After a good rest last night, we began Day Nineteen by driving into Rapid City, South Dakota, and then heading south to see Mount Rushmore. Along the way, we finally managed to get a picture of the hay rolls; apparently, hay and cattle are bigger in South Dakota than corn and soya beans, which we had seen plenty of since northern Ohio.
As we neared Rapid City, we saw barren gray hills unsuitable for either farming or grazing. It was the Badlands.
Mount Rushmore is a stone's throw from Rapid City. You take US Route 16 up into the Black Hills, and go about 25-30 miles. From the road, Gutzon Borglum's monument to America seems no big deal.
Nonetheless, we decided to go in. There is no admission, but there is a fee for parking in a private parking lot. It's a rather nice lot, and it only costs $10 per car. Since we'd come all this way, we paid the fee and went in. We posed with some of the natives, since dad was born in the year of the sheep (which in Chinese (羊) could refer to either sheep or goat ...
... and I'm a Capricorn.
More than 60 years after his death, soon after which his son, who took over for him, declared the monument "complete", Gutzon Borglum stays close to the work for which he will always be remembered.
The amphitheatre is lower than Grand View Terrace and thus gives a better perspective as to just how huge the monument is.
Some friendly fellow tourists offered to help us commemorate this father-son road trip.
A final closeup of George, Tom, Teddy, and Abe.
Afterward, we decided to look for Crazy Horse. We found him, but were asked to pay $20 to see him. We decided that that was four times too much, so we turned around and got a shot of the Chief from the road.
After Mount Rushmore, we continued taking US Route 16 into Wyoming. As we approached Buffalo, we could see the beginnings of the Big Horn mountains.
At Buffalo, we decided to take the southern fork around the mountains. We've finally come to rest here at Cody, from where we plan to tackle Yellowstone tomorrow morning and early afternoon, before we head for Montana to get back on Interstate 90 in our push toward the Pacific.
Before I sign off for the night, here is today's video blog entry:
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