I have always wanted go to the Black Hills. I think Mount Rushmore is something that every American should lay their eyes on at least once in their lifetime. Ailin and Luka were genuinely surprised when I told them I had never been there before and had always wanted to see it.
Okay, today was the all-day bus tour, which turned into an entire package that included breakfast, 9 hours on the bus with 4 one-hour stops, and some other shorter stops at picturesque points, 6 tunnels that the bus could barely squeeze through, lunch at the Game State Lodge, a roller coaster ride for the kids, and a chuckwagon dinner and show. We were there from 7:30 AM to 8:15 PM.
The one-hour stops were Mount Rushmore, Game State Lodge, Sylvan Lake, and Crazy Horse. My favorite mini-stop was at the Cathedral Spires. Awe-inspiring indeed.
We also met some nice people and some really weird people. A multi-generational family all dressed in the same gray t-shirts with pictures of cows wearing lipstick, except for the dad who wore a bright red shirt. The kid was annoying, and the grandma and mom were very unfriendly. However, we also met a lady named Angela, a woman named Beth and her kid Josiah, a couple named Christine and Henry, a couple named Jose and Wanda. I am making these names up because I didn't actually get any of their real names, sadly. I felt a real connection with Christine, though I am 99% sure the feeling was not mutual. Angela and I connected because she, Beth and her kid, and us got LEFT when the tour bus first took off this morning at 9am! He left without 6 people!!! Unbelievable.
The tour guide told about 300 jokes throughout the day. He is a high school principal in real life. Nuf said.
We three had a reputation of constantly being the last ones on the bus after each stop. It was odd. I thought that in the USA, if someone tells you to be somewhere by a certain time, you should strive to be right ON time, not late, but not necessarily early. These people tended to get on that bus well before the appointed time, while the three of us would show up right on time...and apparently, this was a big no-no. This confused me, but then I started to just do it ON purpose cuz fuck them.
The roads were treacherous. I am so glad I opted not to drive. I would have been really annoyed at myself if I had tried, especially with all the motorcycles on the road this week. I don't even think I would have made it to Mt Rushmore, and I had no idea it was such a pain to get up there. Sylvan Lake was even worse because we had to go through a tunnel called Eye of a Needle.
The lunch was an amazing buffet at the lodge where Calvin Coolidge and his wife, Grace, often stayed and summered.
The dinner was slop - a mixture of all the things I hate. Hate, I tell you, hate. Baked potato, grizzly meat, baked beans, apple sauce - all slopped on a tin plate. Gross. Biscuit...how many biscuits can one eat out west? Spice cake - first time for this and I was not that impressed.
The men who served the dinner, as it turns out, were the members of the band. They put on a wonderful one-hour show. Some of our new "friends" left before the show started because they were exhausted. We thought about leaving too, but the kids wanted to see ONE song first. They insisted on staying for the whole thing because they were loving it. They knew lots of songs.
The kids loved all of it. Here are our favorites from 1-3:
Amanda
1. Mt Rushmore
2. Cathedral Spires
3. Lunch at the Game State Lodge
Ailin
1. Mt Rushmore
2. ??
3. ??
Luka
1. Seeing a Winchester for the first time.
2. Mt Rushmore
3. The music show
Okay, time for bed as we have a driving day tomorrow. We plan to start at 8am. After getting advice on Facebook group for travelers to YSNP and GTNP, I was advised to plan on 8 hours for the next leg of the trip and that includes stopping for gas or at a rest area for lunch.
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