My vacation diary
I don't take off annual leave days often. This is because I mostly want to feel like they have gone to good use rather than just to take a random day off. Then, when I want to take a real vacation, I've got plenty of accumulated leave to use.
Last year Toby and I didn't feel like we could take as much time or spend too much money, so we centered our trips out of town around free weekends at the National Parks as well as my time off around xmas. These were great vacations, but not as long & relaxing as I'd like.
This year, however, Toby came up with an even better idea. Turns out that Denver is only a few hours' drive from the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, home to Devils Tower, Mt. Rushmore & the Crazy Horse memorial, among other things. Toby found out that the ongoing carving at Crazy Horse includes two "night blasts" every year at June 26 and September 6, so he suggested that we plan our vacation around the June event. Toby reviewed maps, travel guides, websites, etc., and put together a five-day itinerary of driving, camping and sightseeing. As luck would have it, Denver's gay pride celebration was moved up to an earlier weekend, so we could take part in that and go on our vacation, creating a week full of fun.
I started the vacation thinking I was going to be sick. Friday the 18th, I woke up feeling like crap but not so bad I couldn't take some cold meds and get to work. I made it most of the day mostly on adrenaline, but around 2 or 3 I felt like I was gonna die. Luckily one of my coworkers who lives relatively close to me was leaving work earlier than 5 and was nice enough to let me bum a ride. Got home and napped a while, which, luckily, seemed to do the trick. I'm guessing it was more allergies than a cold, but it was enough to make me feel awful and think that I'd spend some days of vacation in bed. To round out the night, Toby and I watched "North by Northwest" to see what the big fuss about Mt. Rushmore is for ;-)
Saturday was the first day of pride, but our friend Warren texted to see if we'd like to join him at the Greekfest being held right near us at the huge Greek Orthodox Cathedral. That was perfect as we were being a bit lazy getting moving that morning, so we got ready and drove over. Turned out to be the perfect activity for the very hot afternoon. Saw some dancers, visited the shops, ate some good food, listened to the cathedral choir (which included about an hour of air conditioning in the fantastic cathedral itself). We had planned to also visit Pride downtown, but we had enough sun/heat for the day and came home. Our pal David got a room at the Hyatt downtown so he could enjoy Pride and have a place to relax when he wanted, so we joined him for a nice evening to start off our Pride celebration.
Sunday, we got up early and down to the train station so we'd not miss some of the parade like we did last year. We'd hoped to meet up with a few friends, but David, his sister and their friend Ashley were the only folks we knew who made it - but that was fine :) Pride is essentially the same thing year after year and is most fun for me because I get to see friends, but this year it was fun to see it through the eyes of people less jaded than myself. I go to Pride partially out of obligation, I guess, but I do remember it used to be so much fun, almost empowering, to see I wasn't alone in the world. And, through David's hospitality, we got to take breaks in the room and enjoy the hotel's hot tub and pool, making the worst parts of pride (standing, walking and the heat) not so very bad. We had our fill pretty early on and left around 4, which was good because we needed to go shopping in preparation for our travels.
Here in Denver, the gay pride weekend unofficially continues with a "gay day" at the downtown roller coaster park, Elitch Gardens, so we decided we'd take that in as well. We got there around 11am, which it seems was a bit too early for most of the pride-celebrating bunch, but it worked nicely for us. Weekday visit meant very short lines, so we could stroll around and leisurely ride what we wanted. David joined us for a couple of hours after he was done with classes, which was good because I've decided I'm not going to ride "spin until you get sick" rides anymore and David would gladly ride those with Toby. We got to ride everything we wanted to and see the fairly good "Rocknation" show before 4, which was perfect timing. This gave us just enough travel time to make it up to Thornton to join Toby's boss's family and new coworkers for a fun dinner at Cinzetti's. It was a very full day, but, luckily, didn't wipe me out. I like my vacations to be be pleasantly busy, but not so much so that I'm more tired than before.
Tuesday, Toby had to work, so I took the day to do mostly nothing but do laundry for the trip, which took so little time. After work, Toby picked me up for one last trip to the store for supplies like snacks, sunblock, car stuff, firewood, etc. We finished up the evening with pizza and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" before finally packing.
