CC w Chris Day 5

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2014 09 06 Day 5



We decided to say in Spearfish for 3 nights so we wouldn't have to rush to see everything we wanted to see. Yesterday made us very weary.



We slept late and went to breakfast in the motel at 9:41. The food was OK, but the service was abysmal. The waitress brought a carafe of coffee to the table and didn't provide any cream. The next time we saw her was at least ten – fifteen minutes later when she brought out our food. By that time the coffee was cold. She put the check on our table while we were eating, and we never saw her again. When we were done eating, we waited at least five minutes before we decided to chase down someone to pay our bill. Chris walked over to a group of waitresses near the bar and was ignored for quite a while until a waitress making a drink looked at Chris and told her that she would be right back. After a really, really long time, another waitress took the check and credit card and processed it. While she was finishing up, the other waitress returned. We didn't get out of the restaurant until 10:41.



We got gas (for the second time, plus was cheaper than regular – same octane, though) and took the scenic route to Mt Rushmore through the Spearfish Canyon, which was very pretty. We stopped in Keystone, just outside of Mt. Rushmore, for coffee. We walked around Keystone for a while then proceeded to Mt. Rushmore.



Mt. Rushmore was very disappointing. It doesn't look nearly as impressive as the pictures you see of it. Chris discovered that the reason Mt. Rushmore was built was to attract tourists to the Black Hills. Everything you see in this area in tourist related, etc. etc



We drove through Custer state park to get to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is a very curvy road that is fun to drive. We enjoyed it very much. At one point, there was a Buffalo on the side of the road, about 3 feet away from Chris. We didn't get a picture because traffic behind us was getting antsy.



We stopped for dinner in Custer around 4 pm and, interestingly enough, we had trouble finding a place to eat. Many of the restaurants in South Dakota (at least in Pierre and Custer) open for lunch and then close and reopen for dinner at 5. As we were looking for a place to eat at 4, we were limited in our choices. We did find a place, however, and had a very nice meal.



While we were waiting for dinner, we looked up the operating hours of the Crazy Horse Memorial and discovered the because today was the anniversary of Crazy Horses death (he was stabbed in the back by a soldier while under a flag of truce) they were going to do a rare night blasting of the mountain. We decided to stay for the blasting and the laser light show that preceded it. Chris didn't like the light show very much, but I did. We both thought the blasting was great. We both liked the Crazy Horse Museum.



We didn't get back to the motel until very late.

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