The mile high club!

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Our next motel appeared in the form of a studio style with kitchen etc. for the bargain price of $41.99 our cheapest digs so far in America all with the help of a little voucher in a coupon book, our new accommodation bible! This was just on the outskirts of Denver which is the mile high city as it is officialy 1 mile above sea level (well what else did you think we meant).

After settling in we headed into the city centre to see what we could do for a couple of days as our room was soooo nice and Denver has a backdrop of the snow capped rocky mountains it was surely too nice to leave too soon. We managed to park for free and headed to the tourist info along a nice pedestrianised street and the city instantly reminded us of Adelaide in Oz except without the flies. After gathering up all the info we needed next stop was the the supermarket to grab some soup (advantages of our kitchen) and some beers before settling in for the night.

The next day we planned to spend the day strolling around the city centre which basically went according to plan apart from we needed to purchase a ticket for the music festival that was on so we decided to give that a miss but all in all it was a pleasant day. Our second day we headed to the rocky mountain national park which was quite a drive but worth it as we ended up right at the foot of the rockies in a sweet little village with tourist shops etc. again another pleasant day. Soup and beer for tea again before planning our next route north to Rapid city and mount rushmore.

Time was ticking on when we reached the Rapid City area so we decided to stop a few miles short in Custer (near where Custer had his last stand!) and head to Mount Rushmore in the morning. The morning came and thunderstorms were forecast but luckily there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The drive to rushmore took about 20 mins and we managed to park about 1/2 mile from the entrance to avoid paying the $10 parking fee at the gate. After walking up the hill to the entrance we got our first proper look at the faces calved into the rock and wow, they were very impressive. The detailing was amazing and the layout of the national park and the walkways was great so you could get up close to the mountain with information about each president and how they were calved into the rock. We spent about 1hr walking around and taking pictures before heading back to the car happy the whole experience hadn't cost us a penny, or sould that be cent?? and also that we had stayed dry as the black clouds were looming as we locked ourselves safely in the car. This also signaled the start of our long drive east stopping in Sioux falls before heading onto the windy city......Chicago.

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