Mount Rushmore Here We Come

June 6, 2008, Friday  Mount Rushmore

This KOA campground offers an all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast daily. This morning the weather was sunny and warmer so we ventured to try the breakfast that was served under a tent in the middle of the camp. The pancakes were fine and we had a side of buffalo sausages. They tasted like beef.

Rich went to the KOA guest desk.  “It’s awfully cold at night.  Do you have a heater I can buy or rent?”

“Oh yes.  You can borrow one with a $20 deposit.”

“I’ll take it!  How about WIFI?  Do you have that?” 

“The whole camp is connected to WIFI but it works the best here in the lodge.  Come use it in the lobby.”

We could not connect from our Kabin but had a good connection in the office area.  We made it a routine to stop at the lobby to check our email daily. Internet access was good the but a cell phone was useless in the campground surrounded by mountains.

Now for the big adventure we came for—Mt. Rushmore! The sun was bright and the sky was clear with no clouds. Going east on Hwy 244 leads to the main entrance of Mt. Rushmore National Monument under the National Park Service. The entrance is free but the parking is $10 per car good for one year. There is no street parking available on the winding road up to the monument. The car’s license is linked to the parking pass to be valid for the designated car only. We were early enough to be ahead of the daily crowd at the museum.

The four presidents carved on the mountain are George Washington as “Father of our Country”; Jefferson who expanded the country with the Louisiana Purchase; Teddy Roosevelt who spearheaded economic development; and Abraham Lincoln who represented freedom. The original plan was to carve them full-bodied but once the project began, the granite for the body section was not of good quality for carving so they ended up doing only the busts. It created jobs and men were taught mountain climbing, dynamite loading, drilling, and all the other skills needed. They worked year-round with canvases protecting the men from the winter snow, winds, and ice. It took 14 years to complete with no fatalities. 

The sculptor Berglum saw the completion of the monument but died months before the dedication. His son brought it to a close. At first, many workers did not think they were doing anything great but thought of it as “just a job.” In retrospect, they are proud to have been a part of it.

The National Park Service has built a boardwalk all around the area to view the sculpture from many angles.  Flags of all the states line the walkway, and a large outdoor amphitheater holds their nightly light show. The whole complex can accommodate large crowds and, of course, includes a cafeteria and gift shop. 

We were getting weary so we decided this was an afternoon to rest. A Cloud burst happened through the afternoon as we rested in our cabin. After dinner at the local Ponderosa Lodge restaurant, we set up for a warm night’s rest in our now “heated” cabin. What comfort!

June 7, 2008, Saturday  Deadwood and Lead

“Where can we get a good breakfast?” we asked at the hospitality desk.

“ The Route 16 Diner in Hill City is good,”

 To our dismay, Main Street at Hill City was blocked off for a classic car show and the Route 16 Diner was closed. Since we were going up to Deadwood, we thought we would just start driving. Surely something would turn up. 

Trees, trees, and more trees. We finally came to a visitor center at Pacatola Lake that was once a town but the people decided they needed a reservoir so they emptied the town and let the river flood it. Because of drought conditions, the lake was below level by 25 feet. Somewhere at the bottom was a town.

“We are looking for a breakfast place.  Got any recommendations? “ we asked the young ranger.

“There’s a place called Sugar Shack about 15 miles up the road.  It has good food,” he said nonchalantly.

Sugar Shack was about the size of a mobile home, run-down looking, with patriotic décor inside and out,. We decided we would get up our adventure spirit and give it a go. 

“What you folks having today?” asked an older gal waitress.  In the back was a younger man as a cook.  She served us a very good breakfast.

“Where you all going?” she asked us as we paid the bill.

“We thought we’d go see Deadwood.”

“Nothing much there.”

With tummies full, we headed for Deadwood.

As we approached Deadwood, we understood its name. This gold rush town is located in a ravine. The surrounding area was filled with dead trees on the mountainside.  Deadwood had suffered fire and flood, as recent as 3 years ago.   After the gold rush years, the city fathers tried to revive the dying town by legalizing limited gambling to pay for historical restoration. 

The Adams House and the Adams Museum held most of the town’s history. Built in 1842, It was the home of the wealthiest most influential resident of the town.  Among cowboy notables were in Deadwood were Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Unfortunately, every establishment, whether restaurant, souvenir shop, hotel lobby, shoe store, clothing stores, or fast food joint, had banks of slot machines and a smoky atmosphere. Quite unsavory.

