Mutiny & Reunion (Monday)

Barrie and I are up early. He heads out to prep the car and I take a walk. My job is to find breakfast. I return to the hotel with directions to the grocery store. It is fruit and yogurt for us this morning after last night's dinner. We also find a great coffee shop in an old gas station. Lots of petroliana to take in as we wait for our latte to be made.

Monday morning mutiny. The plan was to meet in the parking located behind our hotels and start our day by going to Crazy Horse. The planned departure was 8:10 (the time decided by the group at dinner since it reflected the Cord). Barrie has our car running and Josh & Betty arrive ready to roll. But where are Don & Arlene and Gail & Joyce. We know that Gail and Don took an early morning drive to see Sturgis but they should be back. We discover they are still packing their cars and want us to drive around the block to join them. (Great idea -- now we'll all be facing in the wrong direction). They then tell us that they will head out on their own and we are free to take off. And so, Barrie takes the lead and Josh follows as we leave Deadwood in our rear view mirrors. We will travel route 385 through the hills to Crazy Horse. At Hill City we stop for gas and moments later we are in the parking lot.

Time to go..............
OK -- finaly back at a computer. The Crazy Horse Monument is a sight to behold. The immensity of the project and the dedication of the family for all these years. The monument is larger than the largest pyramid (imagine that). The magnitude is almost unimaginable. We enjoy the overview provided at the visitor's center and spend time looking at all the artifacts. I've been here before but so much progress has been made. We could spend all day but know that we have more sights to see and more miles to drive before we sleep. We head out to the parking lot and low and behold the rest of our gang has caught up.

We are all standing in the parking lot and just as we are getting ready to head out -- our motorcycle friends from last night arrive. More conviviality. Finally we are on our way again. Gail heads out first, followed by Don, we are third in line. Yikes, they are turning left!!! The shorter route to Mount Rushmore is to the right. We debate for a moment and turn right! We want to have time to spend at Mount Rushmore. Once again we are separated.

We arrive at Mount Rushmore and find a parking spot that provides for a good photo op. With photos taken, the Malks' and Hutchinson's spend some time enjoying this magnificant monument. After a short stop, we are headed to the Badlands. We are driving the backroad and while the scenery is fantastic, the place is desolate. We drive and drive and finally reach the "town" of Interior. Josh is starving and we stop at the only establishment in town -- a biker bar. We stop and are brave enough to enter but ultimately leave since there is no vegetarian entree. (Come-on this is South Dakota). We continue to drive into the park and find a less interesting lunch at the park restaurant. We are all wearing down but Josh is concerned about continuing along the lonely back-roads. We detour back the highway for the bulk of the afternoon drive. Eventually we turn south and head toward the evening's destination of Winner.

Interesting drive. Beautiful farmland. Everywhere we look there are pheasants. Driving is starting to look like dodgeball. Somehow we are able to miss hitting a pheasant. We arrive in Winner and start to look for a motel. I spot a sign for a Holiday Inn Express. Sounds pretty uptown for Winner and we decide to go for it. We check in and are glad to learn that we can walk to the Holiday House next door for dinner. A local traveling salesman discovers the cars and is so exitied. He joins us for dinner. More on this tomorrow.