Fountain Inn Crystal Park Newcastle

... 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.

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.

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 – except the Jehovah's Witness I met yesterday!! Maybe we should start saying 'Kia Ora' or 'Gidday' more.... :0)

Drove straight to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota, arriving just after 3 so it wasn't too sunny and very few tourists ...

We originally planned to stay in Deadwood and experience the downtown "old frontier town" but it was too expensive and we wanted to get a headstart on the trip to Colorado. Soooo we made it into Wyoming and found a quaint $35 motel room with free WIFI, hot shower, and cable TV. We were in heaven!!

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.

... Salt Lake City. Chapter 17: Mount Rushmore National Memorial 20. May 2008 Eventhough Tamina had had a bad night with fever, we drove to Mount Rushmore National Memorial the next morning. Here we saw the monument of the four president George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln built into the rock... After a picknick the journey continued to Salt Lake City.

... dear flanking the highway apparently unperturbed by the vehicles streaming past them. The multitude of suicidal bugs that find our windscreen irresistible are not so lucky though. Signs warning of heavy winds don't make us nervous anymore. In fact I think I've caught Malc with a relaxed smile on his face more than once this trip! Never complacent though we are sorry to see an accident up ahead ...

After Mt Rushmore, we went to Jewel Cave National Monument, it was only about a half-hour away. With our "America the Beautiful" federal lands pass, we could go on the introductory cave tour for free. Basically we went underground in the super-speeding elevator (it goes down something like 23 stories in about 30 seconds, and you don ...

... had finished working on the van I washed and shampooed in the creek. Then I started on the second painting of the trip. One of the little creek that ran behind the campground. Later as dark came on I started a campfire and had plenty of firewood because of all that was leftover by the weekenders. With dark night coming on I enjoyed the sound of the fire crackling and the ...

... I arrived at the parking lot and walked up to the visitor center I realized that Alfred Hitchcock took a lot of liberties in the scenes that were supposedly at Rushmore in North by Northwest. No way you could walk up there or climb around it. I got a cup of tea and savored the moment, non-chalantly glancing out the window and oh yes there is the big scuplture of the presidents. Here is a link to the park ...

... of this trip. I was really taken by surprise by the landforms. When you are approaching mountains you usually see them in the distance and you adjust to their size as you get closer, but here the approach was basically a flat plain and when you reach the edge of the badlands they drop away before you suddenly in all their fantastic eroded shapes. Next stop was the Windows Overlook where I hiked the Door Trail, then I ...