After some lunch at the Iron Horse Inn, we headed for Lead (pronounced Leed). We learned there was a rivalry between Lead and Deadwood but no one explained why. Gold was mined in Lead, but gold was panned in Deadwood so it has become only a historic site. The way of acquiring gold attracted pioneers with different motives. At Lead the open pit gold mine was owned and run by Randolph Hearst.  He purchased all the surrounding mines to quell any competition. Hearst mined gold for the US government therefore electricity and telephones were installed.  However, since 1995, it has no major industry to support it. 

We left the gold mine tour to be on time for dinner at Circle B Chuck Wagon. At Circle B, there were horses to ride, animals to pet, and a woodcarver to watch. It was a great place for kids. Unfortunately, the weather was a bit cold and we huddled in the gift shop until time for dinner. Before dinner, the staff put on a “street shoot out chasing down the biscuit thief” involving the kids as a posse. It was very funny.

As we filed past the chuckwagon, food was slapped on tin plates—baked potato, BBQ beef or chicken, baked beans, applesauce, biscuit, and ginger cake. The after-dinner entertainment was a family of cowboy singers with a genuinely friendly presentation.  Their performance was only cowboy songs. The music was very good with the youngest member (18 yrs) playing excellent lead guitar.

When we emerged from the dinner it was already 8 PM but still light. We headed down the road for our KOA home.

June 8, 2008, Sunday Train Ride, Night show at Mt Rushmore

With clear skies above, our day’s adventure was a ride on the original 1880 train from Hill City to Keystone. Following tour guide advice we had no problem purchasing tickets early as we were there by 9 AM for a 10:15 departure.  The Slate Creek Inn was a short walk away for breakfast. We ordered their famous cinnamon roll, not knowing they were 12-inches across. Luckily got only one to share.

As expected, the train boarded at 10:00 AM and we rode along about 25 miles per hour over the hill to Keystone. The trip took about 1 hour with narration along the way explaining the different areas and sights, and of course train statistics for train buffs. We stayed on the train for the return trip sitting on the opposite side to see the things we missed going over as the train just reversed.

After the ride, the weather was still very nice so we decided to use our “rain check pass” at Crazy Horse Memorial to see the statue and get a bite to eat in the restaurant. There was a “Volkwalk” going on. What’s a Volkwalk?”A very large group of people were walking up to the arm of the statue. They were along the ridge dwarfed by the statue.  We had been through the museum earlier so just came to see the statue in clear weather.

Next stop—the town of Custer about 10 miles south of Crazy Horse. We were looking for a drugstore and found it closed on Sunday. We explored The Old Courthouse Museum instead. It was filled with memorabilia of the area set in historical displays, and of course, the court and judges chambers.  They were not too different from today.

At the old railroad depot visitors center, we learned we had done just about all the attractions in the area. What else to do?  Head for the Purple Pie Palace down the road for some great ice-cream.

We were warned by the KOA staff that the weather at the Rushmore night show was VERY COLD.  “Take blankets as well as jackets,” they said.

We found a warm cozy spot in the Mt. Rushmore cafeteria with a view of the mountain. The thought of a light show from the warm building was appealing. After dinner, we sat around till showtime at 9 PM. No lights. After about 25 minutes, we decided to investigate.  A video was being shown about the presidents on a jumbo screen in the amphitheater and the light show would be the finale.  The wind was blowing and it was cold. We saw the video in the museum so decided that would suffice and we headed home to get out of the cold.

June 9, 2008, Monday, Bad Lands National Park

In 1800, a pharmacist Lee Hustead left Sioux City, Iowa to open a drug store. He bought the Wall Drug Store on Hwy 90 but after 3 years of very little business, he was ready to call it quits.  This was in the day of slow travel with no air conditioning. 

“All these cars just drive by without stopping.  What can we give them to make them stop?  How about ice water?”  his wife suggested.

He and his son put up signs on the road inviting people to free ice water.  Travelers came for free ice water and began purchasing other things too. Today the store is the size of a city block and a must-see place just outside Badlands National Park. There are paintings of the west, a restaurant, souvenirs, shops of all kinds, and amusements such as gold panning, and games. Today it is a multi-billion dollar family business run by the 4^th generation of Husteads.

They advertised free coffee and donut to any who has or is serving in the military. Rich got a free coffee and donut.

At the National Grasslands Visitors Center near the Badlands, we learned the Great Plains consisted of 3 divisions of grasslands—dry, mixed, and wet.—from west to east. After the great dust bowl years, the government paid farmers for their useless land then started to rehabilitate the Great Plains. Grasses were reintroduced and over the years the land revived. Today, there are grazing lands and some farms on both private and government property. We got a pin for passing the ranger quiz!

On the way to the Badlands, we stopped at the Wounded Knee Memorial. The chapters of the history of the terrible treatment of the American Indian are documented there. The Indians were tricked and deceived out of their way of life and lands. Although there are few survivors of that era, their generations are carrying on the legacy.