I suppose travel makes me subconsciously anxious or what, but I never sleep very well the night before a trip. I did get a few hours of sleep, but mostly lay awake passing the time reading stuff on the web and such. Wasn't long before we were getting up around 5 to get on the road. We packed up the car pretty easily but I was sure to forget two things I _never_ forget: my contact solution and my laptop charger cord; luckily the solution for RGP lensese can be found at most drugstores and Toby has the same laptop as I do. We set out headed north for Wyoming. Google maps and our GPS unit didn't really agree, but the GPS's route made more sense to us on the map, so we went that way, which took us up more rural highways with much less time on interstates. We hit some road construction but, other than that, saw very little traffic. We got to Devils Tower National Monument before 4pm, secured our campsite, visited the visitor's center and walked the 1.3 mile hike around the base of the tower. Took a quick drive into town to get some food to make dinner with before setting up camp.
Back at the campsite, we set up the tent, pumped up an inflatable mattress (not necessary for the soft ground up there, but was easy enough to do and we had room in the car for it, so why not?), and prepared dinner. Toby put ground beef, cheese,sliced potatoes and spices together all wrapped in foil to make "hobo dinners" to cook over the campfire. It all turned out really great, but we agreed the cheese, while a tasty addition, made it harder to eat and should be saved until after cooking next time. The (very cute) volunteer ranger came by to tell us that he'd be doing a talk on ecology and geology that night at the campground amphitheater, so that made for a pleasant, informative evening entertainment. We took a walk around before heading to bed for the evening. While we were pretty much "roughing it," I will admit that I brought my ipod into the tent so I could read a book on it before sleeping, but I didn't need it for long as I was out quite quickly. I slept pretty well for the most part; I thought it was very pleasant and cool out, but Toby found it awfully cold before morning, so he was glad we had brought two blankets and I was fine without one.
Thursday morning, Toby got up early to catch some photos of the sun rising and illuminating the tower, which was plainly visible from our tent. We cooked sausage and made coffee for breakfast, got dressed without the nicety of a shower, but I did wash my face, shave and brush teeth with the running water provided, even though it was ice cold. We visited the prairie dog town right next to the campground before heading out for the day. We drove to Sundance, WY, for an early lunch and check email/twitter on the free wifi provided at the local Subway. Before long, we crossed over into South Dakota and stopped at a visitor's center. We had no huge plans for Thursday other than to see Spearfish Canyon, do some geocaching and get settled in at Rapid City, SD. Before we got into the canyon, we stopped at a store for some more snacks, ice and contact solution for me. Spearfish Canyon is a very nice drive with waterfalls and nature walks to stop for. It was a bit warm, but not too horrible for a walk down by the creek once in a while to find a geocache.
Once we got to Rapid City, we stopped to use wifi in Starbucks and locate a room for the night. Turns out that even the cheapest motels aren't all that very cheap and most of those were pretty well booked up for the night and the weekend. We settled on a Rodeway Inn near the edge of town, reserved the room, found it and checked in. I am not a hotel/motel snob at all, but this place deserves to be dissed. The innkeepers told us to keep the keycards away from any electronics and/or credit cards because it would cause them to be demagnized; you and I both know this is crap (otherwise all credit cards/atm cards would be fucked from being in your wallet with other cards ALL THE TIME) and it was obvious that the main reason guests had problems with this was that the motel was too cheap to replace the well-worn cards with new ones. Our first set didn't work at all and they finally managed to get us one working key. The room was clean enough, but we weren't sure if the AC was up to the task of cooling things off. We headed out to see Dinosaur Park overlooking the city, get some pizza for dinner and get back to the room. Of course, the key no longer worked, even though it had sat in the car's center console nowhere near any electronics or other card, and the folks at the front desk berated Toby for making the card not work anymore. Was it any wonder we didn't bother to report the less than useful AC unit? We did take a dip in the pool, which was passable, before knocking out for the night (and completely sleeping through the new Futurama episodes on Comedy Central).
