Okay - lets get the hard question out of the way first. Yes, they do have Thanksgiving in South Dakota. In fact, we got to our motel room and there was a sign there that said the motel was providing a complimentary Thanksgiving dinner for all of their guest. Well, we were supposed to check out this morning and go to another motel this evening, but we went down and checked in for an extra day. So we had Thanksgiving dinner just fine. And then we got back this evening and asked them if there were any leftovers, and they said yes, so we got leftovers too. So don't worry about our Thanksgiving. Here is a picture of the GrandStay Motel - which happens to be the newest motel in Rapid City. Also, a couple of Rapid City pictures.
Now for vacation news. We woke up and spent the morning in the Black Hills. It is a place that the Native Americans thought was spiritual. They called it the Black Hills because from the plains, the pines made the hills dark.
We drove through a little town called Keystones. It is kinda like Estes Park. It is the gateway to Mount Rushmore. There are tunnels through the granite mountains. This one is right outside of Keystone.
Our main destination was Mt. Rushmore which is only about a half-hour from Rapid City. Yep, we did the real tourist thing. We got a recorded tour and went to a movie about it and walked through the museum and walked the presidential walk. It was very cool. It was a little bit chilly but the sky was crystal clear blue. Here are six questions. Do you know the answers?
Why is it called Mount Rushmore?
Why did he choose Washington?
Why did he choose Jefferson?
Why did he choose Roosevelt?
Why did he choose Lincoln?
How many people got killed making the statues?
Cool isn't really the right word . . .
Better words might be inspiring, memorial, magestic, beautiful, spectacular, awesome . . .
It makes you proud to have seen it.
By the way - one of the things we are really thankful for is Mar's knees. The trail we walked was about .6 miles and it was posted as "strenuous". There were lots of stairs. Here is a little sample.
We went to a movie in the afternoon - Australia. We liked it, but you will have to wait for my movie review.
And finally - the sightings:
We saw mountain goats. They were at Mount Rushmore. Actually, there are 6 of them. They are escapees from Custer State Park and went a few miles north and just made their home at Mount Rushmore. They care not at all about the people around.
We saw deer. There were some of them at Mount Rushmore also, but the impressive ones we saw as we were just driving around in the country north of Rapid City.
We saw wild turkeys - yep - wild turkeys on Thanksgiving Day. We told them to run and hide, but they just walked on down the road.
And we saw Santa Clause. He was at our Thanksgiving dinner. He was perfect. He had on a red shirt and red suspenders. He had snow white hair down to his collar and a snow white, curly beard.
2 comments:
I don't know the answers to your questions. I'm guessing the guy who came up with the idea was named Rushmoore, and he intended on carving all the presidents' heads in the mountain in order, but didn't have a great education, so that when someone told him that the president's were out of order, he was too ashamed to finish.
You didn't answer your questions... GREAT!! How am I going to sleep at night??
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