Rushmore Express Keystone

... He gave me some strong antibiotics so I hope to be back to full health in time for tea and crumpets on the front lawn.<br><br>With a new found respect for life coursing through my veins, I headed to Mount Rushmore to see four giant faces in a row. And I wasn't disappointed. There were four of them. They were giant. And strike me down if they weren't in a row. <br><br>Just down the road was Crazy ...

<br>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' &#8211; 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 ...

Today we went to Rushmore caves. A cave tour of some underground tunnels found by some miners in the 1800s. There were some cool rock formations. Stalagtites and Stalagmites and all that. The tunnels were narrow and the stairs very steep, Dad kept complaining, and I was the one reminding him of how much time we had spent in the truck in the last few days.

... morning braving the rain and wind! We found some good spots to "park" our chairs and were still hoping to see the great fireworks! Around 7:30 pm the storm came back in and we were in the thick FOG - so much for the fireworks - we did watch the fog turn colors and could just imagine how awesome this could have been. I was disappointed, but, my stubbornness kicked in and I promised to myself and Mt.Rushmore that we will be back to see the fireworks!<br>

... animal safari and our convertable was surrounded by zebras. So, I thought Bear Country might be good. It was interesting, and definitely expensive! $15 a person!! Well, you get what you want though, plenty of bears. I feel kinda bad that there whole like is walking around this small area getting photographed by tourists. And I just supported that by paying to do that very thing. Oh well.

... and saw a sign on the door that says "Free Wildlife Exhibit". I wondered what all the nice statues of wild animals were doing in the front yard of the station as we pulled in, but we hadn't seen anything yet! I ran back to the car to grab my camera, as I feared I might not ever stumble across a gas station again that was equipped with this kind of wild animal taxidermy. It was now almost 11 a.m., and I could barely keep my eyes open. My legs felt ...

We did the mount Rushmore thing this morning, here are some pics. Many of you I am sure have been. This is my 2nd time, and I have mixed feelings about the place. Sometimes you are like "holy sh*t! they sculpted these guys into the side of a mountain!", and then other times you are like ...

... a shower as I biked the three miles back to the lodge. It was mostly down hill, so it was a very relaxing bike ride. Once everyone was ready we headed to Deadwood. I was pretty disappointed with place. Every where you looked there were casinos. It seemed like a more interesting downtown area before gambling became legal in 1989. We took a trolley tour of the town and visited the graves sites of Wild Bill Hickcock and Calamity Jane. It was interesting, but the tour guy ...

... http://www.nps.gov/moru/index.htm .<br> After spending about an hour and a half of the morning there I went on to explore more of the Black Hills. I stopped at Iron Mountain Picnic Area for lunch and for you birders I saw some red crossbills there. Next I stopped at the Norbeck Memorial Scenic Overlook. <br> I saw there were cave tours in the area, the main being Wind Cave and Jewel Cave. I decided to go to ...

... wood I found this plae mentioned but until today when I reviewed my log book I had forgotten that I had been there. <br> Next I got a partial fillup of gas because I found the price in this outying area had jumped up like it usually did away from the city. I had a 20 gallon tank and usually got between 15 and 18 miles per gallon so had a range of about 300 to 350 miles and I always tried to plan my route so I would hit and ...