Friday morning we awoke to a brown out that, before long, turned into a full blackout. Luckily we had the presence of mind to use the still functioning wifi before the power went out completely to find a different motel so we could ditch this one and not look back. Turns out the Lazy U Motel directly across the street from our first place is a lovely little mom & pop motel with huge, clean, kitchenette suites for 20 bucks less a night than the oh-so-crappy Rodeway... yeah, there's no pool, but big deal. We ate breakfast at McDonald's, caught up on Twitter and email, secured our room at Lazy U, then got on the road for Badlands National Park.
Friday, it would turn out, was about as hot and humid a day as South Dakota sees, reaching about 95 or so with very few clouds to block the unforgiving western sun. Badlands are named such for being,. well, bad, with few trees and not too much green in many places so the sun reflects off the sand, making the hot day even more so. We enjoyed a nice visit to the cool, darkened visitor's center, museum and gift shop, before setting out on the drive through the park. We did get out and look at most of the overlooks and pulloffs, but we chose to not bother with any hiking trails because it was just too hot to even consider it. We thoroughly enjoyed the park, but were happy to wrap it up and stay in our air-conditioned car for longer than a few minutes at a time. We headed up to the world-famous Wall Drug Store, which goes along with the idea that it is just a tourist trap, but I can honestly say that it isn't bad at all. While big and over the top, sure, it has decent prices and not everything it sells is junk (cf. South of the Border on I-95 in South Carolina). We enjoyed some delicious milkshakes, used the free wifi and bought a few souvenirs. We even took in the National Grasslands Visitor's Center/Museum right down the street from the famous travel stop. We got on the road west back to Rapid City, stopping to find a geocache and seeing the most grasshoppers as I've ever seen in my life at a rest stop along I-90. Back in Rapid City, we got our room key (and discovered that many a guests defects from Rodeway to Lazy U because of how much Rodeway sucks), before heading downtown to enjoy dinner at "Firehouse Brewing Company" (which is advertised with real fire engines by their I-90 billboards). After dinner, we walked around downtown to take in all the bronze president statues they have on the street corners. Back in the room, we fell asleep quickly as we had been worn down by the heat and sun.
Saturday was the big day, so we got up, checked out, checked/filled the car's oil, had a quick Sonic breakfast and brought canned food for the food drive being held at Crazy Horse. We went south to Mt. Rushmore and were delighted to find it not crowded at all. The weather was much cooler than Friday with lots of cloud cover (along with a threat of rain). It turns out there is a good bit to see at Mt. Rushmore, with 2 films, at least 3 gift shops, ice cream parlor, cafeteria, visitor's center/museum, flag alley, sculptor's studio and "presidential walk," and we saw every bit of it in about 3 hours. We got back and the road and went to Custer State Park, an large state park featuring lots of the granite "needles" like those around Mt. Rushmore, We took a long walk around a dammed lake and found a geocache hidden near a very cool "eye of the needle" rock formation. After a pleasant drive through the park, we pointed to the car toward Hot Springs, SD, where we had booked a room for the night. Along the way we saw quite a few buffalo right along side the road. Our Garmin dashboard GPS did try to get us lost in Hot Springs, but we prevailed and got checked in. We saw the room, turned around and got back on the road to Crazy Horse.
The Crazy Horse memorial is just north of Custer, SD, and is much larger than the sculptures on Mt. Rushmore. Those four faces would actually fit inside the part of the mountain that will be Crazy Horse's head when it is all done. Started 63 years ago, it is a very slow process, but when you learn that the work has been done by one family for that time (and for much of that, the sculptor was doing it all alone), you might realize that it is amazing that it is as far along as it is. The family of the sculptor relies entirely on income from the visitor's center and donations/gifts, refusing any governmental funding. Eventually the entire figure on a horse will be as tall as the mountain and the largest sculpture on Earth. The accompanying compound will host medical and educational facilities (there are already students earning college credit there this summer).
