Mount Rushmore

Day 1 - Crazy Drive

I took a crazy drive from Austin, TX that led me thru North Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, to Colorado, where I slept in the car next to a police station in a little town called Wray, CO.   I would not recommend this drive for the faint of heart or the person who gets car sick.   This was a tough drives especially along highway 385 going thru CO.  I would suggest an alternate route and take highway 81 or highway 83 from NE to SD instead of highway 385.

Day 2 - Fun Day

I woke up early and finished the drive to Keystone, SD (Home of Mount Rushmore and more).  My first stop was a little tourist trap called the Flintstones Bedrock City.  This was a fun little place with a 3/4 size town of Bedrock and all the Flintstones characters.  It was a nice little diversion and a must see if you have little kids.  My next stop was the Wind Cave National Park.  This national is pretty nice even if you didn't get to go to the caves.  I took about 15 minutes worth of video of a mother buffalo and her baby until she started to charge me and forced me to hop in the car and speed off.  Be careful, those buffalo are quite fast and kinda 'ornery.  The cave tours are very nice and informative, but make sure to choose the right one. They have a four hour tour and a one hour tour, if you are not in decent shape or don't want to walk for four hours then take the one hour trek.  I took the four hour trek and thoroughly enjoyed it but was feeling liked I'd worked out at the gym afterwards.   Then I got a pleasant surprise when I stopped in at Crazy Horse Memorial, this is an amazing work of art and a testament to the American Indian spirit.  However, it will cost you $10 a person to get in or $25 a car load.  My next stop was Mount Rushmore and it was a cheap $8 a carload to enter.  Now remember to save the ticket, just in case you want to come back it is good for a year.  It was alot of fun for me to see the magnificent carving and I got another good workout by walking the president's trail.  However, once again for the not so hardy folk, they do have a straight walk way to the trail instead of walking up the 220 or so steps to the top of the trail.  I ended my day by driving to Rapid City (just a quick 30 mile drive).  I stayed at a very nice Comfort Inn right next to a Ruby Tuesday.  If I wasn't so tired from my long drive and walking around the monuments I would have gone out on the town and tried some local fare, but I just stayed in my very comfortable room (definitely recommend this hotel) and had Ruby Tuesday deliver (free delivery by the way) some wings and a good chicken dish.

Day 3 - Last Look and Start Drive Home

The next day, I stopped at the President's slide and took a quick water ride down the hill.  This is just a basic water slide, but it was more fun because of where I was, but still worth a quick run.  By the way, the hotel had quite a nice continental breakfast with a USA today just waiting for me to read.  Sadly, after my slide and a quick shower and check out at the hotel, I was off for Austin again.  I drove until I couldn't keep my owns open and stayed at a little town just south of Oklahoma City, OK called Moore.  The Comfort Inn here was awful.  I was placed in a non smoking room that you could tell used to be a smoking room.  It was dank and dusty and smelled nasty when you walked into the room.  The heater/air conditioner could only be set for cold as hell and nothing else.  The continental breakfast the next morning consisted of bad fruit and unsavory looking other items. The coffee didn't even smell right.

Day 4 - Drive Home

I finished up the drive to Austin and was very happy that I had finally seen Mount Rushmore and surprised at how wonderful Crazy Horse Memorial was.