Thursday, October 30, 2008

DAY THIRTY-THREE - South Dakota

We were going to treat the car to a Bay Wash, but it was already raining.

And the winner is...

A porcupine.

After investigating the map, we find Custer State Park - home to the world's largest free-roaming bison herd. But not in this photo.

After driving for a half-hour, our car gets a fresh wiff of something special. Bison.

A friendly burro says hello. We give him a blog card.

Finally, some bison. Each one of those specs can weigh as much as 2,000 pounds.

Fall color.

We leave the park and find some dare devil wildlife that roamed outside Custer State Park.

My hooves!

This classy varmint hat only cost $550. But it sure was warm.

We make another detour to Crazy Horse Memorial. The fog splits for five minutes in time to see this 641 foot wide and 563 foot high sculpture, which will be the world's largest upon completion. The Native Americans have a long history in the Black Hills, and have been carving this mountain without government funding "to let the white man know the red man has great heroes too." Mount Rushmore is only thirteen miles away and can fit in this guys armpit.

The Visitor's Center has great chicken fingers...and crayons. Boman puts his art education to good use with this Crazy Horse interpretation.

The owner, Cherry, is proud to preserve this masterpiece.
We walk out to our first snow fall of the trip.

Despite the heinous weather, we decide to make yet another detour to Mount Rushmore. It's the American thing-to-do.

I set up the camera and wait for the fog to clear.

With the economy in the gutter, the future of this country is anything but clear. I'll pull the reigns on going into this further.

Our last roadside attraction for the day is Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, which is anything but serious. Boman negotiates a truce.
This early dino park depicts we believed dinosaurs looked like in the 1930s. Jurassic Park changed everything.

As we charge towards Iowa, our back car window decides to implode. A forensic test concludes it was my bike's right handlebar. Maybe we should have treated the car to Bay Wash.

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