Mount Rushmore
September 27th
It was actually cold this morning so we all put nice warm layers on and by lunch time it was back to tee shirts again. Ophelie has taken on the role of navigator while Josh is happy to be a back seat driver.I am very impressed with her map reading skills – I just tell her where I want to go and she will navigate. I can rely on Josh to tell me when I am over the speed limit as he keeps his eyes locked on the controls. We have more than 1 motel directory in the back so when we have decided where we will be staying he has to look up the cheapest one. It amazes me that the thing that causes most arguments is who gets to go to the ice machine in the motel first. It’s suitcases in the room and a race to find the ice bucket so the winner runs out the room first to find the machine…………….
Lots more curvy roads in the mountains to drive – it’s far too much like fun. The only downside is getting stuck behind the USA equivalent of the caravan – an RV. They are enormous and some even have their cars towing on the back. I have seen many women truck drivers but not one female RV driver yet.
Sight seeing day today. Thunder Falls was our first stop – an underground water fall which was v loud and had the added bonus of loads of chipmunks at the entrance desk. They are so quick it was hard to catch them on camera but the nice lady at the desk put some sabotage peanuts out for us. Look how cute them darned critters are……………..
Mount Rushmore beckoned – I was right to have waited until now to go and see it as the skies were back to blue and no sign of rain. Like the Statue of Liberty my first thought was how much smaller it looked. You also cannot get as close to it as you would like but we did the trail and had fun taking photos. In fact people were taking photos of us taking photos of the monkey………
The Crazy Horse monument (www.crazyhorse.org) is not as well known as Mount Rushmore but it should be – it is so much more than just a statue. The heads of Mount Rushmore would fit into the back of the head of Crazy Horse it is so immense. The sculptor – whose name I cannot spell was asked by Indian Chiefs to build a statue in their honour. Crazy Horse – a Lakota Indian was chosen to represent all tribes. The sculptor – (sc) spent his life carving and blasting the statue from the rock. He started by himself and 7 of his 10 children have continued after his death. It is a work in progress and will not be complete for many years. Sc rejected gov’t funding as he felt only people who were interested in it should pay for it. It was v exciting as they actually did a blast of 1100 lbs while we there today. I would have had a good photo but of course jumped half a mile when the blast happened! The kids found this hysterical of course.
The museum and film there were great – much more informative than Mount Rushmore and we came away having learnt so much. This is one of those spots that has a sense of place – I would love to return here one day to see the progress.
We splashed out on an extra $10 dollars and got a motel with an indoor pool and hot tub so you can guess where we spent the rest of the day!
Strangest site today – Jim and Laurie. A middle aged couple on a Harley who were stopped with us at this breathtaking viewpoint ( keep coming across them on the road – you turn a corner and wow!).They stopped to let their 2 sausage dogs – one who had a pink doggie tracksuit on – have a walk. The dogs travel on the back of the bike in a dog carrier box. The site of this biker walking the tiniest dog in a pink tracksuit was priceless.
Tags: America, Travel
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