We arrived with more than 2 hours before the night entertainment began, so we got a chance to see the orientation film, view the visitor's center, buy souvenirs, visit the vendors and get something to eat. As the sun started to go down, we staked out a place to view the mountain. As the laser light show began, we discovered our spot was not ideal but we very quickly located a great spot and settled in. The laser show lasts about half an hour, complete with various music and slides accompanying the lasers, and was followed by the dynamite blasts, which only lasted just over 90 seconds. We sat in our car reviewing our photos and video, letting most people get out so we could avoid the traffic jam. The quiet moonlit drive home was mostly uneventful until we encountered a herd of buffalo sleeping right by the side of the road inside Wind Cave National Park... very cool and a little spooky. Once again, back in the room, sleep was easy to find after such a full day.
Sunday we didn't have concrete plans besides getting home before the end of the day. Toby wanted to see Chimney Rock in Nebraska, so we had breakfast at Subway, filled up on gas and headed southeast - a bit away from home coordinates, but not too far out of the way. Hours later, the incredibly flat landscape of Nebraska was suddenly punctuated with some mounds and bluffs much taller than the surrounding area, including the accurately named Chimney Rock. We learned from roadside signs that this marked the "psychological" halfway point for the Mormons moving across the country to Salt Lake City. Also turns out that the Oregon Trail and Pony Express also went right by. We continued along the old Oregon Trail route to find ourselves at Scotts Bluff National Monument, complete with a visitor's center museum, slideshow/film, Oregon Train segment with wagon exhibit, hiking trails and overlooks on the bluffs. We saw a good bit of all that, climbed back in the car and looked for food. We found, quite by accident and with no idea what we had found, a Nebraska favorite, Runza, but didn't know enough to order the specialty of the house instead of just having normal ol' cheeseburgers. Oh well, gives us something to do in Nebraska if we ever make it back.
We consulted the map and the GPS and decided that the more scenic, less direct (and fewer interstate miles) route would be more pleasant trip home, especially since we were in no hurry at all to get home. We stopped for a few minutes at a rest area along a long lonely highway in Wyoming and had a good 30-minute slowdown behind an accident on I-25 outside of Fort Collins, CO, so the trip home was an uneventful and relatively relaxing drive making it a pleasant end to such a great 5 days of travel.
Toby has posted a cool map with pics showing when/where we went: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=682112
When I get around to it, I'll add more links and photos to this entry.
Last year Toby and I didn't feel like we could take as much time or spend too much money, so we centered our trips out of town around free weekends at the National Parks as well as my time off around xmas. These were great vacations, but not as long & relaxing as I'd like.
This year, however, Toby came up with an even better idea. Turns out that Denver is only a few hours' drive from the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, home to Devils Tower, Mt. Rushmore & the Crazy Horse memorial, among other things. Toby found out that the ongoing carving at Crazy Horse includes two "night blasts" every year at June 26 and September 6, so he suggested that we plan our vacation around the June event. Toby reviewed maps, travel guides, websites, etc., and put together a five-day itinerary of driving, camping and sightseeing. As luck would have it, Denver's gay pride celebration was moved up to an earlier weekend, so we could take part in that and go on our vacation, creating a week full of fun.
I started the vacation thinking I was going to be sick. Friday the 18th, I woke up feeling like crap but not so bad I couldn't take some cold meds and get to work. I made it most of the day mostly on adrenaline, but around 2 or 3 I felt like I was gonna die. Luckily one of my coworkers who lives relatively close to me was leaving work earlier than 5 and was nice enough to let me bum a ride. Got home and napped a while, which, luckily, seemed to do the trick. I'm guessing it was more allergies than a cold, but it was enough to make me feel awful and think that I'd spend some days of vacation in bed. To round out the night, Toby and I watched "North by Northwest" to see what the big fuss about Mt. Rushmore is for ;-)
Saturday was the first day of pride, but our friend Warren texted to see if we'd like to join him at the Greekfest being held right near us at the huge Greek Orthodox Cathedral. That was perfect as we were being a bit lazy getting moving that morning, so we got ready and drove over. Turned out to be the perfect activity for the very hot afternoon. Saw some dancers, visited the shops, ate some good food, listened to the cathedral choir (which included about an hour of air conditioning in the fantastic cathedral itself). We had planned to also visit Pride downtown, but we had enough sun/heat for the day and came home. Our pal David got a room at the Hyatt downtown so he could enjoy Pride and have a place to relax when he wanted, so we joined him for a nice evening to start off our Pride celebration.
