Our first stop was Sturgis, famous for their yearly motorcycle rally. We were just a little over a week late for the rally, but went there anyway just to say we've been.
Next stop was a little more interesting for me a lover of anything history, Deadwood, South Dakota. Deadwood is famous for the gold rush in the area in 1876. As a matter of fact that was part of the name of the first attraction, the Days of '76 Museum. A bit of Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and other old west characters from the late 1800's. They also had a really cool covered wagon collection and old American Indian artifacts.
We left the museum and drove into the historic part of Deadwood and walked through the town. The main attraction, for me at least, was Saloon #10 which is where Wild Bill Hickok was shot in the back of the head while playing poker. He was holding the infamous Aces and Eights, now called the dead man's hand. We walked into the saloon and found the spot next to the fireplace where he was shot. He was facing away from the door. We grabbed some ice cream and walked back to our hotel.
Next stop was still in Deadwood and was the Mt Moriah Cemetery where both Wild Bill and Calamity Jane are buried. We had to wait for a tour bus group to finish up before we walked up to their grave sites. Not a problem normally, but there was a thunderstorm building up over us and the rumbling of thunder, so we just wanted to go check it out, take a couple pics, and get out. We narrowly missed the rain.
After visiting the grave sites we began our drive to the Crazy Horse Memorial. Its about a 50 mile drive and we were under that thunderstorm most of the drive! Heavy rain and dime sized hail! Apparently we just missed the ping pong size hail by about 1 mile. That would really have done some damage to the rental car, so we're very grateful to have missed the full brunt of the storm. It was bad enough where we were.
We stopped for lunch at a little diner in Hill City and had burgers. While there in the diner I checked out the reviews for the memorial and found out that it was a lot more than the $27 entry fee to see the monument...there would also be a $4/person charge to get anywhere near the monument. We decided that just before the entry point would be the perfect vantage point for the memorial and would save us over $50. Works for us.
Drove on over to Mount Rushmore Memorial from there (they are only about 15 minutes apart). This was the most anticipated part of vacation for me. Really enjoyed the view and think I got some great pics of the monument...will know for certain once we're back from vacation. I used my solid Manfrotto tripod and head and delayed shutter at f11 and f16, so I'm assuming they will be sharp. Stayed there a couple hours between the memorial, museum, and various souvenir shops. On the way out we met a couple people that the boys had seen earlier at our hotel, so we chatted with them for a while. They were visiting from North Carolina and were interesting to talk to (Billy Green).
Drove to Target to get a couple things and then to the hotel after.
Another big day tomorrow. We'll be driving to Omaha, Nebraska for a baseball game and would like to see a couple sites along the way.
Goodnight!
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