Day 7

Wednesday 09/16/15

KOA Mt Rushmore

Keystone, SD

Sorry this was posted late but we had no cell or internet access.

It got cold last night but warmed right up this morning.  We headed south to Needles Highway which is narrow winding road through huge rocks of granite and laced with mica which acts like a mirror.  Many of the rocks are thin tall spears thus the needles name but the mica looks like the rocks are seeded with diamonds when the sun shines on them.  They should have called it Needles and Diamonds highway.  There were several narrow one lane tunnels cut through rock that were in the way of the road builders.  They were pretty cool too. 

After that drive we were almost out of gas and detoured to Custer, SD.  Quaint little town that happens to be the home of the National Woodcarvers Museum.  Lee spent considerable time in there looking at carvings.  Then after a quick lunch and grocery stop we went to Custer State Park.  Needles highway is part of it but this time we went to the wildlife loop drive.  We saw deer, prong horn antelope, big horn sheep, buffalo and more prairie dog towns.  I fed a prairie dog a corn nut, he sat up and begged for more.

We took the Iron Mountain Rd back to Mt Rushmore and took pictures.  We didn’t have a camera last night.  This time we did and toured the museum that documented the building of Mt Rushmore.  But back to Mt Rd.  It was a flatlanders nightmare.  More tunnels and more kiss your ass turns than you can count. Having lived in the mountainous area of WV we were fine but bet a few travelers were white knuckled. We traveled 95 miles today.

We have made 2 recent donations to the lost and gone forever (formerly called overboard).  The hitch lock and my one and only glasses.  We really have to break this habit of losing stuff when we travel. Tomorrow we hook up the trailer and head on.