Sunday, we got up early and down to the train station so we'd not miss some of the parade like we did last year. We'd hoped to meet up with a few friends, but David, his sister and their friend Ashley were the only folks we knew who made it - but that was fine :) Pride is essentially the same thing year after year and is most fun for me because I get to see friends, but this year it was fun to see it through the eyes of people less jaded than myself. I go to Pride partially out of obligation, I guess, but I do remember it used to be so much fun, almost empowering, to see I wasn't alone in the world. And, through David's hospitality, we got to take breaks in the room and enjoy the hotel's hot tub and pool, making the worst parts of pride (standing, walking and the heat) not so very bad. We had our fill pretty early on and left around 4, which was good because we needed to go shopping in preparation for our travels.
Here in Denver, the gay pride weekend unofficially continues with a "gay day" at the downtown roller coaster park, Elitch Gardens, so we decided we'd take that in as well. We got there around 11am, which it seems was a bit too early for most of the pride-celebrating bunch, but it worked nicely for us. Weekday visit meant very short lines, so we could stroll around and leisurely ride what we wanted. David joined us for a couple of hours after he was done with classes, which was good because I've decided I'm not going to ride "spin until you get sick" rides anymore and David would gladly ride those with Toby. We got to ride everything we wanted to and see the fairly good "Rocknation" show before 4, which was perfect timing. This gave us just enough travel time to make it up to Thornton to join Toby's boss's family and new coworkers for a fun dinner at Cinzetti's. It was a very full day, but, luckily, didn't wipe me out. I like my vacations to be be pleasantly busy, but not so much so that I'm more tired than before.
Tuesday, Toby had to work, so I took the day to do mostly nothing but do laundry for the trip, which took so little time. After work, Toby picked me up for one last trip to the store for supplies like snacks, sunblock, car stuff, firewood, etc. We finished up the evening with pizza and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" before finally packing.
I suppose travel makes me subconsciously anxious or what, but I never sleep very well the night before a trip. I did get a few hours of sleep, but mostly lay awake passing the time reading stuff on the web and such. Wasn't long before we were getting up around 5 to get on the road. We packed up the car pretty easily but I was sure to forget two things I _never_ forget: my contact solution and my laptop charger cord; luckily the solution for RGP lensese can be found at most drugstores and Toby has the same laptop as I do. We set out headed north for Wyoming. Google maps and our GPS unit didn't really agree, but the GPS's route made more sense to us on the map, so we went that way, which took us up more rural highways with much less time on interstates. We hit some road construction but, other than that, saw very little traffic. We got to Devils Tower National Monument before 4pm, secured our campsite, visited the visitor's center and walked the 1.3 mile hike around the base of the tower. Took a quick drive into town to get some food to make dinner with before setting up camp.
Back at the campsite, we set up the tent, pumped up an inflatable mattress (not necessary for the soft ground up there, but was easy enough to do and we had room in the car for it, so why not?), and prepared dinner. Toby put ground beef, cheese,sliced potatoes and spices together all wrapped in foil to make "hobo dinners" to cook over the campfire. It all turned out really great, but we agreed the cheese, while a tasty addition, made it harder to eat and should be saved until after cooking next time. The (very cute) volunteer ranger came by to tell us that he'd be doing a talk on ecology and geology that night at the campground amphitheater, so that made for a pleasant, informative evening entertainment. We took a walk around before heading to bed for the evening. While we were pretty much "roughing it," I will admit that I brought my ipod into the tent so I could read a book on it before sleeping, but I didn't need it for long as I was out quite quickly. I slept pretty well for the most part; I thought it was very pleasant and cool out, but Toby found it awfully cold before morning, so he was glad we had brought two blankets and I was fine without one.
