Mt. Rushmore

After getting the dreadful news about our T@B, we decided we needed to try and make the most of our last couple of days of our vacation. We decided to go home by way of Mt. Rushmore and South Dakota, ironically, driving right past where Dave's accident had occurred on I-90 the day before (but not realizing it at the time).

We spent the night in Rapid City, SD along with about a million other tourists and then visited Mt. Rushmore the next morning (being followed by those million other tourists again!). I had never been to the Black Hills before, and apart from the tourist trap stuff, really liked the area and hope to get back there some day.

While in the area, we also visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield (where we saw this cute foal resting beneath it's mama).

We also drove through the Badlands National Park, which was quite spectacular and reminiscent of Utah and other far off southwestern locales.

And what trip to the Badlands would be complete without a stop to the infamous Wall Drug Store. Here's Mom posing at one of the tourist photo opp spots.

One final hurrah of tourist-mania was to drive past the Mitchell, South Dakota Corn Palace (with front walls featuring real corn!).

The rest of the trip home was dull and uneventful....except for the look on my next door neighbor's face when, after a month on the road, I drove a big brown Chevy Impala into the driveway. "Where's your camper & your new car?" he asked. "LONG Story," I replied!