Thursday June 27, 2013- The Only Rushing I'm Gonna Do is to the Mountain.

Left: The Badlands (Cedar Pass National Park), South Dakota 7:58am MST (E)Pitstop: Rapid City RV and Auto Supercenter
Arrived: The Black Hills South Dakota (Horsethief Lake National Park), 6:16pm MST (F)
Total time on road: 10 ½ hours
Miles driven on this leg: 121.1
Total miles driven: 1912.7

Breakfast: Cold Cereal and Pop-Tarts.

Today’s Travel began with our stop at the RV center (in Rapid City, SD) to have the RV looked at. It’s a failed generator fuel pump, which will be replaced tomorrow.

While in Rapid City, we stopped at Cabella’s to get Pete a set of binoculars. With all the preparation hub-bub, his pair got forgotten. The Great Plains is not a place I want him to go without binoculars. If that is the only thing that got forgotten, we did a pretty good job packing! Then we stopped for a fun lunch at Quaker Steak and Lube. The food was fresh, the theme was fun (it was a bit manly- racing and cars and sports and such) but we had a really fun server named Lance. He told us about growing up in Rapid City and how hot it is. We told Lance about the humidity in New Jersey.

There are lots of casinos in South Dakota. However, they are not the same casinos I am familiar with. Unless you are at a “gaming resort”, the casinos are more like dive bars with video poker machines. Kind of seedy, if you ask me. I know. You want to know where this came from. Well, in Rapid City, there’s a ‘casino’ in every mini-mall. We had to explore the local culture!

Visiting Mount Rushmore was our main focus of the day. This National Monument is located in Keystone, South Dakota. As you pass through Keystone, you make the ascent to Mount Rushmore and as you get to about 3/4s of the way up, the presidents’ faces make their appearance.

It’s difficult to describe what seeing these landmarks up close and personal feels like. When you’re sitting in your own house in New Jersey planning this trip, and Mount Rushmore is something that you’re interested in seeing, but not completely gung-ho about, you’re okay with taking the time out. When you finally get there and this incomparable feat of workmanship, dedication, business acumen (Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor was as savvy as he was talented!) is in front of you in this incredible natural setting, you can’t imagine being so close and not stopping. Possibly, you might think, as I did, that it is a mistake to live in this country without ever seeing sights such as these. LESSON LEARNED.

We took the trail around the monument. Along the way, we saw a wild mountain goat. He was in a fenced area eating grass. So it looked like a petting zoo. Wildlife wise, this trip has been so much better than a zoo could ever be. We also saw a groundhog. Not as thrilling, but he was about 1-foot in front of us, non-plussed by our presence. Allow several hours at Mount Rushmore, at the very least. There’s a great, short movie in the visitor’s center and a cool gift shop. In the gift shop, we met an original driller of Mt. Rushmore, Don “Nick” Clifford . We purchased his signed book to take home for Pappy. Mr. Clifford is 92 years-old and has some interesting stories to tell. It was a pleasure to meet him.

Horsethief Lake

Our stay was at Horsethief Lake Campground at the Black Hills National Forest site (not the private campground). It is the lake nearest Mt. Rushmore. We tentatively thought we might check in, have dinner and then take a trip back into Keystone, which is a family-friendly tourist town. However, once at the beautiful Horsethief Lake, we decided to stick around the campground. THIS WAS THE BEST IDEA, EVER.

Millie and I took a walk to the lake and stuck our toes in. We all enjoyed a wonderful dinner and watched the Natural Zoo ensue. A family of YELLOW-BELLIED SAPSUCKERS!!  Was right over our heads! A Western Painted turtle with a shell of at least 10 inches made its way through our campsite on its way to the lake. At night we were sung to sleep by meadowlarks and bull frogs.

Our family talked and laughed and relaxed. Two of us drank wine and then the kids built a tiny fire to make s’mores. We agreed that although our spirits wanted to visit Keystone, our bodies really needed to relax and our hearts needed to connect with each other, not more attractions. There’s really nothing more attractive than those Quellies, if I do say so, myself.

We had no hook-ups at all. No electric, no water, no sewage. The air was cool and it was the most peaceful night of sleep I can remember.

Western Painted Turtle- our temporary pet, for about 30 min.

Fabulous in the Great Plains

DINNER: Provincial “cold” dinner. Millie had lunch leftovers, we made garlic bread on the grill and enjoyed Soppresata, Fresh Mozzarella, Italian Pork Sausages, Bruschetta, and remaining coleslaw. S’mores for dessert. Yellowtail Pinot Grigio.
This was the best vacation day because relaxing instead of more sightseeing was the perfect choice for our family. We've been realizing more and more that they kind of like strolling or sitting around with us. The Quellies are skilled at making their own fun.

VACATION BONUS: I have been sleeping so soundly, every single night.