Imperial Inn Bv Rapid City

... rival down the road. I would tell you all about it but I think you'd benefit more from looking it up yourself.



Thought of the Day

Is free wireless ever really free?

For reference

I paid $80 to be seen by a doctor
Due to impaired hearing, I thought he said 'rear' when he asked to look in my 'ear'
I have been asked not to go back to that particular medical centre

Overcast and cloudy this morning looking out our window into the carpark of the hotel. Free Hotel breakfast was standard American buffet with the added interest of 'make your own waffles' – of course 3 of us had to try them (Kate wasn't keen). Hitting the road at 9am we hit a country road where we were the only vehicle for miles and miles. Stopping to use a restroom at a Wyoming gas station, Josh had fun counting out his allet full of pennies for a Hershey bar ...

... Ron’s Mother’s 87th birthday. She is almost as old as GG/Nana who is 90. All of her children (Papa Ron, Larry and Jack and her grandchildren (John and his wife Carmen, Steven and Sarah) are here except Papa Ron’s son Kent who is still in Albuquerque. It has been many years since Papa Ron and I have been with his mother for her birthday. We have carrot cake and ice cream to celebrate.

July 2 – 4, 2009

We spend time just ...

... and through several tunnels that the bus just barely squeezed through...one of them only had 4'' clearance on each side and the one near "The Eye of the Needle" only had 2" clearance on each side!!!



We finally got to the Crazy Horse Monument. Even though it's a work in progress and doesn't look like they've completed much, the movie showing the work that started back ...

... visibility was often poor. However, the road itself was in good shape. We made a brief stop in Sturgis, where up to 700,000 motorcyclists converge each summer. It's hard to believe that such a small, quaint town (with many beautiful older houses and buildings) can host so many. We looked forward to arriving in Rapid City before dark, but were caught in a traffic jam on the freeway in a section under construction. A truck had broken down and was blocking traffic. we were stuck there ...

... the wall was actually suggested by America? Then out to Mt Rushmore. Did a self guided audio tour on a walking trail around the base of the memorial. Very interesting and quite something to see more so because of the wonder at what it took to make the memorial rather than gazing on the faces of the Presidents. That being said, getting beneath the faces on the walking trail, one gets to look pretty close-up and one can then appreciate the workmanship. It is ...

Started from home in Urbandale, IA. Target Black Hills, SD. We made stop in 1880 Town. Overnight in Wall.
Tomorrow reached Rapid City where we made "base camp".
For next 5 days we visited Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer City, Deadwood, Ho Spring, Tatanka Museum, Devils Tower, WY.

On our way back home we visited Sioux city.

... land around it. Unfortunately the Visitor Centre isn't open during the winter so we could only gleam the basic of information from the interpretive trail around the base of the tower itself. It was once believed that the tower was the remains of the inside of a volcanic cinder cone which over the millenina has eroded. More recent theories are that the tower itself was previously underground and as a result of its incredibly dense nature, has escaped ...

... in Custer, just south of Mt. Rushmore and the campground is full....of motorcycles. In the town of Custer motorcycles are lined up and down Main Street. By now the clouds have rolled in and it's raining. Not so many motorcycles on the road...we're on our way to see Mt. Rushmore. We stop at the Crazy Horse Memorial. For 60 years now they've been blasting rocks off a mountain to carve out Crazy Horse. We watch a short presentation about the history of how this project came to ...

... MJ wanted a few more rays.....which was very, very fortuitous as a short distance on we spotted a few buffalo with calves coming down a small ravine out of the woods next to the road. If we had left 30 seconds earlier we'd have missed them and rated the park as pretty but devoid of wildlife. As it is we can say it is pretty and teeming with wildlife. The buffalo kept coming out of the woods with their young (we found out later that ...