The Latest Scoop: The Millers Go RVing

We had about an hour's drive to get to Mt. Rushmore. It stands to reason if the carving is on the side of a mountain one would have to drive uphill to get to it but we were not expecting the steep climb we encountered- no one ever so much as hinted to us it was a challenge to get to Mt Rushmore in a big rig. There were no pull-offs anywhere and no parking signs at regular intervals, but Big Bertha was so hot we could smell her -with the windows rolled up. We came to a service entrance of some sort with No Parking signs plastered all around, but we parked anyway. We were not about to burn up our new transmission, and would have shared that with anyone who challenged us about parking there, but no one did.
At the top we had an escort in a golf cart who took us to an available RV parking spot. They were really quite organized, in spite of how busy they were.

We had beautiful weather for visiting a national monument.

We went inside the museum and saw equipment used by the workers. (OSHA approved, for sure.) And watched a film about the carving of the monument.

Ok, so call me weird if you want, but do you know what my thought was when I saw Mt Rushmore? It's not near as big as I pictured. I know, I know, the visitor's center is still a long ways off... I know all the statistics about a grown man being able to stand inside the eyes and all that, but probably because so many of the photos you see of Rushmore are zoomed it, it looked much smaller in person than I expected.

After an hour, the I'm-here-because-you're-making-me-do-this member of our party was doing the usual refrain of "Can we go now?" so we left. Big Bertha wouldn't start, but the battery switch flipping trick worked again, and we rolled on to Crazy Horse. That was a stop on the itinerary that R requested and it turned out to be more interesting than I expected.

It's not that far from Mt Rushmore and is being carved because the Sioux wanted the white man to know the red man has great heroes, too. It is so large that all 4 heads of Rushmore would fit in the chief's head. We watched the film about the monument and walked through the buildings looking at the displays (lots & lots of Indian things). Even though the carving is progressing very, very slowly it is funded completely by private donations.

In the foreground is the model, in the background is the actual carving.

If you ever get in the area, it is worth your time to go to Crazy Horse Monument just to hear about this piece of machinery and the kaput-kaput-kaput story!

The carving is still being carried on by the family of the man who was originally commissioned to do it. They grew up on that mountain and have some colorful stories to tell! Another one we enjoyed was one of the sons rolled a bulldozer down the backside of the mountain. Once Mr. Ziolkowski realized his son was still alive he said "You got it in there, now you get it out". They did and are still using it today.

See that rock JS is carrying? At the entrance to the various buildings, I kept seeing a sign that said to leave your rocks at the door. What is that all about? Well, we came to a bin full of rocks taken from the mountain as part of the carving process. Anyone could take one in exchange for a donation. Ironically, JS had been looking for a rock for his future father-in-law who collects them for landscaping use. He picked one out, and I also chose one -who can resist having a piece of Crazy Horse?! And the joke is this was legal to remove from the premises, unlike the stalk of flowers yours truly picked/stole from an undisclosed park, for my scrapbook. JS likes to remind me I am a wanted criminal now.

When we got back to the parking lot... guess what wouldn't start. Yup, Big Bertha decided to pull that stunt again. Except this time flipping the battery switches didn't work. The men had to fiddle around awhile and finally got her going. R started to worry the alternator was going bad. Sigh! I just want to get home. I'm not in the mood for any more costly repairs.

In the afternoon we drove to Custer State Park. We have heard from other people about all the wildlife you can see there so we went with high expectations. We hadn't seen any bighorn sheep or mountain goats yet, so I was especially hankering to see some of those. We paid $20 to drive Wildlife Loop, which is a narrow, berm-less, hairpin curved road not made for 32' RVs... for this...

A total waste of time & money! After the huge herd of bison at Yellowstone, this was like big whoop-dee-doo. We drove by a small prairie dog colony, and did see a mama antelope with twins but a motorcycle came roaring past and scared them off before we could get any pictures. So our advice is- unless you can get there in the cool of the day, don't bother with Custer.

On to Wall, SD. We got an RV site for a mere $38, which helped make up for the wasted $20. When we checked in, the owner told us there is a rodeo right across the street at 7pm, so we walked over. It was only $10 per person and it turned out to be much better than the one in Cody (the self-proclaimed rodeo capital)!