2016 Trip -11) Rapid City, SD to Fort Laramie, WY

Tue.  7/5… (Rapid City, SD)  Today was the day to go visit Mt Rushmore.  We had decided to go early just to maybe miss the crowds.  It was the right decision! We drove right in.  The other day a nice family in our campground gave Rick their Rushmore annual pass as they were leaving.  Its $11.00 per car and the pass is good for a year.  BUT, it’s not transferrable and the Missouri tag number was on the pass.  But, what the heck!  It’s better to ask forgiveness than beg permission, right? Well, it worked!  Shame on us! They shot us right in and we got parked and headed up to the hall of flags and then to the monument.  We took several pictures….

 

and visited with a few other folks before I decided to go ahead and take the hike up to the base of the monument.  The rest waited while I took off. I have been here before several times but have never taken this hike.  It was cool!  These are pictures from that trail.

 

The hike was easy at first until you get to sculptor Gutzon Boglum’s workshop. Then it was up a lot of steps back to the viewing area. But I survived! Afterward, I met up with them in the gift shop and then we headed back down the hill to Keystone, a little town enroute.  We stopped first at Peggy’s Diner for lunch (pretty good) and then parked and walked the town.  Lydia found a top that she liked (and bought) and then we headed back to the campground.  We had some time this afternoon and we had already decided to take Bailey in to the vet to have her toenail looked at. So this worked. And we took off.  She’s not limping or anything but we wanted it looked at.  We found several veterinarian offices and chose one.  They weren’t busy so we got right in. No issues.  They trimmed up the nail and did the others as well. Total was $66.88. Pretty good we thought. We then went to Petco to get more dog food and a bag of treats and headed home.  Meanwhile Janie had decided to go to an ER to get more x-rays.  She just had some questions and wanted reassurance.  They took 5 x-rays and turns out she is doing fine and healing well. We both got back to camp about the same time.  The girls started dinner which was breakfast. Yep.  It was good.  Bacon, ham and cheese omelettes, and fried potatoes.  Yummy! We left about 7:00 to go back to the monument for the evening lighting ceremony.  They have a nice amphitheater and start the prelims at 9:00pm.  We got a few minutes of light rain but we had the umbrellas.  The ranger speaks and then they show you a video about each of the presidents and at the end they light up the monument.  Pictures don’t do it justice although I seem to remember sharper lighting in the past.

 

Afterward, they asked all servicemen to join them on stage.  They lowered the flag and then introduced each person! Hard to see but Rick is in the photos and is in the dark jacket on the upper right….

 

It was awesome! Afterward, we made our way out of the parking lot and got back home pretty easily.

 

Wed. 7/6… (Rapid City, SD)  Last day in Rapid City area.  We thought about driving to Devil’s Tower today but decided not to. It was a two hour drive each way.  With lunch and time there we felt that was too long to leave the pups at home. We did go back to Keystone one more time.  We left about 8:00am and had breakfast at The Whistle Junction Railroad Café. Food was ok but the service was poor.  We went just up the block to the President’s Wax Museum.  We had coupons so it only cost us $5. ea. before 11:00am. I enjoyed the way they had the presidents set up in scenes with others. The artist did an excellent job on some of the men but some he didn’t get quite right. 

 

It took us about 45 minutes to see everything so we headed back and rested a bit before taking off again, this time the other way toward Rapid City. We had stops to make at Landstrom’s Jewelry for Black Hills Gold. We took a factory tour and saw how they make the jewelry.  The South Dakota Black Hills is the only place authorized to sell Black Hills gold. Lydia shows off her new necklace and earrings!....

 

then we went to Betty’s Quilt Shop, then to Cabela’s for Rick to take back a t-shirt.  We came home and walked the dogs before leaving yet again… I have to add that most of the day was clear and really nice.  Later in the day it got cloudy and we had heard in Cabela’s that Rapid City was on tornado watch.  No tornado but we got strong winds. So what do we do - we go out and drive in it!  But only a mile or so. This time we went to Ft Hays Chuckwagon show. We had seen the ads and discounted tickets and we thought the price ($27.ea) was pretty good and bought tickets earlier in the day. They served us a dinner consisting of baked potato, beef brisket, beans, applesauce, biscuit, spice cake, and lemonade.  They make you go get a metal plate and go through the mess line and get your grub and drink and then head back to your table.  The food was pretty good and they sure gave you enough to eat! We had 30 minutes or so before the show started. It was four guys (three guitars and a drummer) and a girl (fiddle/violin) plus a comic who would pop up on stage between songs dressed in different outfits.  It was kind of corny and I wouldn’t buy their cd’s but thought the show was fun.  The girl really played a mean fiddle!  

 

After our bellies were full and we had been entertained we headed back home for the night.  Tomorrow we leave and head south into Wyoming.     

 

Thur. 7/7… (Fort Laramie, WY)  Today’s drive was 208 miles. We had to backtrack to I90 in Rapid City to Flying J for fuel.  We weren’t sure how the gps would route us – we ended up going back down Hwy 79 and it was a really nice drive.  Nothing for miles and miles – but still not a bad day.  We are now at Chuckwagon RV Park (pa $15) in Fort Laramie, WY.

 

We were scheduled here for two nights.  The owner wasn’t here when we got in so we picked a spot and got set up and rested a bit and planned our rest of the day. Fort Laramie is in the boonies and is NOT a big place.  The volunteers in the park  told us that we would have to drive 13 miles to the next town just to get to a grocery store! The internet is really slow so this is going to be a long two days. We decided to call ahead and see if we could come in a day early at our next stop.  No problem.  So we will only stay here one night. Lydia fixed dinner tonight – a chicken casserole which was tasty.  After dinner we drove the 13 miles to Guernsey and went to the grocery store and picked up a few things plus drumsticks for dessert! We sat outside for awhile and relaxed and then went in and cleaned and watched tv.