Tourists

We did two days worth of touristy stuff today and I'm tired, so this will be short (text-wise anyway) - I want to put my feet up and veg. (edited to add: I've been at this for 2 hours; now it's time for bed. No vegging time for me tonight!)

We got an early start and were able to hit all our priority places, plus a few 'if we have time' spots. First up - Bear Country USA, a drive-through wildlife park just outside Rapid City. We both thought it was well worth the $15 admission fee. Lots of animals, especially brown bears, close and personal. We had some really great photo opportunities.
Next up was Mt. Rushmore, our main reason for visiting the area. And it turned out to be our favorite stop on the entire trip (except visiting Addy, of course). Absolutely incredible monument.
The Crazy Horse Memorial, begun in 1948, is still under construction, but the visitor center is complete. We saw a short historical film, wandered through the museum, admired the sculpture of what the mountain should look like when it's complete, took a few photos, and moved on.

We drove through Custer on our way to the Jewel Cave National Monument. Jewel Cave is the second largest cave system in the US; the largest is Mammoth Cave in Alabama, which we've also visited. We got there about 20 minutes too late for the last full tour and were only able to get on the 20-minute, one-room version. It was interesting - they've mapped about 80 miles of caverns and believe that's only 1-2% of what's still out there.

On the way to Jewel, Dick spotted a yarn and antique store. He almost rolled the car getting it slowed enough to make the turn into the driveway. The antique store was a bust but I bought some Brown Sheep bulky yarn to make a souvenir scarf for Dick.

Our last stop of the day - which we thought we'd have to do tomorrow; never figured we could get to all this in one day - was Custer State Park, home to a roaming herd of 1500 bison. It's a huge park, 71,000 acres, with lots of wildlife on view. We saw mule and white-tailed deer, pronghorns (they aren't antelope as we thought yesterday),including these two bucks who engaged in mock combat for our amusement - wild burros and turkeys, marmoset, mountain goats, and bison. Lots of bison, spread out across the plain.
Tomorrow we start for home. We're planning to cut across Wyoming, then down Utah, across to Las Vegas, and home. Subject to change, of course. Three more days of travel. I'm looking forward to sleeping in my own bed, seeing the kids and petting my kitties.