Thursday morning, Toby got up early to catch some photos of the sun rising and illuminating the tower, which was plainly visible from our tent. We cooked sausage and made coffee for breakfast, got dressed without the nicety of a shower, but I did wash my face, shave and brush teeth with the running water provided, even though it was ice cold. We visited the prairie dog town right next to the campground before heading out for the day. We drove to Sundance, WY, for an early lunch and check email/twitter on the free wifi provided at the local Subway. Before long, we crossed over into South Dakota and stopped at a visitor's center. We had no huge plans for Thursday other than to see Spearfish Canyon, do some geocaching and get settled in at Rapid City, SD. Before we got into the canyon, we stopped at a store for some more snacks, ice and contact solution for me. Spearfish Canyon is a very nice drive with waterfalls and nature walks to stop for. It was a bit warm, but not too horrible for a walk down by the creek once in a while to find a geocache.
Once we got to Rapid City, we stopped to use wifi in Starbucks and locate a room for the night. Turns out that even the cheapest motels aren't all that very cheap and most of those were pretty well booked up for the night and the weekend. We settled on a Rodeway Inn near the edge of town, reserved the room, found it and checked in. I am not a hotel/motel snob at all, but this place deserves to be dissed. The innkeepers told us to keep the keycards away from any electronics and/or credit cards because it would cause them to be demagnized; you and I both know this is crap (otherwise all credit cards/atm cards would be fucked from being in your wallet with other cards ALL THE TIME) and it was obvious that the main reason guests had problems with this was that the motel was too cheap to replace the well-worn cards with new ones. Our first set didn't work at all and they finally managed to get us one working key. The room was clean enough, but we weren't sure if the AC was up to the task of cooling things off. We headed out to see Dinosaur Park overlooking the city, get some pizza for dinner and get back to the room. Of course, the key no longer worked, even though it had sat in the car's center console nowhere near any electronics or other card, and the folks at the front desk berated Toby for making the card not work anymore. Was it any wonder we didn't bother to report the less than useful AC unit? We did take a dip in the pool, which was passable, before knocking out for the night (and completely sleeping through the new Futurama episodes on Comedy Central).
Friday morning we awoke to a brown out that, before long, turned into a full blackout. Luckily we had the presence of mind to use the still functioning wifi before the power went out completely to find a different motel so we could ditch this one and not look back. Turns out the Lazy U Motel directly across the street from our first place is a lovely little mom & pop motel with huge, clean, kitchenette suites for 20 bucks less a night than the oh-so-crappy Rodeway... yeah, there's no pool, but big deal. We ate breakfast at McDonald's, caught up on Twitter and email, secured our room at Lazy U, then got on the road for Badlands National Park.
Friday, it would turn out, was about as hot and humid a day as South Dakota sees, reaching about 95 or so with very few clouds to block the unforgiving western sun. Badlands are named such for being,. well, bad, with few trees and not too much green in many places so the sun reflects off the sand, making the hot day even more so. We enjoyed a nice visit to the cool, darkened visitor's center, museum and gift shop, before setting out on the drive through the park. We did get out and look at most of the overlooks and pulloffs, but we chose to not bother with any hiking trails because it was just too hot to even consider it. We thoroughly enjoyed the park, but were happy to wrap it up and stay in our air-conditioned car for longer than a few minutes at a time. We headed up to the world-famous Wall Drug Store, which goes along with the idea that it is just a tourist trap, but I can honestly say that it isn't bad at all. While big and over the top, sure, it has decent prices and not everything it sells is junk (cf. South of the Border on I-95 in South Carolina). We enjoyed some delicious milkshakes, used the free wifi and bought a few souvenirs. We even took in the National Grasslands Visitor's Center/Museum right down the street from the famous travel stop. We got on the road west back to Rapid City, stopping to find a geocache and seeing the most grasshoppers as I've ever seen in my life at a rest stop along I-90. Back in Rapid City, we got our room key (and discovered that many a guests defects from Rodeway to Lazy U because of how much Rodeway sucks), before heading downtown to enjoy dinner at "Firehouse Brewing Company" (which is advertised with real fire engines by their I-90 billboards). After dinner, we walked around downtown to take in all the bronze president statues they have on the street corners. Back in the room, we fell asleep quickly as we had been worn down by the heat and sun.
