MT. RUSHMORE and THE BLACK HILLS of SOUTH DAKOTA

Hey again........

We're back home (in the trailer) after a very nice day touring part of the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore.
Had a late start, because uncle Olav, from Sandfjord, Norway, got on Skype, right after we got up this morning, and we had a lot to catch up on..... Haven't talked to him for ages, so it was nice to be able to talk and watch each other's faces at the same time.
Technology has come a long way since the old days when I made calls to Norway, and I had the long lagtime between speaking and hearing what the other person said.
Anyway, we drove the five or six miles down to Rapid City where we made a right hand turn, and headed up the hills.
As you can see from the pictures, this area is very pretty, with rolling hills covered with pine trees. We drove right by a place with all the Scandinavian flags flying high, before Luanne noticed it.... Of course, I immediately made a u-turn, and found a delightful older lady tending the most well stocked Scandinavian store I've seen outside Norway.
They even had Norwegian mayonnaise, goat cheese, "Idun" mustard, sauerkraut, and gravy-in-a-bag (all of which we bought several of for future gastronomical pleasures).
Of course there were the typical trolls, sweaters, puter ware, and souveniers.... Really cute place.... Take a look at the pictures on today's link:


http://picasaweb.google.com/Kjell.and.Luanne/MTRUSHMOREAndTHEBLACKHILLSOfSOUTHDAKOTA#

Drove through the little town of Keystone. Found a parking spot on the other side. Parked and hoofed it all the way down one side and and back on the other.... Pretty hot to do things like that, but well worth it.... Except, on the way back to the truck, I noticed my camera showed a low battery, and to top that off, we found a note on the windshield saying we owed $5.00 for parking.... Went and saw the attendant. Don't know how I did it, but I somehow talked him into forgetting the ticket.... Pretty good for a day's work, huh?
We debated whether to go and see Mt. Rushmore without a full battery, but decided to risk it, and lucky we did, because I shot well over 70 pictures, some of which (for one reason or another) I discarded after we got home... The end of the story is that you should be able to see fifty pix from our trip into the hills today....
We're heading back up tomorrow to take a close look at the monument to Cracy Horse.
I've seen it twice before, and each time it's more and more inspiring.... Can't wait to go!
More pictures coming tomorrow, so keep in touch.