Hit the ground running

Thanks to Dorian, our Wild Wild West Adventure was a day late getting started.  Julie was able to get to Rapid City, South Dakota on Thursday as planned and picked me up Friday at 5:00 pm.  As we had a lot of time to make up, we went straight to Custer State Park as we heard there was a good chance to see buffalo roaming the roads.  No buffalo but we did see some deer.

En route to our next stop, Crazy Horse Memorial, we drove through the cute little town of Custer.  Definitely wish we had some time to walk around as it looks so charming.  We did see a lot of bison in town...painted ones but bison nonetheless.  Also, all the little shops had hanging baskets of impatiens.

Rushmore 2.0 en route to Crazy Horse

Next stop was Crazy Horse Memorial.  As we arrived close to dusk and the start of their laser show, we had to park in a field and take a school bus to the foot of the mountain.  Try as we might, we couldn't get the parking attendant to understand we were not staying for the show...we only wanted to get close enough to take a few pics.  If we had not lost a day, we would have definitely stayed for the show as it is supposed to be quite good.

On the door heading out of the visitor center.
A good reminder for us all.

Our goal for the evening was to get to Mount Rushmore for the light show.  We made it with 5 minutes to spare...once we finally figured out the parking situation.  At night, there are no attendants in the garage nor is the mountain illuminated (until the show) so we had no clue as to where we were going.  The show as very tastefully done...it began with the crowd singing the National Anthem and then they told a little story about each of the 4 presidents on the memorial. And finally, the lights come on to show the sculpture.  It really was pretty cool and sadly pictures do not do it much justice.

Appropriate sign at Mount Rushmore
given it was drizzling and lightning

By now, we're both starving as it is 8:30 so we headed back towards the hotel and had some bison satay and walleye fish sticks.  In 3.5 hours, we covered 105 miles...way more than we would typically do but we have to keep to a schedule until we get to Yellowstone where we've got a cute cabin booked through AirBnB.