appreciated.

 

Cleans up nice Ken. Fantastic Road trip. My kid is heading there next week sans Omaha.

 

That just sucks. Avoided all those hazards on the trip, and then that happens. “Not happy”, yeah sometimes you just got to hold it in.
Reminds me of the day before my wedding. I had left my Caddy at my bride’s house for her brother to use. My bride let her best friend borrow her car, and the friend backed the car out of the garage, right into my Caddy! “Not happy”, but what ya gonna do?