Looks like another nice day. Rained hard last night but the sun is out and it is warming up nicely. We got a slow start this morning so we went to the cook shack and got pancakes and sausage to go and took it back to the coach. After breakfast we got everything ready to go and left the Badlands KOA headed for the Mt Rushmore KOA.We got on SD-44 and headed for Interior where we turned west to stay on SD-44 headed for Rapid City. The road is fairly good and we run along through the prairie with the Erosional Formations off to the north. We encounter several construction delays where we sat for some time waiting for a "Follow Me" car. Turns out there are several paving projects going on to repair spring washouts.
Eventually the prairie grasslands start to give way to rolling hills with trees, horse ranches and irrigated farming and as we say goodbye to the badlands. South of Rapid City we turn southwest on SD-16 through Rockerville and over to Hill City. Now we know we are in the mountains as the scenery looks like we've been transported into the east side of the North Cascades. Once we get through Hill City we continue south to SD-244 and head towards Mt Rushmore and our KOA destination for today (http://koa.com/where/sd/41125/).
We pull in to what turns out to be the second largest KOA in North America. It is simply huge with horse stables, a full scale restaurant, car rentals, etc. Turns out the largest is on the north end of Lake Okeechobee in Florida because it surrounds its own 18 hole golf course. Yup. You guessed it. We stayed there during the shuttle launch earlier this year. We got our site assignment and wound our way through the campground and up into the hills. After making a couple of wrong turns we made it into our site and got set up for the next three nights.
Since it was only 1:00 PM we had a quick lunch and decided to drive over to Mt Rushmore and see what we can as it's only about six miles up the road. Before we got there we pulled off the road along with about twenty other cars to see what all the excitement was about. Right behind us, through the trees and rocky cliffs you could see a perfectly framed profile of George Washington, the first president represented in the Mt Rushmore sculpture. It was very impressive and we were quite surprised at how smooth the rock appeared.We knew we were close so we took a few photos and continued on to the actual monument. The facility is really well setup (http://www.nps.gov/moru). We drove into what looked like a toll plaza but was actually a way to control parking. We paid a $10 fee which allows us to park in any of the parking areas for as many times as we want to visit in the next year. Once parked, we walked up to the entrance walkway of the memorial. The design of the central promenade is really impressive with the avenue of flags, visitors center, concessions and amphitheater laid out to enhance the view of the Monument.
Our first stop was the Visitor Center where we learned about the history of the monument, the sculptor responsible for the design and construction, and how the memorial was actually carved out of the face of the mountain (http://www.ohranger.com/mount-rushmore/making-mount-rushmore). Then we went out onto the plaza and took several photos. Next we headed out on a half mile hike along the Presidents Trail taking photos as we went, finally making it over to the Sculptors Studio where we saw how the sculptor Gutzon Borglum worked with the various working models to ensure accuracy between the models and the actual carving.
Leaving the studio we made our way back to the main plaza and bought ice cream cones before walking back to the car. We decided we'd had a long enough day at this point so we drove back home to the coach and kids, had dinner and decided our plans for the following day. Oh yeah. Turns out our day wasn't over after all. There is a night lighting ceremony at the memorial which is quite a production. So about 7:45 we got back in the car and returned to Mt Rushmore. Parking in the lot we grabbed our seat cushions (the ones we got for the Swamp Buggy races) and headed up to the amphitheater to get a seat. We visited with one of the couples next to us, they are from New Zealand and traveling around the country.
The evening program opened with a presentation by a large group of kids from a youth camp, followed by a ranger who worked as an emcee and gave the packed audience a brief introduction to the four presidents in the sculpture. This was followed by a fourteen minute video presented on a huge outdoor video screen. At the end of the video several lights began to focus on the sculpture, lighting it up as the light faded from the sky. When fully lit, the emcee asked all active duty and military service veterans to join her on the stage for the closing ceremony. About a hundred men and women found their way to the stage where a Scout Troop performed the flag ceremony for retiring the flag. It was all very impressive.We left shortly after the show ended and I'd estimate that there were over a thousand people in attendance. We drove home and by 10:00 PM called it a day and went to bed.
To see all of today's photos, click on the following link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/mjdolanski
Distance traveled today, 94 miles. Total for the trip so far, 8,982 miles.
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