Rapid City, Wind Cave and Mt. Rushmore.

We tried to sleep in Tuesday morning but still woke up well before 7. Checkout was by 11 but the next stop was less than an hour away and charged $5.00 for early check in. So we took another walk through Wall. A long, brisk walk earned us a doughnut and "Free Ice Water" at Wall Drug.

 Carol was fascinated with the grain silos. Pretty much in the middle of town.

A short drive in the rain got us to Rapid City, SD KOA. Nice park, easy pull-thru site.  We made a trip to Wal-Mart and enjoyed a quiet evening.

The clutch arrived a little before 11 on Wednesday. We rented a car, picked up the clutch and took the truck to the transmission shop. We were on the road to Hot Springs, SD before noon.

We drove past Subway, Dairy Queen, and Pizza Hut because I refused to eat at a chain. We found The Vault on the main street. Very slow service because a group of 12 had ordered just before we got there. The kitchen had two cooks but one of them took a break just after we arrived. We had definitely found a "local" place. The staff were all very friendly to us. But they gave each other and many of the customers lots of grief. 





It was not on our original itinerary but our friends Karen and Alex said Wind Cave was a "must see."  It was really interesting. Not at all like VA caves. No water. No stalactites or stalagmites. It's a "dry cave" and has very rare formations including "boxworks".  The explored part of the cave is over 140 miles long. The Ranger told us that based on air volume calculations, they think the 140 miles is about 5% of the total cave.

The long lunch and an hour's wait for a Cave tour left us with no time to explore Custer State Park. It is most known for its herd of 1500+  buffalo. Carol believed me when I said that we would probably see buffalo on later parts of our trip. Mt. Rushmore was more important. And I promised her if we did not see any buffalo I would take her to Paint Bank when we got home.

Mt. Rushmore is spectacular and our experience there was even more spectacular.  First some pictures, then my thoughts.

Baby Goat.

Papa. Sorry picture is a little blurry but
Carol caught him with all four feet off the ground.

S

Who knew ---  Thomas Jefferson had a recipe for vanilla ice cream of which he was VERY PROUD.
It is for sale here at Mt. Rushmore and they insist it is his EXACT recipe.

Sunset taken from Carol's cell phone because our Canon wouldn't pick up the pink as well.

 The night illumination.  Why we came, we thought. And it would have been worth it if this was the total experience.

BUT it was so much more. The amphitheater seats 2500 people and it was full. A Ranger gave a short talk and said that after a film she would invite any active service members or veterans to come on stage for the lowering of the flag. Then there was a film discussing why these four Presidents were chosen. It was interesting but the magic started when the background music became "America" and we realized that almost everyone was quietly singing along. At the end of the film the Ranger came back out and asked all to stand and sing "The Star Spangled Banner". THEN she asked the active and retired service people to come down. Only a few came down at first, but as the rest of us stood and started applauding more and more went to the stage. We kept applauding until well after 100 men and women were on stage. We continued to stand as the 6 who were chosen lowered and folded the flag. THEN we continued to stand as the Ranger went to every single person and asked them to tell us their name and branch of service. A note here for Bucky Shepherd - only two mentioned more than their branch. One said, "US Navy SeaBees" and one said, "US Army, 101st Airborne."

I haven't felt more encouraged about the future of our country in a long time. I don't know if there are enough of us left who love this country to save it. But there were 2500 at Mt. Rushmore the night we were there. And I suspect there are close to 2500 there every night.

So, again. We went for good reasons but had no idea what a special night Mt. Rushmore had in store for us.