Blogs from Rapid City, South Dakota, United States, North America - page 7

April 18-25th: Leaving Iowa City our destination for the night is in South Dakota. while traveling across Iowa we were surprised to find the birthplace of Presidents Ronald Reagan and Herbert Hoover, also actor John Wayne. Most of the scenery along I-80 is rolling hills and farm land. Des Moines seemed like a nice city, the area we saw had new buildings, there must be a historical section. At Council Bluffs we turned North on I-29 to I-90. There are several camping areas along I-80, it all depends on how far you want to travel daily. Spent the night in Breseford, SD, the campground was small and we were the only campers there. Left Breseford, SD to Rapid City. We plan on spending several days here while touring at Mt. Rushmore NM and Badlands NP. At ... read more

I have really been amazed at all the interesting places here in this area. Mount Rushmore is just the draw to get folks here. There are caves, gold mines, wild-life parks and on and on, in addition to the know attractions. There is a little place called Sturgis, just north of here and each year they host the Sturgis Bike Ride, the locals call it “Sturgis week.” I had never heard of it. It attracts 400,000 motor cycles! I was talking to a lady on my bus tour the other day, she was staying at the Holiday Inn, she told me that there were two groups of bikers that were also staying at there, and one of the groups had shipped their bikes over from Italy and the other from Ireland! Go figure. Thankfully the ... read more

Day 3- No internet service for a while - thus the delay in this blog entry - sorry. We started the day by going to the Mammoth site in Hot Springs, SD. This paleotological site is where they discovered an ancient sink hole with Mammoth bones when excavating for a housing development in the 1970's. Since then they have discovered the remains of over 50 Mammoths - 2 of them Wooly Mammoths and the majority Columbian Mammoths - much larger then the wooly's. We took a guided tour of the now indoor site where active excavation continues. It was pretty neat. We then went to Evan's Plunge which is a hot srings fed gravel bottomed indoor pool with slide, water volley ball, water basketball and other fun things. Ben spent much of his time trying ... read more

We went to a place that many tourists to the US would not dare visit - Rapid City, South Dakota. Not exactly the nicest city in the world, Rapid City is typical middle America - old school diners with artery clogging grub, sprawling shopping malls full of fat people and McMansions everywhere. The people in South Dakota seemed to talk slower than those in the more touristy areas of the USA. Why did we go to Rapid City? Because it is the closest major city to check out Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore National Memorial is bigger than you could every imagine - a massive carving into the granite face of Mount Rushmore. It features 18 metre sculptures of the heads of former US Presidents Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. The memorial park is just as massive ... read more