Lincoln, Jefferson, Bears, Oh My!

Here's a question South Dakota, if we were to get off at 218th Ave in the middle of nowhere, how could we find 1st through 217th Ave?

After a long rainy night, we awoke this morning to take in the beautiful scenery of the Rafter J campground that we were unable to see during our late night drive in. We then showered (where CJ may or may not have contracted staph) and repacked the car for what seemed like the 200th time. We then hit the road to head to Mt. Rushmore.

Upon arriving we found out we had to pay $10 just to be able to park and snap a picture. After a small flanking maneuver around the mountain we realized there was no way to beat the system.

You win Black Hills National Forest.

As we parked and got closer to the memorial, we noticed that Jefferson seemed to have a couple boogers hanging out of his nostrils. Once we pulled out the binoculars, we realized these boogers were actually just workers trimming his nose hairs.

We snapped a few pictures, and proceeded into the gift shop to look around. Inside we found Nick Clifford, one of the original carvers of Mt. Rushmore who probably should be considered a monument himself. He still seemed tired from chiseling away at Lincoln's toupee and wanted nothing to do with any of us. Our sweet talk and irresistible looks finally landed us a picture, but he didn't seem happy about it.

After about 5-10 minutes in the gift shop we walked out to find that a dense fog had moved in and completely covered the mountain. No more view of Mt. Rushmore at all. Good thing we didn't arrive 15 minutes later.

Next we decided to grab a bite to eat at Peggy's Place which advertised a nice home cooked meal. After consuming enough calories to send us all into a food coma, it was time to continue on to Bear Country USA.







Bear Country USA is essentially a modern day Jurassic Park. Bears, wolves, elk, reindeer, goats, peacocks, lynx, and much more. You drive through this park while the bears surround your car and prevent you from moving anywhere. Once they realized Zach was not a very tasty lunch, they allowed us to proceed.



Now we are off to Yellowstone. Surrounded by beautiful mountains and rolling hills as far as the eye can see, the trip has proven to be a picturesque one so far.

We apologize for not being able to update with more pictures, but cell phone service has proven scarce at best in this part of the country. Apparently people here have no interest in being connected to anyone but their neighbor. IWe will do our best to get all our pictures up as soon as possible.

Bossman out

Location:Somewhere with no cell service