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Published: July 24th 2008
Train Ride
A view from the trainWe had a leisurely morning as we were doing the 1880 Train Ride at 10:00 a.m. and it was right next door. The ride takes about 2 hours and it was a relaxing ride, though it was totally full and by the time we were able to get on, the only seats left were in the very back of the very last car, so we had a hard time seeing things. Then, when we were on the return trip, the engine was now right in front of us and we had to hear the whistle blowing every time the train went across the roadway...so that was a total of 19 times! (and yes..ONE road wound around through the hills enough times for that to happen!).
We got back from that then and just stopped at the hotel to go to the bathroom and then headed to the Crazy Horse Monument. It is very impressive and the visitor center has a lot of information and artifacts. Be aware though if you ever plan on visiting that it's not free to get into the monuments!
After that, we went to Mt. Rushmore. It was kind of disappointing on two levels. One..you
More from the train
Stephen took the pictures since I was not next to the window! also had to pay to go in and park. It was $10 to just basically park to take a picture if you really didn't want to do anything else. Then, they are really not as big as you'd think they are..though it's still a nice sight. Anyway, I decided that I didn't want to pay to park so we didn't get a good picture of it. The rock formations as you're driving to the monument are very impressive though and at one place you could pull over and get a profile shot of ole' George so that was at least something.
Next, Cathy had picked out "Big Bear Country" as what she wanted to really see, so we headed back the other way to see that. It was really neat..a drive through area with lots of wild animals in it. That was neat..all kinds of things there.
On the way back to the hotel then was the local winery and that was Dad's pick that he wanted to see, so he and I went in there. They have a continual wine tasting going on..5 samples for free! So we bellied up to the counter and picked out our
Train
Some areas were very rocky choices...even though I had already picked out 3 bottles that I wanted without tasting them. I hadn't planned on doing any tasting but went ahead and tried the 3 that I had picked out and one other. That was fun.
We stopped then on the way to the hotel to eat as we had not had anything since breakfast and then just called it a day early! Thomas immediately headed to the indoor pool with Dad, Stephen is watching dvd's and Cathy fell asleep.
Tomorrow, we'll probably hit the road again. We have one more thing to see here and then Dad wants to see Devil's Tower in Wyoming and we'll continue westward
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