Sleep Inn & Suites Rapid City

... 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 ...

... other customers were getting. We should have been more assertive and complained...Still this is what we came for, both the good, bad and just plain quirky. Funny how no one seems remotely interested in asking where we're from &#8211; except the Jehovah's Witness I met yesterday!! Maybe we should start saying 'Kia Ora' or 'Gidday' more.... :0)<br><br>Drove straight to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, arriving just after 3 so it wasn't too sunny and very few tourists ...

... of Hitchcock&#8217;s North by Northwest, replaced by a massive dining room that smelled of college dorm food and sweaty people. Many of the families seemed inspired by Sarah Palin, as we heard the following children&#8217;s names yelled out: Track, Ryder, and Truck (all different families). All in all, the thought was: I&#8217;m glad I&#8217;ve seen this, but I don&#8217;t think I ever need to come back.<br><br>From Rushmore, we hit up another quintessentially American ...

... at the helm given the total lack of other vehicles. The guide book suggested a minor detour off the beaten track into buffalo territory. Clearly unable to resist the temptation, we tolerated the gritty track on the off chance that we'd get sight of these amazing beasts. Luck was on our side and sure enough we passed a herd close enough to appreciate their true size - a truly amazing experience that we'd both earmarked months ago ...

Did some timing and route planning yesterday while we rode out the storm. I wanted to go all the way to California but Daniel needs to be back in PA by the end of the month and we figured it would be too hard and we wouldn't have enough time to really enjoy anything. Our plan is to head though Vegas, visit my Uncle who is near their and turn around and come back to see the Grand Canyon and ride through Colorado, etc. If anyone has any ...

... and we were stuck on the side of the interstate for 2 hours while Ned looked for new hoses and antifreeze. Made it to the Ceasar Creek State Park in Dayton as planned, but much later than originally scheduled. On Monday, June 9, visited the Air Force Museum at Wright Patterson AFB and made arrangements with Monaco to bring our motorhomes into the Elkhart, IN, factory service center for repairs. Herman and Betty joined up with us at the campground in Dayton ...

... Pat took over the wheel after lunch and drove the rest of the way to Rapid City. We checked in the Alex Johnson historic hotel, where we toasted our successful return with the last of the Amarula and then headed to the antique shops close to the hotel. Next was dinner at the hotel. Dinner was memorable. First V.V and Denice returned their wine . When the entrees arrived V.V ...

... reality of the route. This means we ended up on a road that meandered through the mountains with two lanes and many, many switchbacks and hairpin turns and a new engineering feat of roadbuilding we had never seen before and we called it the 'corkscrew'. I really have never seen this method of constructing a road to go up a mountain side. Picture being on a corkscrew as your road and you'll maybe understand. Sometimes we went up only one and a half turns, 360 ...

... pretty disspointed we weren't going to visit the Grand Canyon, so the next best thing were the Badlands of South Dakota and it sure didn't dissapoint! It was so drastic a landscape we had ever seen, you could not help but be taken aback by the erosion patterns and the sheer drops into the canyon valleys. The drive through was sensational, such an alien landscape. The next highlight was to the very west of South Dakota in Custer State Park where they boasted wild Bison herds ...

I got an early start heading south on 83 then west on I-90. I made a short stop at the Murdo rest area and crossed into mountain time a little bit further down the road. When I reached Kadoka I stopped at the Petrified Gardens, looked around and had a Dr. Pepper. Years later during my trips to California I would often go rockhounding with my cousins husband whose favorite discovery was petrified wood. Doing a goggle search ...