Tourist Day

Today was our day to do a couple touristy things. Since getting to Logan before Thursday would not be advantageous and we had missed seeing Mount Rushmore on our trip across the country in '96 (aka it was dark and the lights had been turned off 30 minutes before we got there), we decided (aka mom authorized) to take a slight detour on our trip. Just before we got to Nebraska last night, we left I-80 and headed north to Sioux City. The next day, we drove to Sioux Falls where we headed west on I-90 across South Dakota. The kind (perhaps overly enthusiastic) older woman at the tourist welcome center informed me that every hour along the route (I-90), there is a good place to stop. So if you have a lot of time and are driving through South Dakota, call me and I can tell you where to stop. Like the corn palace - a place, you guessed it, built out of corn. According to the pictures, this is no corn maze but an actual structure. And right across the street is a fascinating doll museum. Further along the route you should stop at the infamous Wall Drug - a huge pharmacy/water stop (tourist trap really). I'm sure there is more and perhaps they are worth stopping at...if only to pick up a bottle of soda as you may need the caffeine to focus because the relatively bland landscape doesn't help.

So we finally made it to Mount Rushmore National Memorial . The monument itself is carved in extremely resistant granite that basically erodes like a few millimeters in my lifetime. It's pretty impressive to see and it's too bad that the full statue wasn't carved. The presidents are supposed to be carved to their waists and there is a statue that the artist had made as a model that depicts the presidents as such. In fact, the model was used to make measurements of the dimensions of the presidents' features which were multiplied by 10 (I think) and transferred to the actual rock for blasting purposes. It's amazing to think that no one died helping to build the monument even though hundreds of men would sit in essentially metal swings with jackhammers and blast away at the rock. Hopefully the Crazy Horse monument will be blessed with the same fate. I thought it was cool that the workers used little instruments to melt the rock surface to make the presidents' so smooth. Pictures will be forthcoming when I develop my film and scan the pictures in. As I returned my dad's digital camera to him, I do not have a means to take digital pictures. So you will have to suffer until I develop film or others send me digital pictures. Perhaps that should be my next purchase when I can save up some money...

There was insufficient time after Mount Rushmore to make a cave tour at Jewel Cave so we headed to Wyoming and Devil's Tower National Monument (and I learned to change gears while driving in the mountains on the way back from Rushmore). Since Dr. Palmer does work in Jewel, I'll just have to see when he'll be there again and see if I can tag along. We got to Devil's Tower a couple minutes before 19:00 MDT (7pm), paid the $10 fee, then were told by the ranger that the visitor center closes at 7pm but we could still walk around and take pictures. So we paid the fee but still didn't get our stamps for our national parks passport books...almost makes me wish we had gone to the store for a couple minutes so we wouldn't have had to pay the $10 but I know that the Parks Service desperately needs the money.

On the way up, a car was stopped in front of us and the girl pointed out the window to a couple of fawns not far below us in the woods. Of course, I switched lenses and my mom tried to take a picture...not sure if it will come out because mom isn't great with my camera but I was driving and on the other side of the car so it was better for her to try. I got my chance though when just up the road there was a doe grazing...I slowed down, took the camera, and attempted a picture despite the zoom being so great it was difficult to get a good one.

I took a few pictures of Devil's Tower, mom had a guy who actually knew how to use my camera take a picture of us in front of it, and we walked around the monument. Along the way we ran into a father and daughter pair with whom we exchanged a few words, mostly about the structure. As we were finishing up the trail, we talked with them some more and found out that they are from NY (as in the city). Then my mom ends up talking with a guy in the toursity type store just outside the park and he and the woman he was with are also from New York (somewhere....I remember the woman had attended Cortland). So really the only people we talked to were from New York...funny how that happens...it's like we speak a foreign language and can only communicate with each other or something.We made it to Gillette that night and happened to arrive at a hotel where a high school golf team was just checking in. Considering the lack of golf courses and population I had seen, I was impressed that there was a golf team.