Custer City, South Dakota

We made it to our campsite, at Echo Valley Park Campgrounds, which was sweet and quiet and just around the corner from the Crazy Horse Memorial.  Once we got all hooked up and settled in, we drove into the little town of Custer City.  As we drove through the center of town, wouldn't you know, we were greeted by Col. Custer with a wave and a smile. 

The town was rumbling and exciting. It, too, was full of bikers. The whole median strip was reserved for their parking. We enjoyed seeing the wide array of motorcycles, colors, styles and grinning bikers. There was one amazing bike that everyone stopped to take pictures of, including us. 

For those that are interested, the motor on this puppy was an eight cylinder caterpillar engine - probably off some field harvester or giant tractor. It's two chrome pipes had 4-5" diameters and rose well above the cab of the trike. A standard automobile road tire was used on the "springer" front end. As one gnarly biker commented to Doug, "That's a rig!" Yes, boys and girls, that was some rig.

We walked the town and looked at the stands for all of the Sturgis paraphernalia, rock and mineral shops, wine tasting and a bakery where we enjoyed an apple turnover and local camaraderie.

From there we went to the Crazy Horse Memorial, which could be seen from miles around and is in it's 75th year of creation. It is enormous. Commissioned by the Lakota Elders, to commemorate all of the indian peoples, this memorial was worked on single-handedly by Kroschak, who has now passed on the labor to his children. Started in 1941, millions upon millions of tons of rock have been removed. To get an idea of the scale and grandeur, you have to envision that the four heads of Mount Rushmore, (only 20 miles away), easily fit inside of Crazy Horse's head.

That evening, the dishwasher started acting up and making noise. Air had gotten into our on-demand water pump and made it sound like a jack hammer when operating. For some reason, that noise affected the dishwasher adversely. Luckily, after running a few quarts of water through the pump, plus sacrificing a bar of dark chocolate, resulted in the air being pumped out of the system and the dishwasher calming down. 

(Dishwasher repair technique #3)

Jewel Cave

After a great night of sleep, we went the whole 16 miles to the Jewel Cave.  It is the 3rd longest cave in the world, measuring in at 170 miles.  It was like being inside of an inside-out geode.  There was a 4-7 inch thick layer of crystal over the entire cave.  We walked up and down and up and down, to a total of 703 steps (Doug's knees counted every one), for an hour and a half tour, at a brisk 49 degrees.

(Crystals lined the walls of the caves in continuous bands)

(Small stalactites, or pipes)

(Flow stone - Yucky looking!)

After all of that exercise, we were starving, so we stopped at the Flintstone of Bedrock drive-in, one of Sharon's favorite tv shows. Doug enjoyed a massive Brontosaurus platter and Sharon was elated that they actually had a veggie burger with all the trimmings.  Yabba Dabba Dooooooooo !!!

Nap time... and then...

Mount Rushmore

That evening, Doug had the brilliant idea of seeing Mount Rushmore at night, because we had been told about the dramatic and patriotic lighting. So we had a quick bite and off for another adventure, just 20 miles away.

We saw the documentary film about the "construction, history and support over the years".  And then we went out into the gallery and we saw all the exhibits about the "construction, history and support over the years". Finally, there was going to be the presentation and we found seats among hundreds of others in the amphitheater as it darkened. The curtains opened with a fanfare similar to the unveiling of Kong in the movie King Kong. A ranger stepped out onto the stage and told us all about the "construction, history and support over the years". Then the movie started, which told us about the "construction, history and support over the years," followed by singing the star spangled banner as the lights slowly came on...these lights were a metal-halide or some other filament or gas that slowly warms up yielding ever increasing brightness. Certainly not the grand and stirring effects that children from the modern era expect from our nation's core edifice. The night just seemed to dragged on. Disappointed, we made it to our car in record time. Maybe it was just us?

On the return home, we paused at the entrance to our campground and watched the play of beautiful colored lights on the Crazy Horse Memorial.

In Custer City, the indians won the nighttime lighting battle - perhaps that was a fitting finale given the locale?

We're well, and moving East towards the Badlands National Park - for next time.