As we entered Badlands National Park, the whole panorama was mind-boggling. The vast area with such unusual, huge rock formations was hard to imagine that it was once a sea. According to the geologist, the whole Badlands as once a dried sea bed that was pushed up by earth’s force forming jagged peaks and valleys.  We drove along the Badlands Drive taking in as much as we could of the ever-changing scenery. There are badlands throughout the world as “Badlands” is a term used to describe very dry steep rocky terrain, with little or no vegetation

Hwy 44 took us back to the Mt. Rushmore area with thunder and lightning with heavy rain showers pelted our car as we left the plains.

Food gathering again. This time we stopped at Oma’s,  known for its German food, in Keystone. We had a nice dinner then headed home to KOA.

June 10, 2008, Tuesday, Sturgis, Fort Mead, and Rapid City

Keystone is the town closest to Mt. Rushmore.  During the Mt Rushmore project, it was a bustling town with the power plant needed for the project and the workers were housed in Keystone.  It now has a population of about 300, with a downtown of a block-long.  Since the completion of the monument, the town shrank and became accommodations for tourists. All-you-can-eat breakfasts seem to be the norm there but we found Jo’s Café to be a small, quiet place with good food.

Why do 10,000 motorcyclists gather annually in Sturgis, a town just north of Rapid City?  We decided to find out and mapped out a scenic route to Sturgis, passing through hills, valleys, and meadows of the Black Hills. At one time, the motorcycle enthusiast mayor invited cyclists to Sturgis for a rally. Since then, they have gathered in Sturgis each August except for only 2 years (during the war) over the last 50 years. The main street downtown is made up of Harley Davidson stores, bars, tattoo parlors, and not much else. I was surprised to see 5 churches just on the main roads.

Fort Mead was a cavalry outpost to protect the settlers and enforce the no trespassing rules on Indian lands. The cavalry succeeded to a degree but when the gold rush hit the Black Hills, there was no way they could keep ALL the prospectors out of the hills. “Trouble in them hills.”

During the depression years, the Army was given the responsibility of training the Civilian Conservation Corps at Fort Mead. They trained and organized CCC workers to save forests, build roads, and bridges. In 1981, the cavalry had to give up the horses and for jeeps and tanks. This 4^th cavalry division had served all over the world. The fort now is home to the VA hospital and Army reserves only. Just walking on the grounds and visiting the museum brought back memories for Rich having grown up on an Army post.

On the way back to Rapid City we stopped at the Black Hills National Cemetery.  Rapid City calls itself the city of the presidents. On Main Street and St Joseph Streets in the downtown area, there are life-size bronze sculptures of every US president.  As we strolled the streets, we quizzed ourselves on recognizing the presidents. Each artist studied the president’s life then came up with a significant statue.

We were the first diners at the gourmet Corn Exchange Restaurant.  After a fun dinner and dessert, we headed for our KOA home amid threatening clouds and forecasts of thunderstorms and rains. 

God bless this drought breaker.

June 11, 2008, Wednesday, Relax

We had seen all the tourist spots that held our interest so decided on a lazy day. After breakfast at our picnic table, we headed for Sylvan Lake Lodge. This lodge in the Custer National Park once housed Presidents Cleveland & Eisenhower. The original lodge burned twice, so this was the 3^rd rebuild. The common room was cozy with overstuffed couches and quiet music. We settled in with our books, and I did some online checking using the wifi connection. After a quiet lunch in the dining room, we took a stroll around Sylvan Lake. It was beautiful with magnificent scenery. Of course, I had forgotten to bring my camera so we will just have to keep it in our memory.

This was our last evening on this vacation so we decided to give Route 16 Diner another try as it was closed a few days ago. It was open this time and we had a delicious dinner of salad and bratwurst. As relaxing all this was, we were ready to return home to our busy lives. 

One more KOA night in our cozy cabin.

June 12, 2008, Thursday, Home Sweet Home

Such creatures of habit! We were up at 5 AM ready to go but nowhere to go. Our flight wasn’t until 5:35 PM and not much was moving except the birds. We packed up our stuff and headed for Rapid City by way of the Chapel in the Hills, a 1600 replica of a Norwegian chapel.  After we stopped to take a look, we headed for Rapid City in search of breakfast.  We also stopped at Rapid City’s main museum, The Journey Museum.

I checked for earlier flights home, one that we could wait as stand-bys. When we got to the airport, we were the first stand-by passengers in line.  With this flight, we also hopped on an earlier connecting flight to Orange County.

Home again. We were happy campers.