Hearts in Hawai'i
Our Trip to South Dakota (2023)--Day 5
9/13/2023
Mt. Rushmore/Custer State Park
Each morning when I walked down to the lobby at 5:45 a.m. to get my first cup of coffee and wait for the breakfast buffet to open up, there were two older guys near the breakfast area, sitting and chatting. Fox Noise is also on the lobby TV (hey, we’re in Red State South Dakota, remember?). These gentlemen sit around, discussing various topics while I sit at somewhat of a distance in the buffet area. But today, for some reason, I sat at a table nearby them and engaged in conversation. There was a certain “smell” to the banter which took me a few minutes before I realized the main guy was a MAGAt. Oh, boofing great—he was blaming Biden for high gas prices and then admitted, nearly proudly, that he voted for Trump. Also spoke of how “everyone” was so pissed off. Apparently, voting for a guy who doesn’t give a shit about the idiots voting for him is a point of brainless pride. Obviously, I regretted my choice of tables to sit at--after asking him “Can Trump run for president while in prison?” he responded with “That’s what “they” want”. I chuckled, picked up my coffee and walked away.
That, other than the dehydration which kicked my butt later in the afternoon, was a sole low point in what had been an incredible trip. Today's drive had three destinations; Mt. Rushmore, Needles Highway and the Sylvan Lake Trail in Custer State Park. We had much fun at all three destinations.
Mt. Rushmore is an iconic American tourist trap. The four heads carved out on the mountain looming above the viewing plaza are an impressive sight to see but not much else exists as this place. After doing the obligatory taking of pics--Patty with her iPhone, me with my Nikon--we souvenir shopped for a short time. Patty found a T-shirt with the four Presidents on it! 
Why is this funny? Because just prior to leaving, she said "I don't want a T-shirt at Mt. Rushmore. It'll just have a picture with some peoples' heads on it" LOL
After walking around and taking a bunch of pictures, I was hungry so we stopped at Mt. Rushmore Concessions. I had French Toast with bacon and sausage. They were excellent.
At Mt. Rushmore
Leaving Mt. Rushmore, our drive continued on SD 244, eventually turning onto SD 87 (The Needles Highway) which led us to Sylvan Lake. There were a surprising number of people here and finding a parking spot wasn't particularly easy. Having finally found a spot, we got out and quickly checked out the area, locating the trail running around the lake. Granite rock formations are everywhere, but perhaps none as impressive as the spires you have to sort of squeeze between as you progress toward the Sylvan Lake Dam on the backside of the lake. We didn't make it down that far, instead choosing to retrace our steps and circle around the northern side of this amazing lake.
Along the Needles Highway
Sylvan Lake
Sylvan Lake
Sylvan Lake
Patty at Sylvan Lake
Sylvan Lake
It is indeed a small world! Just as we were starting our hike, a guy noticed my T-shirt adorned simply with a Bulldog head and knew what team the head represented. He also lives in Duluth in the Piedmont Heights area. He didn't feel like talking much, just wanted to mention he knew about the Dogs.
After finishing our Sylvan Lake hike and stopping at the gift store for another T-shirt, we drove back to Rapid City.
By the time we got back to Rapid City, I was feeling kind of crappy. Taking a nap didn't help--the hiking we had done over the past two days, while once easy for me, was now something I just wasn't used to. I was dehydrated in a major way. After waking up we headed over to Sickies' Garage. This is a restaurant chain I'd never heard of before, with 11 locations in six states. The menu looked interesting, as lousy as I felt, so we started with an order of boneless wings with Sweet Chili sauce. The sauce had a nice, mild kick to it and the chicken had pretty good flavor. We each had a salad, Chicken Caesar Salad for me. This was a big salad! I wasn't able to finish it but at least I was starting to feel better as we ate. This is a place I'd like to return to as they have quite the extensive menu and it's not far from the Best Western.
The weather got cloudy later in the afternoon and we had a severe thunderstorm warning in Pennington and Custer counties. The forecast for Thursday looks better, in time for our trip to Devils Tower in Wyoming.
Previous: 9/12/2023--Our Trip To South Dakota (2023)--Day 4
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last updated september 24, 2023
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