Today we headed south to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and all the little towns. Mount Rushmore is breathtaking. You come around the curve heading toward the park and BAM! There it is. It's kind of scary, actually. Glad Neal was driving because I'd have been so overwhelmed I'd have crashed the car.
Crazy Horse isn't all that. The monument, I mean. The history and Native American cool stuff is great, but the monument itself is underwhelming. Not nearly as spectacular as Mount Rushmore.
We stopped in Keystone, Custer, and Hill City - all of which are tourist oriented, but cute and worth the time to park and wander.
Had lunch in Custer and chatted with our Filipina waitress and a couple of vacationing Canadians. We talk to everyone who isn't from here, because how the hell do you get from the Philippines to freaking Custer, SD?? The Sudanese guy at the Goodwill in Des Moines - how on earth did you end up in the middle of Iowa??? (Answer: they either know someone who lives here or they were relocated by the gov.)
We met some Italian tourists at Mount Rushmore, so Monello got to show off his mad Italian language skills. I felt a rush of pride when the wife enthused and said she's ready to move here. I love it when my country shows well. See world? We're not all bad!
We're staying at a campground cabin again, and it's pretty sweet. It doesn't have a couch to lounge and watch TV like we had in Lincoln, but it does have a full size fridge and a nice picnic table on our deck.
On the way back from touristing we stopped at a local meat market - like the kind that sells meat, not a pickup joint - and got local animals to throw on the grill this week. They also had bacon wrapped asparagus and stuffed mushrooms that we bought as well. Next door was a liquor store with an owner who is a total beer dude. I said, "I want something local that's not hardcore but, you know, drinkable." He set me up with a cream ale out of Spearfish, and I also got Redbridge gluten free sorghum beer (which I'm drinking now and is quite delicious).
Crazy Horse isn't all that. The monument, I mean. The history and Native American cool stuff is great, but the monument itself is underwhelming. Not nearly as spectacular as Mount Rushmore.
We stopped in Keystone, Custer, and Hill City - all of which are tourist oriented, but cute and worth the time to park and wander.
Had lunch in Custer and chatted with our Filipina waitress and a couple of vacationing Canadians. We talk to everyone who isn't from here, because how the hell do you get from the Philippines to freaking Custer, SD?? The Sudanese guy at the Goodwill in Des Moines - how on earth did you end up in the middle of Iowa??? (Answer: they either know someone who lives here or they were relocated by the gov.)
We met some Italian tourists at Mount Rushmore, so Monello got to show off his mad Italian language skills. I felt a rush of pride when the wife enthused and said she's ready to move here. I love it when my country shows well. See world? We're not all bad!
We're staying at a campground cabin again, and it's pretty sweet. It doesn't have a couch to lounge and watch TV like we had in Lincoln, but it does have a full size fridge and a nice picnic table on our deck.
On the way back from touristing we stopped at a local meat market - like the kind that sells meat, not a pickup joint - and got local animals to throw on the grill this week. They also had bacon wrapped asparagus and stuffed mushrooms that we bought as well. Next door was a liquor store with an owner who is a total beer dude. I said, "I want something local that's not hardcore but, you know, drinkable." He set me up with a cream ale out of Spearfish, and I also got Redbridge gluten free sorghum beer (which I'm drinking now and is quite delicious).
