Up and at'um bright and early today...we had a lot of road to cover, 192.6 miles to be exact! Started off at The Mammoth Site...
www.mammothsite.com. Check out their site, they can tell you a lot better than I can remember. What a neat place that was (pictures below). The fact that we were standing on a site where millions of years ago roamed these gigantic beasts and some other little critters, was really cool.
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| The most complete skeleton unearthed to date |
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| That's me pullin' the tail of the "Beast" they were pretty BIG |
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| and me holdin' a femur bone |
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| Dan standing in front of a full skeleton |
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After we finished at The Mammoth Site we headed north to Wind Cave National Park....check the site
www.nps.gov/wica. In 1903 it was the first cave to be designated a national park and the only place that charges you $9.00 to walk down 300 steps in the dark to see wet drippy rocks with stuff growing all over them, I mean really, 225' underground in the dark for $9.00. They should have paid us. All kidding aside, it was a neat place and the pictures will tell the story. The kid, Alvin McDonald was just 16 when he started to explore the caves. He did so with a candle and a ball of string to find his way out. His hand written journal can be seen on the web site. Unfortunately no mishaps or slips to make this more interesting.
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| Map of Wind Cave...all the tunnels are under 1 square mile |
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| some of the unique boxwork on the ceiling |
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| The guy in front of me (center of picture) show a little perspective |
To continue with our day we again headed north through Custer State Park hoping to get to Mt. Rushmore before midnight. Below are pictures of some of the sites, again no mishaps or misdirections, just the two of us, that's right NO CATS, taking in the glorious views of our great country.
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| OK, it's a little blurry, but snapping pictures out the car window is not an easy task you know |
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| an old one lane bridge |
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| Pronghorn, better known as "speed goat", that's cause they're really fast...as you can see not at all fazed by passing vehicles with crazy people taking pictures |
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We're almost there I promise, just a few more turns on one of the windiest roads in the world, called Iron Mountain Road. There were 4 tunnels that were only wide enough for one car, so you had to honk your horn before entering.....pretty scary. So around the last turn we come and and civilization hits in the way of the parks service parking garage charging $11.00 to park your car. Just as we find a spot on the top floor it starts to drizzle, oh well, we're here to see this great monument and memorial and a little rain won't stop us.
So there they are...very impressive site. Mind you we're at a fairly high altitude 5700' + and it's rainy and they's a cold front coming through and there are people in shorts and flip flops...guess a Florida girl will always be a Florida girl and like the sun and warm!
On the way down the mountain we came to the town of Keystone, population 310, your perfect tourist town. Reminded me of that stretch of road in Kissimmee when Disney first came to town. I'm thinking they make their living in about 6 months of the year...the rest is too cold. Just out side Keystone we were coming into another group of homes and saw the funniest thing, wish I could have gotten the camera out soon enough, but alas that didn't happen...use your imagination. Now most of this houses are up hills and have fairly long driveways. Well, these folks are using there noggins, there was an elderly man checking his mail on his riding lawn mower....only in South Dakota. We made it back to our home on wheels and crashed. Stay tuned for more adventures in SD.
