Sunday,Sept 12, I visited Windsor Baptist Church - very good sermon and a church much like my home church. They are hoping to launch a building project in the not too distant future. Boy, do we at Valley Baptist Church know that road well!
After church, I returned to Sandy's where we loaded up some snacks and a change of clothes and headed to Mt Rushmore. Mike was a little apprehensive about the 5-1/2 hour drive, since he has very little padding in the seat area. We did make a few stops so we could all stretch our poor old bones. There is not a lot of differing scenery driving north through Eastern Wyoming - Mike asked Sandy at one point if the scenic route would have been shorter (funny, Mike). A little more than 250 miles into Wyoming, we turned right into South Dakota - only about 85 more miles to go! As we got closer to Mt Rushmore, we drove by the Crazy Horse Monument - still in progress. This was begun in 1948; the face was completed in '98; and the rest is expected to be completed sometime in the mid-21st century. Wow!
We arrived at our hotel with just barely enough time to have a little dinner (something Sandy and Mike seem to be able to live without - not me!) before the evening program at 8 pm. We were advised that we needed to get to the parking lot at Mt Rushmore by about 7:15 in order to get to the viewing area/amphitheater before the program began promptly at 8. A National Parks guide came out onto the stage and explained about the program. Promptly (as promised) at 8, the faces of the four presidents were lit up. It was a beautiful sight - the night was clear and the temperature not too cool. Our guide told the story of the Pledge of Allegiance that Red Skelton was famous for telling, and then the entire crowd said it together. She then proceeded to tell us the history of the carvings and a little about what each president stood for in the mind of the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum. Near the end of the program, she invited all veterans to come down to the stage - four of them took the flag down and folded it, and she thanked them all for their service to our country. The program ended with the entire audience singing The Star Spangled Banner - it was a very moving experience.
We headed back to our motel - all 3 of us were pretty tired. And off we went again the next morning. Of course, I had to hit the souvenir shop, and I did find a small book that explained all about the building of the monument (since I frequently can't remember past 5 minutes ago, and sometimes less than that!). We decided to take Iron Mountain Road since this was, after all, an adventure. What a road! The average speed was about 15 mph, uphill and with switchbacks galore. There were 3 tunnels on this road that proved to be absolutely amazing! Through the tunnels you could see Mt Rushmore - it was incredible! Apparently, the man that designed this road was told that it couldn't be done - he proved them wrong, quite well, I might add.
As we headed back to Sandy's home in Colorado, I thought it would be neat to see the Black Hills Wild Horse Sanctuary. There are hundreds of wild horses here roaming free. There is also a bus tour that is a couple of hours long and very pricey - we opted to drive through the area a little on our own. And then we trusted the GPS to head us back to home! Whoops!! Mike and I call our GPS Aggie -short for Aggravating! She is also sometimes known as Miss Mouth. I won't tell you what Sandy calls hers, but she was in rare form this particular day. Miss GPS had us traveling down dusty gravel roads, and she even tried to send us down one road that we would have been stuck on for certain. Sandy's vehicle does have 4-wheel drive, but would have also needed monster tires to get us down that road. There was a deer watching us at this point, and you could tell that she thought we were real nutcases! We finally, with our 3 heads of common-sense, found our way out of there without the help of the errant Miss GPS.
Having found our way to proper highways again, we drove south to Nebraska just to say we were there, and then onward to Sandy's. It was a long drive in 2 short days, but well worth it. The next 2 days, we just stayed around Windsor - Mike was ready for a break. We girls had a couple of small excursions - shopping one day, and a trip to Greeley the next to get the National Parks Senior Pass. What a great deal - $10 one time, and you can get into national parks and monuments free for the rest of your life!
Next episode . . . . meet me in St Louis!
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