12 July 08 - 02:15
The Black Hills of South Dakota
Thursday was a sightseeing day. Dave chose the agenda for a change. We started by going from the Lazy J to the Flying J.
Freshly fueled we headed south from Rapid City, SD. Along the way we saw a National Forest office building so we turned in and I got my Access Pass. That will get us free admission to lots of places and discounts on some services. It was a challenge, though, explaining why I had a South Dakota driver's license but a Minnesota handicapped parking permit. This was another place where I was glad I had Dave to do my running since he went back to the RV to get the papers I needed to show them to get the pass.
Then on to Mount Rushmore National Monument. There's no admission to Mount Rushmore but there's also no discount on parking there so it still cost us $10 to get in. Wow, what a place!
I saw a woman there I wanted to photograph but I didn't get up my courage to ask. She could be called a biker chick if you are into those types of labels. She wore a short sleeve t-shirt over a long sleeve t-shirt. The long sleeve shirt was flesh colored but had designs that resembled tattoos. It felt to me like she was saying, “No, I'm not tattooed all down my arms but since that's what you expect of me, here's something for you.”
Then we drove on to the Crazy Horse Memorial. Another in-your-face statement I liked. The white man carved his leaders into the mountains of the sacred Black Hills. So the American Indians said we have leaders, too. See, here's one of ours.
I have lots of opinions about some things that I seldom give voice to but here's another one. Anyone born in America is a native American but only the First People are referred to when we say American Indians so that term has more meaning for me. I was pleased when I heard a Lakota woman say the same thing.
It was so hot out that no one wanted to get out of their cars to read historical markers. We actually got in a line of vehicles to take our turn reading this one through the window.
Heat and mountain driving both take a lot out of us so we stopped early at the Fish N Fry campground in Deadwood, SD. If you catch fish here they will cook them for you for supper. But our air card didn't work there so this blog entry is late. My apologies for that.
TTYL,
Linda
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