BLACK HILLS It was HOT today - very hot. The temperature rose to 94, in the hills in the forest. I have no idea what it was in the Rapid City. We decided to take the day and tour around the Black Hills of South Dakota. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore, a place I have always wanted to see. It was over the top in terms of the presentation that the Park Service does, but the sculpture itself is more than impressive.
A few miles away there is a similar effort underway to honor the people who actually owned this portion of the country before the settlers came. The carving of Crazy Horse is little more than a dream. The face is finished and the rest of the ambitious endeavor is still underway. The exhibit is largely a fund raising effort.
We then drove around a wildlife section of a South Dakota park. Bison and prairie dogs again. Amusingly we bumped into a tractor rally that was driving through the park. The other rally we experienced was the Corvette convention a couple of days ago. These Corvettes are everywhere in the locales we are visiting. Bursts of five or six of them appear at every site. The next trip was along the Needles highway. A confusing name until, almost at the end of the journey, the rock formations appear, like needles reaching for the sky. The most fun are the three tunnels that are carved in the rock with just enough room for a medium sized car.  Carol wanted to eat lunch at a town that had a "great restaurant". It was crowded so we ate at a local establishment instead. Enough grease to service a car. But picturesque.
Finally, after lunch we drove to the Gold Rush towns of Leadville and Deadwood. Leadville was essentially a company town with the company being a single gold mine, reopened in 1983. Deadwood was much more interesting. It was a larger town to begin with and was refurbished, thanks to the State legislature legalizing gambling. Not all, but many of the establishments on the main streets are gambling related. It is no Las Vegas, but fun none the less. We left during a staged shoot-out in the city streets.
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