Saturday was the big day, so we got up, checked out, checked/filled the car's oil, had a quick Sonic breakfast and brought canned food for the food drive being held at Crazy Horse. We went south to Mt. Rushmore and were delighted to find it not crowded at all. The weather was much cooler than Friday with lots of cloud cover (along with a threat of rain). It turns out there is a good bit to see at Mt. Rushmore, with 2 films, at least 3 gift shops, ice cream parlor, cafeteria, visitor's center/museum, flag alley, sculptor's studio and "presidential walk," and we saw every bit of it in about 3 hours. We got back and the road and went to Custer State Park, an large state park featuring lots of the granite "needles" like those around Mt. Rushmore, We took a long walk around a dammed lake and found a geocache hidden near a very cool "eye of the needle" rock formation. After a pleasant drive through the park, we pointed to the car toward Hot Springs, SD, where we had booked a room for the night. Along the way we saw quite a few buffalo right along side the road. Our Garmin dashboard GPS did try to get us lost in Hot Springs, but we prevailed and got checked in. We saw the room, turned around and got back on the road to Crazy Horse.
The Crazy Horse memorial is just north of Custer, SD, and is much larger than the sculptures on Mt. Rushmore. Those four faces would actually fit inside the part of the mountain that will be Crazy Horse's head when it is all done. Started 63 years ago, it is a very slow process, but when you learn that the work has been done by one family for that time (and for much of that, the sculptor was doing it all alone), you might realize that it is amazing that it is as far along as it is. The family of the sculptor relies entirely on income from the visitor's center and donations/gifts, refusing any governmental funding. Eventually the entire figure on a horse will be as tall as the mountain and the largest sculpture on Earth. The accompanying compound will host medical and educational facilities (there are already students earning college credit there this summer).
We arrived with more than 2 hours before the night entertainment began, so we got a chance to see the orientation film, view the visitor's center, buy souvenirs, visit the vendors and get something to eat. As the sun started to go down, we staked out a place to view the mountain. As the laser light show began, we discovered our spot was not ideal but we very quickly located a great spot and settled in. The laser show lasts about half an hour, complete with various music and slides accompanying the lasers, and was followed by the dynamite blasts, which only lasted just over 90 seconds. We sat in our car reviewing our photos and video, letting most people get out so we could avoid the traffic jam. The quiet moonlit drive home was mostly uneventful until we encountered a herd of buffalo sleeping right by the side of the road inside Wind Cave National Park... very cool and a little spooky. Once again, back in the room, sleep was easy to find after such a full day.
Sunday we didn't have concrete plans besides getting home before the end of the day. Toby wanted to see Chimney Rock in Nebraska, so we had breakfast at Subway, filled up on gas and headed southeast - a bit away from home coordinates, but not too far out of the way. Hours later, the incredibly flat landscape of Nebraska was suddenly punctuated with some mounds and bluffs much taller than the surrounding area, including the accurately named Chimney Rock. We learned from roadside signs that this marked the "psychological" halfway point for the Mormons moving across the country to Salt Lake City. Also turns out that the Oregon Trail and Pony Express also went right by. We continued along the old Oregon Trail route to find ourselves at Scotts Bluff National Monument, complete with a visitor's center museum, slideshow/film, Oregon Train segment with wagon exhibit, hiking trails and overlooks on the bluffs. We saw a good bit of all that, climbed back in the car and looked for food. We found, quite by accident and with no idea what we had found, a Nebraska favorite, Runza, but didn't know enough to order the specialty of the house instead of just having normal ol' cheeseburgers. Oh well, gives us something to do in Nebraska if we ever make it back.
We consulted the map and the GPS and decided that the more scenic, less direct (and fewer interstate miles) route would be more pleasant trip home, especially since we were in no hurry at all to get home. We stopped for a few minutes at a rest area along a long lonely highway in Wyoming and had a good 30-minute slowdown behind an accident on I-25 outside of Fort Collins, CO, so the trip home was an uneventful and relatively relaxing drive making it a pleasant end to such a great 5 days of travel.
Toby has posted a cool map with pics showing when/where we went: http://www.everytrail.com/view_trip.php?trip_id=682112
When I get around to it, I'll add more links and photos to this entry.