More of the Black Hills

Friday, September 9 ~ HAPPY BIRTHDAY JOHN! 
What a great way to celebrate a birthday.

We are now on mountain time (2 hrs earlier than home) but our body clocks must still be on eastern time.  Consequently at 4:00 am when John got up,  he looked out the window and saw the beautiful stars across the Badland’s sky.  So we went out to star gaze for a while.  Since it was still too early to watch the sun rise,  we showered and got ready for the day and THEN went to watch the sun rise over the spires.  Beautiful.

As we drove out of the Badlands at 7:00am we came upon pronghorn and long horn sheep along the road.  Knowing there was a heard of

buffalo in the Badlands we took a side dirt road to find them.  Lynn was VERY excited to spot the dark mounds in the grass. There they are! 

We looked through the binoculars waiting for them to stop eating and raise their large heads.  Finally ~ oops, no big head.  On second glance ~ guess those were cows! Oh well, we’ll keep looking.

looking down on the spires as we leave the Badlands

guess we left our mark in the Badlands

Another billboard lead to our next stop ~ the famous Wall Drugs.  We saw billboards for Wall Drugs for at least 100 miles.

We had the $.05 coffee ~ good

          

We drove on through South Dakota  and stopped at Sturgis

We had heard so much about this town when the motorcycle rally hits. It was interesting to see but impossible to imagine thousands of
bikers in town for the rally.

Continuing along rt14A in South Dakota we entered Deadwood. And old western town modernized by gambling casinos.  The proceeds of which have helped to renovate (but in our opinion ~ ruin) the town.
Next was the gold mining town of Lead.  Some of the history was interesting but there really isn't much there.

Then, Crazy Horse Monument.  We watched the 20 minute video and were able to view the monument clearly.  It is still under construction but VERY impressive.  When completed it will be HUGE, Rochester, HUGE. This is a privately funded project.  The sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowsk, didn’t want the government having control of the project.  Many of Ziolkowsk’s 10 children and his widow continue the project today. 

the model

sculpture at current level of completion

 

 On to Custer and the Purple Pie Restaurant.  We had the BEST rhubarb pie ever ~and a great homemade chicken salad sandwich on a homemade roll. We haven’t eaten in restaurants much but whenever we have it’s been great.

Some of the sights we saw today, we had planned on doing the next day but situations changed.  We were a little worried that seeing Crazy Horse Monument first would cause us to feel let down when seeing Mt Rushmore ~ not to worry. 

at dusk

the lighting

It was magnificent.  We went in the evening for the lighting ceremony and it was a very moving and patriotic program which concluded with the ranger asking all past and present service men to come to the platform.  Of course I had to ‘encourage’ John to go, but he was glad that he did. 

service men and women ~ John on far left

hall of states and monument

God Bless America ~ Home of the Free and the Brave