Monday, July 3rd

The flight was pretty uneventful, surprisingly easy, since it was the day before a holiday. We arrived a little after 2pm Mountain Time. As we were walking to the rental car (2023 RAV4) it started to rain then it simply unloaded as hard as I have ever seen! Huge rain drops that the wipers fought to stay ahead of. I am so glad I packed our Garmin GPS, it has made this whole trip so much better.

Tuesday, July 4th

There were so many things wrong with our room that Sharon talked to the manager and she promised us another room when we returned after our day in the area. Since it was still raining, we decided to not go to Mount Rushmore, instead, we drove to Hill City to ride the 1880 Train. Unfortunately, the only seats available were on the open car, it was covered, but no windows. It was great for taking pictures, though a bit cold. On the return trip we were on an inside car.

We went to the Chuck Wagon dinner and show in Fort Hayes that evening. The area was used in the filming of Dances With Wolves. The dinner was down home style with picnic table seating. The show started out as pure Country, but spread through rock as well.

Wednesday, July 5th

We went to Mount Rushmore, did a lot of walking and the weather was chilly but at least dry. We considered going to the Crazy Horse Memorial but decided since we were both tired that we would visit Bear Country U.S.A. instead since it is a drive through venue. They had a huge amount of animals in a natural setting. Of course, the highlight was the bears, they had hundreds of them that would walk right up to the cars and even set down in front of them to scratch. They had a small walk through zoo at the end. We stopped for lunch at their outdoor snack bar then went to the baby bear exhibit.

Thursday, July 6th

We looked at the weather report and decided to go to The Crazy Horse Memorial, since it was supposed to rain on Friday. A very wonderful exhibit. We took the bus tour that takes you to the base of the monument, definitely worth the bumpy ride!

On our way back to the hotel, we swung through Keystone and took a tram ride through the hills.

Friday, July 7th

Our last full day in the area, and we are bone tired! We decided to take it easy on ourselves.

We went to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. They have a lot of planes on display very well kept up and the area is beautifully laid out, however, we went to the museum door and they had a sign that they were closed for renovations!

We went to Dinosaur Park, on top of a hill overlooking Rapid City, a wonderful view. There is a walking trail to the top of another hill where there are life size replicas of dinosaurs but we simply did not feel up to walking up. We went into the gift shop and found a cool T-Rex t-shirt for Makena and a shot glass for me.

We then went to the Chapel On The Hill. The chapel is a Norwegian church replica with a prayer walk through the woods, a log cabin from the area and a storage house transported from Norway and rebuilt there.

Back to the hotel, lunch will be left overs and things from this morning’s breakfast. The plan is to pack as much as I can then find some dinner.

Saturday, July 8th

Not very many people at a rather small airport, where they informed us that we could have waited until about an hour before the flight, oh well.

We arrived in Denver, according to the pilot, early. However there was a plane in our gate having technical issues, so we ended up late leaving the plane. We had about 45 minutes to get from the far end of Terminal A to the far end of Terminal B! We arrived just prior to our group boarding! We only arrived in Fresno about 10 minutes late. A great trip, but we are very tired!