Not these:

These!

Yes, we went to Mt Rushmore today. It was actually pretty amazing. Jackson, WY is a tourist trap. Deadwood is a tourist trap. Keystone, the little town just before Mt Rushmore, is a MAJOR tourist trap. The things that have delighted us the most so far have been natural; The Tetons, Bighorn National Forest, the transition from mountains to plains, etc. So we were not prepared to be blown away by something man-made.

When you first see Mt Rushmore, you get that holy-stuff sensation. It can’t be. It’s too big, too realistic, too, too… too crazy to believe someone would do. But they did and we’re glad we took the time to visit. The visitor center is really well done. You’re probably a quarter mile from the mountain, but it still feels in-your-face. Or is that in their faces? Either way, we really enjoyed ourselves.

Before Rushmore we spent a little time in Deadwood. We visited the Adams Museum where we saw an actor portray Seth Bullock, the Sheriff of Deadwood back in the 1870’s. It was his strong will that brought order, but not laws, to Deadwood.

We also saw a ton of Corvettes. There was a Corvette rally in-progress and the town and surrounding roads were full of Corvettes. We frequently saw them traveling in packs of three. No idea why…

After Mt Rushmore we headed east to Chamberlain, SD. Deadwood was, well, dead. We’d seen enough and decided to get a jump on the 900+ miles to Chicago. By covering a bit more than 200 miles tonight, we gave ourselves somewhat shorter rides in the next two days. It was an easy, (very) fast drive. We were surprised to see the Central Time Zone sign; so we got in an hour later than we thought we would. We’re definitely in the Mid-West now or maybe more accurately in the Great Plains. The land is much flatter now.

We saw a lot of lightening in the distance and we could hear what sounded like drops on the windshield. But it wasn’t rain. The bugs were so thick we were hitting them constantly. The car is caked in, well, dead bugs.

Today was the seventh day of this trip; we’re one-third in. We’ve covered just over 1,800 miles so far. In five days of driving that works out to just over 360 miles a day. Not bad. The car just hums along at any speed you ask.