It is Thursday night.  We have had a long travel day.  We didn't get out of Rapid City, SD until shortly after 12:00.  We had another tire problem.  This time David found a patch in the "brand new" tire -- there will be a refund.  While David & Ken were dealing with getting a new tire,  Mary Lee and I went to another quilt store.  I thought it was a really neat store and I don't even quilt.  When we left there, we happened to see, just across the street, a little cafe/bakery.  We got tasty sandwiches/salad for lunch AND scrumptious bread pudding for dessert.  We drove from South Dakota, through part of Wyoming and arrived in Colorado early this evening.

Yesterday we went to Mt Rushmore.  It is awesome.  The walkway to the viewing terrace is lined with state flags. We watched the movie and explored the museum -- both very informative.  We walked the Presidential Trail which shows the "faces" from different angles.  Just a side note -- there are approximately 400 steps on this trail.  Thankfully, the way we went, most of those went down.   At 9:00pm there is a Lighting Ceremony.   We came back for that.  It was super.  A ranger gives a short talk, then the film "America's Lasting Legacy is shown", next is the song "America the Beautiful" followed by all of us singing "The Star-Spangled Banner".  While we were singing the "faces" slowly light up.  That wasn't the end.  When we finished singing, the ranger asked all military (current & former) to come on stage.  They grouped around the flag and did a formal flag lowering.  After that each person introduced themselves and said which branch of the military they served in.  It was so moving -- lots of applause.

Between our original visit and the evening lighting ceremony we had quite a bit of time.  The next thing on our list was the Crazy Horse Monument.   This is quite an ambitious project which gets no government funding and is years and years from being finished.  We thought the focus would be on Crazy Horse, who was a great leader of his people.  However, Crazy Horse is meant to represent all Indian tribes and the focus of the facility is the sculptor, Korczek Ziolkowski -- his life and work on the sculpture.  We took a short bus tour around the bottom of the mountain.  It is an interesting story, but we were somewhat disappointed that we didn't learn more about Crazy Horse himself.

We still had time before the evening lighting, so we rode back into Rapid City.  David & Ken decided to go see Star Trek in 3D.  Mary Lee and I checked out the local mall.  After we picked them up following the movie and had dinner, we went back to Mt Rushmore.  A long, but fun day.

We were so excited to see this sign

 

It was still cold and the wind was still blowing.  Thanks to Lib Leonard for making my hat.

 

as seen from the viewing terrace

why these four presidents

flag walkway at night

after lighting ceremony

Crazy Horse as it looks now

Model of the final concept