7/3/09 - Fireworks @ Mount Rushmore

Since 1998, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial Society has sponsored one of the largest fireworks displays in the nation on July 3rd. The 20-30 minute fireworks display is choreographed to music and set off atop the faces at Mount Rushmore. Over 30,000 people crowd into the park to spend their day at Mount Rushmore and view the fireworks. We wanted to get into the parking lot at Rushmore with the motorhome and were advised we needed to be in line by 6:30 AM to hopefully get allowed into the park. We got up at 4:30, made the 30 minute trip to Keystone and the first picture is what was already ahead of us.....vehicles were backed up 2 miles from the park entrance down to the town of Keystone.

In Keystone.

Line up the mountain in front of us!

After we got started up this was looking down at the line behind us.

We made it into the park and there were only 7 RV's behind us that were allowed in....so at least we had the motorhome to hang around at since we would be here until well after 11:00 PM....they told us we could be up to two hours getting out of the parking lot after the fireworks because they let all the cars leave before the RV's...but we were thrilled that we had gotten in. It rained off and on during the day.....this is a picture of the plaza area.

While it was raining and the water running down the faces....Pat made the remark that it looked like Washington was crying at the state of our country right now.

Notice the workers on the top of Roosevelt's head getting the fireworks ready.

The ceremonies began at 1:00 pm in the Amphitheater and lasted up until the fireworks display at 9:30.

Pat and Justin. Pat had his camera all ready to start taking pictures of the fly-overs scheduled at 3 different times.

Oops....it started raining again and Pat had to cover up the camera.

Justin all bundled up in the yellow rain poncho. The park sold out of the ponchos early in the day with all the rain.

The first flyover was cancelled, this was the B1 from Ellsworth Air Force Base. The 3rd flyover was also cancelled due to weather.

This was the extent of the fireworks that we saw....either red or yellow colored haze. Fog rolled in about 8:00 and just kept getting heavier and heavier. For whatever reason (and we definitely thought it was a poor decision) the Supt. of the park decided to go ahead and start the display on time....even though you could hardly see in front of you. Just from what we heard and the colored haze it had to have been a spectacular display...just too bad no one was able to see it. We had been told that one year they delayed the display until 1:00 am because of the weather....so why they didn't wait for awhile until the fog cleared out we don't know. When we got back to the motorhome within 30 minutes the sky was perfectly clear and you could see thousands of stars! We will definitely plan on coming here again....it has to be too good to not give it another shot. Just felt bad that we had Justin with us and he probably won't be the next time were here. There were literally people that had come from all over the USA just to witness the firework display. We did met a really nice couple from Las Vegas that had their 10-year old granddaughter with them and they had come just for the fireworks. Their motorhome was right in front of ours so we kind hung out together all day. He had been the Chief of Police in Vegas and then was hired by Steve Wynn to head up the security in the new hotel he built several years ago....so he had some interesting stories.

This is what we had hoped to see! Had to settle for a postcard this time.

7/2/09 - Goodbye to Renee and Rachel

Today was the day we had to say goodbye to Renee and Rachel.....we are so glad they changed their plans and joined us in the Black Hills.....we all really had a good time together. After they left about noon.....we grabbed lunch and then headed to Wind Cave. On the way we had to go across some 'pigtail bridges'....this is the sign for them and then a shot up at one of the pigtail bridges.

Custer State Park

To get to Wind Cave National Park we had to go through Custer State Park which is home to as many as 1,500 head of bison, more commonly known as buffalo. Bison can grow to 6 feet tall and weight more than 2,000 pounds. They are considered the largest native terrestrial mammal of North America. There were once millions of bison, but by 1900 it is estimated that fewer than 1,000 bison remained on the entire continent.

The calves are a reddish color when they are young. The park rangers were probably hanging around making sure no 'stupid tourists' would get out of their cars and try to approach the buffalo. The buffalo didn't seem to be bothered at all with the rangers.

Wind Cave

One of the nation's oldest national parks, Wind Cave became part of the park system in 1903. The present size is 28,295 acres above ground. Today, Wind Cave National Park actually houses two worlds, the terrain and wildlife of the surface and the hidden labyrinth beneath the surface. The cave sysem is the fourth-largest in the world, with more than 125 miles of rare and unusual boxwork, frostwork and popcorn formations.

They turned off all the lights while we were down in the cave and boy was it ever black.

On our way back towards Keystone we ran into a storm and there were some awesome sights....Pat tried to get some shots as best he could....it was a surreal scene in person.

7/1/09 - Go Carts

Renee and Rachel in the go carts...think Rachel is going to win.

Rachel's not too sure about this from the look on her face!

Barb is a little blurry.....must be how fast I'm going...couldn't be the cameraman!

Justin and Rachel...they wouldn't be racing would they?

Justin.

Rachel

7/1/09 - Reptile Gardens

Reptile Gardens is one of America's top 10 roadside attractions. They have the world's largest reptile collection and over 50,000 flowers and tropical orchids. This was a snake show that we started the day with.

Our second show was the alligator/crocodile show. There were 15-20 in this same area that the guy did the show from.

After the show they walked around with this baby and let everyone touch it.

The eagle is so majestic....we never tire of taking photos of them.

There were some beautiful flowers here.....especially the orchids!

They have some really HUGE turtles here. When we were here in the 70's they let the kids ride on the turtles....but not anymore.

6/30/09 - Crazy Horse Memorial