Wednesday, July 29, 2009

9:15 a.m. – Pulling out of the RV Park here in Newcastle, WY. We have overcast skies with a temp of 58 degrees! It rained off and on last night and it looks like more rain might come our way as we travel to Custer, South Dakota. We are only about 45 minutes from there but knowing how this area is, the temperature varies a lot for town to town. It was hard to find an RV Campsite anywhere in a 50 mile radius, because of the Sturgis, S.D. Motorcycle Rally in Sturgis, S.D. We have noticed a lot of travelers as we have been crossing the countryside. When we try to make reservations, there are only one or two sites left, it that. U.S. 16 is also called Mt. Rushmore Road. It is a very winding road winding through the Black Hills Canyons. A billboard sign along the road said, “Your Mother Was Pro-Life”. I thought that was an interesting statement.
10:20 a.m. – Just pulled into the Big Pine Campground in Custer, S.D. with a temp of 55 degrees and still overcast skies. Not a very warm day by a long shot.
11:00 a.m. – On our way to see Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial which is the carving in the mountains of Crazy Horse the Sioux Indian Chief. The Crazy Horse Memorial was a nice tribute to the Indians and had a lot of history and interesting buildings with all kinds of artifacts, sculptors and history on the man behind this massive project. Frank had one of the “painters” paint an elk on a mountain on an Eagle Feather, it is absolutely beautiful! It is pictured here. On to Mount Rushmore and there, for me anyway, was by far the most inspiring, moving and patriotic feeling of all. From the time you start walking up to the Mountain, with all the State Flags blowing in the wind as your entrance way, to the actual view of Mt. Rushmore, it is breathtaking. I cannot even describe how immense and awesome these carvings of the four presidents are – Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. The history and why these four were chosen, to showing how they blasted and carved them out of mountain to the final light show and the tribute to America and those who fought for us all through the years. What a way to end a great day. People watching as we sat for a few hours waiting for the program to begin, was very interesting. Especially since the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is about to start this weekend, we had lots to watch. Here is a picture of me and one of the “dudes”. The temperature dropped down to 45 degrees before we got back to the RV and we were all “FROZEN”! A great day and evening and we never got back to the RV until 10:45 p.m.!

Drove 37 miles today