Mount Rushmore

We went to Mount Rushmore today, so here are some of the pictures I took.

As you leave the garage that is run by a private concessionaire, $11.  This is the front entrance to the memorial.

As you progress to the corridor of the state flags and the gift shop area.

People are everywhere, so any idea of taking pictures without them is out of luck.

So I attempted to take the shots over their heads. The corridor of flags with the presidents above.

The amphitheater below the mountain. 

Inside the gift shop are the portraits of each of the presidents on the mountain.

George Washington

Thomas Jefferson

Theodore Roosevelt

Abraham Lincoln

I thought it was interesting that they explained the accomplishments of each president that qualified them to be on the mountain.  Washington as the founder of our nation.  Jefferson for the Louisiana purchase that doubled the size of our nation.  Roosevelt for creating the national park system, and Lincoln for preserving the union during the civil war.

It occurred to me that many of the younger folks may not even know the presidents names, let alone what they had done for our nation.

This bust is of Gutzon Borglum,  the sculptor that designed this memorial.  The details and story of all of this is interesting but I will let you google the memorial to learn more.

Retired Rod

South Dakota, all day!! Wall Drug!

We drove across South Dakota today and it was pleasant as the temps for the most part were lower than 90 degrees all day.  South Dakota is a lot like West Texas and Western Kansas, miles and miles of miles and miles.  Now I'm sure that will offend someone, so my apologies are extended now......

The highlight was stopping at Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota.  I was here many years ago as a kid on vacation with my parents, but it was nothing like it is today.

They have purchased all of the stores on the East side of the main block in downtown Wall.  It is one of most massive curio shops in the US.  It has fresh donuts and a cafeteria and has now grown to have an interior style mall.

I snapped this in the clothing store where Western boots and hats were mainly the theme.

I took this shot of the indoor mall area by holding the camera over my head.  It has poor focus by shows the newer areas of the store.

Behind the main row of stores, there is a courtyard where various photo options are available.  I thought this was kind of fun, as there are fountains that are in the cement flooring.  They squirt up above your head, and the kids were running back and forth thru the water.  If you look closely you can see one of the fountains squirting.

Then clear down at the end of the row of buildings back in a dark corner I found the animated T-Rex.  He is about ten feet tall and sits there all shrouded in jungle plants.  You didn't know that he would come to life until the lights suddenly come on and he speaks up!!

I switched the camera to the video option and caught about 14 seconds of what he had to say and put it on as a video.

There were several little kids in attendance that were caught completely off guard and it scared the He!! out of them as they began to scream in terror.  If you listen closely you can hear one of them begin to scream just as I cut off the camera.

We are at the KOA in in Rapid City tonight where we were shocked at the price for camping.  But with Sturgis bike week  going on next week all prices in the area are adjusted.  And not lower I might add.

Retired Rod

North to South Dakota

The Onawa, Iowa campground along the flooded Missouri river was a nice place, and they were working hard to repair the flooding damage that they suffered earlier this summer.  We had a pleasant stay, but it was soooo humid there.  As the night fell, the moisture was all over everything.

Our front windshield looked as though it was raining outside, as it had a heavy film of fog on it that mixed into the smooshed bugs.  Bug innards were sagging down the glass.  Uck!

So this morning it was out with the bucket and pole brush to scrub up the front of the coach.  Still humid, I perspired a river in the morning sun.  The day was off to another hot start.

As we were leaving the park, it was almost 90.   We pressed North on I 29 to Sioux City.  The traffic around there is always jammed and today was just like always.  As we passed several of the hotel properties along the river, we saw huge sand bag dikes around some of them, which were holding back the river.  One property North of downtown was like an island out in the middle of the river.  You could see street lights and stop signs on the submerged roads in the area but it is still completely under water.

Once in South Dakota, we left the side of the river and headed straight North to Sioux Falls.  Loyce wanted a Wal Mart stop, so we plugged that into the GPS.  As I parked in the packed Wally World lot we had 97 as a temperature.  With the  generator and both airs running,  we just stayed there eating lunch and deciding what we were going to do next.  I walked a block to a Wendy's and the wind was gusting from the South and burned as it hit my face.

But by about 2PM we were headed for I 90 West.  I had gone online and made a reservation for the KOA in Mitchell.  As we drove here the temps went higher and higher.  As I made the corner into the camp, the thermometer hit 105. My shoes sizzled as I walked across the gravel parking lot to the camp store.  So much for my idea to go North and get away from the heat!

Once on shore power, we huddled under the ACs for the rest of the afternoon.  With both of them running, it was about 85 in the coach.  With the addition of our fan and some cool drinks we made it thru.

Tonight we are to have a big cool down, and perhaps some thunderstorms with wind by early morning.  That will be different...........

Retired Rod

Too hot in KC!

There was this motor home sitting quietly out at our curb...........  It was all clean and nothing was broken.  It was full of fuel.....  It was to be beastly hot again in Kansas City, and for about the tenth time we heard that the hottest day of the year will be on Tuesday.....

Tonight we are at the On Ur Wa camp ground in Onawa, Iowa.  We are 296 miles away from our home in KC, on the way we had to get here.  Remember that the there were record snows in North Dakota last winter and that flood water has been coming down the Missouri river ever since.

Interstate 29 is covered with this water in several locations.  Several roads including I 29 are under in the Nebraska City area.  And right at Eppley Air Field in Omaha the river has covered I 29 and I 680 again.  And most of Carter Lake Iowa has to be flooded too because it is so low in that area.  Carter Lake is on the West side of the river but it is still Iowa because years ago the river took a new channel.  But that is another story......

Anyway we are headed North and West to try and get away from some of this brutal heat.  So how did we do?  Well not so well, because it was 97 in KC when we left and we had temps in the high 90s all the way up here.  Sometimes out it the country it was 92 or 93 but for the most part hot was the mantra of the day.

We ran the generator and both roof ACs as well as the dash AC.  In the afternoon, it wasn't particularly cool inside the coach either.  We stopped in Shenandoah, Iowa at a strip mall with a McDonalds and took a break for a while.  I got a burger and Loyce ate here salad that was in the fridge.

The old highways that we detoured the flood on were rather broken up and shocked and jarred everything in the coach, until we made Interstate 80 at Avoca, Iowa.  Even the interstate is not that good, because much of it was under water at some time this spring.  When we topped the hill on I 680 looking over the Missouri River valley it was water for as far as we could see to the South towards Omaha.  Of course the road was blocked so going back towards Omaha wasn't an option.

One of the blogs that I regularly read The Wanderings of  Emrys, had Jim and Linda returning to South Dakota for renewal of their drivers licenses. They stayed here in Onawa on their return trip back to Illinois, and reported this to be a comfortable park.  And it is, although they have had some flooding from the river too, and asked if I would put some big plywood squares under my jacks so they don't punch thru the dry top of the land and cause a well to form because the ground is so soaked with river water.

I did see that the river is receding on the news tonight so perhaps they can open I 29 here in the near future.  We watched the weather, and it is to be hot all the way up into the Dakotas this week, so we may get a lot of genny time while we are on the road.

We have absolutely no plans made or reservations booked, this is a completely spontaneous trip, so we wonder how that will work out for us.  Perhaps Wal Mart parking lots will be or resort of choice......... Do you think

Retired Rod