After our canceled reservations in Dickinson and an all night drive of 270 miles in 4 hours we elected to sleep in for the first (and probably last) time of this trip.
While the Ramada was not our first choice of a hotel, I mean motel, neither was driving through the night for 4 hours
. On the plus side we are into Rapid City early so we went to a Starbucks for breakfast, stopped at a Target for some more water and other supplies and then shopped in a very cool sporting goods store called Scheels.
It was about 11AM so we headed to Wall to see the famous Wall Drug Store. It was a very crazy place. The history is interesting. In 1931 a you pharmacist and his wife wanted to find a pharmacy in a town to buy. They felt God wanted them in Wall even though the town was only 362 people, 362 poor people. Farmers and towns folk were hit by the drought and the depression. The couple used creative marketing to get people to stop and visit their drug store. They offered free ice water. Today Wall Drug is a huge collections of pictures and interactive sights and attractions. They have 5 cent coffee, homemade donuts, buffalo burgers and of course free ice water. It really is a US institution.
While we were driving to and from Wall we saw probably 200 Corvettes
. New and old all heading towards Rapid City. We asked a couple of Corvette owners in Wall what was going on and they told us it is a national Corvette gathering in the Black Hills. Most are headed to Spearfish, South Dakota just past Sturgis.
We headed back to Rapid City to check into our hotel. The hotel has large indoor waterpark and the kids need a break after our crazy long day yesterday. The adults relaxed in the humid water park while the kids rode the water slides. The water park was very busy for a Wednesday afternoon.
We cleaned up and headed into Rapid City for dinner. Rapid City is a city of some 70,000 people and has an overabundance of family tourist activities and family friendly hotels. On the street corners of downtown Rapid City they have bronze statues of all of the US Presidents. We had dinner at a Mexican restaurant called Pancheros. It is a cross between Cafe Rio and Taco Del Mar. The food was fresh and tasty
. We celebrated Brett's 13th birthday with a donut cake that Mark made. We sang happy birthday while wearing party hats.
After dinner we headed for Armadillos. A local ice cream shop just a few blocks away. The place was busy which was a good sign. We sat outside and enjoyed our ice cream and sundaes.
Time to head up to Mount Rushmore for the evening lighting ceremony. It is only about 18 miles from downtown Rapid City to Mount Rushmore. Along they way we wind up the hills and mountains. Along both sides of the road are more family tourist attractions. Glow-in-the-dark mini golf, reptile world, bear park, zip lines, go karts, and much, much more. As we get closer we arrive in the town of Keystone. Keystone is an overload of tourist Americana. We love American history and attractions but this place is slightly over the top. We drive through without stopping, we will return tomorrow to see it up close. We arrive at Mount Rushmore and pay the $11 parking fee (good for several days) and park our big white van in the parking garage
.
We snap lots of pictures and make our way to the ampitheatre. We are early and there is plenty of seating, as we near the 9PM start the place is packed. The program starts with a short lecture on freedom and then they show a 20 minute video that tells about the history of Mount Rushmore and each of the 4 Presidents. After the video the lights begin to illuminate the monument. We sing America the Beautiful and then they invite all retired and active duty military to the stage. Tonight there must have been about 100 men and women on stage. They participate in the ceremonial lowering of the flag. It is a great program and we highly recommend you include it if you visit Mount Rushmore. We will return tomorrow to see more during the daylight.
Back in our transport and 25 minutes later we are in our hotel. Good thing we get to sleep in tomorrow.
Day 6 - South Dakota Bound
Thursday, July 17, 2014
Rapid City, South Dakota, United States
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