Day 12 Custer

Friday, July 7

We drove through the Badlands to Mt. Rushmore. The weather has been amazing so far, the reunion days were a little warm and humid, but not bad. The temperatures have been at the mid-80s and sunny. But as we drove into Rushmore, it began to rain. We sat in our car and waited for the shower to abate. Will told the boys about his bad memories of the last time we were there 14 years ago. They had been sleeping in the car and woke up cranky, not wanting to get out. They were very whiny. I have a picture of Eric eating an ice cream cone and Craig climbing on rocks, but no pictures of Mt. Rushmore for some reason.

It has been completely redone since then, and there is about a half mile of board walk to walk around for views, including many steps. So we got our exercise and many pictures. Speaking of pictures, as I got the boys and Will into the obligatory pose I mentioned to Will that sometime perhaps he should take a picture of me with the boys so that future generations could confirm that I had actually been along on the trip. So of course he had to take one then and there, and me with wet hair. I checked the picture when I got the camera back and had to laugh. The boys and I looked ok, but he cut off the heads of Mt. Rushmore! So we re-did it. The boys believed it must be a tradition for us to get ice cream there, so we indulged, sitting in the dining room with a great view of the mountain.

The boys really wanted to drive through Bear Country USA. It was fun, lots of close up views of elk, buffalo, antelope, and of course bears. At the end of the driving tour, there’s an area to walk around and look at the baby bears. There were two climbing a tree. Soon another joined them. Then another. After awhile there were ten little bears up the tree. Can you find them all? They were very cute and entertaining.

We did more touristy things then drove to Custer to spend the night.