Rapid City S.D.

August 28 – 30, 2009 The sights of western South Dakota
Friday finds us heading south with a stop in at the Bear Country U.S.A. This was a very unique and interesting drive-through park featuring North American wildlife. We enjoyed seeing up close: bears, wolves, elk, bison, and reindeer, they were very unimpressed with us and went about their activities as if we weren’t even there... We also spent quite awhile watching the antics of about 20 little bear cubs born in January. They were like toddlers, all playing, romping around in their enclosure, playing follow-the-leader, one would go to pond, they all headed there; one climbed up the tree and they all attempted it. This was a great attraction and surprisingly not very crowded. Our next item on the itinerary was to re-visit the Crazy Horse Memorial. We had first visited it in 1992 when we made our cross country blitz with Marq and Kris. It has continued to make slow progress, during the last 17 years. It is an amazing structure all funded with private monies, no government funding is allowed. The Ziolkowski family has continued the quest started by Korzack in 1948, 7 of the 10 children and his wife currently run the organization. The surrounding amenities – museum, interpretive center, gift shop and restaurants have really been upgraded. Mike contributed $50. to their efforts by buying 3 chances on a special Crazy Horse Memorial Harley to be raffled off early in September. What will we do if he wins???  After a couple hours of R & R back at the MoHo we went back out to see the 4 presidents of Mount Rushmore. There was a very inspiring evening presentation by a Park Ranger and then the mountain was lit up. Wow – this indeed is a beautiful Shrine to Democracy. We saw a lot of changes here too; a nice new parking structure, amphitheatre, and beautiful paved walk-ways that were not here on our last visit.
Saturday took us north of Rapid City to the town of Sturgis, home of the “Bad Boy” Motorcycle Rally held each August. We went through the little museum and ogled the beautiful old and new bikes on display. Nigel and Bubba rode with us, and Nigel did not like all the bikes he heard riding into and out of the city. The 4 of us took a short walk up and down the main street of town, pretty quite today. Karen thought about getting a tattoo, but changed her mind. In the afternoon we took the city tour of old down town Rapid City – walking along the historic old buildings and seeing the ”City of Presidents”, a six block area of life size bronze sculptures of the presidents up to the senior Bush. Enjoyed a nice evening at Camp J&J barbequing and enjoying the balmy evening --- more s’mores.
Sunday was another day of sight-seeing. Karen really wanted to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse from a helicopter, so we sprung for the 30 minute adventure over both of those amazing landmarks. Wonderful flight, calm ride, we quickly buzzed over the sculptures and then had a chance to see the Pinnacles, the Black Hills, Harney Peak (at 7,400 feet it is the tallest point east of the Rocky Mountains until you reach the Alps), Sylvan Lake and an amazing view of some beautiful landscapes. Once again a marvelous experience, must keep in our minds because our pictures really don’t do it justice. We then drove back up to Mount Rushmore for a daytime view of this magnificent sight. Our afternoon activities included a stop at the Stavkirke Chapel an exact copy of an 830 year old church in Norway. The intricate wood carvings including some strange dragon heads and interesting pegged construction were worth the stop. Found a post card of the chapel in the winter, covered in snow – fairy tale looking. We then took a bit of drive out to Deadwood – 1870’s frontier gold rush town. We strolled through the turn of the century streets enjoying some entertainment by actors portraying a bar-room fight scene right in the middle of the street. Karen became deputized and was on call to if the need arose. We saw the bar where Wild Bill was shot and enjoyed a prime-rib dinner before heading back to camp.