Hello South Dakota

It was Sunday and it was off to Church and it was an interesting mass that left the kids with lots of questions about what was said in the homily.  The priest discussed at length the challenges in the Catholic Church and the willingness of catholics to "pay the price" for their beliefs.  A few times he talked about how Catholic Priests in Canada were being jailed for speaking out against homosexuality and that this line of thinking would soon be coming to America.  The Nazi's, the massacre of priests in Spain and Mexico also made it in there.  After mass, Natalie said he was just trying to scare all the kids right daddy!

We left Cody and began to head east knowing that we had to pass through the Big Horn Mountain range.  Last night when I was doing dishes in the kitchen at our hotel (usually if you ask the night people they'll let you do your dishes in the big sinks) the night guy was chatting with me and he said you'll enjoy the ride through the big horn mountains.

Summer Home 2011

We climbed from just under 3,000 feet to over 9,000 feet over an 11 mile period.  The switchbacks and the rock faces were impressive.  Equally impressive was the decent on the way down.  After a few more miles we got back onto the Interstate and started cruising again.  The speed limit is 75 miles per hour so you can really knock off some miles in a short distance of time.  That was good because lets just say there is lots of empty space in Wyoming.  We must of saw over 200 deer in the fields as we drove.  The kids really enjoyed spotting them.

Checkmate

Once we hit the South Dakota border, we stopped at the information center.  After speaking to the employee, we changed our plans which initially was to go to Rapid City and stay there for the night and then head to Mount Rushmore tomorrow.  He advised us that one of the side routes would take us to Hill City and we could be there as quickly as it would take us into Rapid City and then we could take in the evening lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore.  He said it was very "American" but we would enjoy it nonetheless.

Mount Rushmore Ceremony

Once we got to Hill City, we found a KOA campground and got a tent site.  Had supper and then the kids were off to play for a bit.  There was free waterslides, splash pad, swimming pool, mini golf, parks, basketball hoops, volleyball nets and life sized games.  Andrea went on the slide, David played mini golf and then Natalie and I had a game of chess.  They also played in the park.

Mount Rushmore

Around 8:00 pm we went to Mount Rushmore and we were amazed with the amount of people there.  The ceremony was very nice and the place all lit up was a sight to see for sure.  We will likely head back tomorrow to visit some of the information center and get some better photos.  The lighting was quite dark when we arrived so the photos didn't turn out great.


It was a long day of driving and I'm looking forward to heading to bed.  One little side note before I sign off for the night was that along the routes, we often see signs that make us chuckle.  Today, after driving with no sign of civilization for a while we saw a community sign ahead.  When we got up to it, it said the community name, which was emblem and it had population beside it which said "10."  I told Tanya that it had to be an error and that one of the numbers must have washed off but after we drove through the community of three houses, we looked back and saw the sign that was facing the other direction and it also said 10.  I wonder how quickly they update the sign when someone moves out of town?


Another glorious day of 33C today and the forecast for the next few are looking great.  Hi to everyone back home,  A little over three weeks until we get back.  Hugs and Kisses.


Francois