Travel Blog

Sunday was our first day off for six days, so of course it was the first rainy day we've had since we've been here. But we didn't let that stop us. We went looking for those donkeys (from now on I'm calling them burros, since I was corrected today by a jeep tour guide).

We took Iron Mountain Road because we were told that's where the burros would be. We didn't see any burros, but we did see some turkeys.

I tried to get a picture of one of the toms with his tail feathers all spread out, but they were running for the hills by the time I got my camera out and all the tails were tucked.

Iron Mountain Road was a very interesting trek in our dually truck. Sometimes our truck seemed wider than the roads, there were corkscrew turns everywhere and some very tight-fitting tunnels.

At the other end of the tunnel, we got our first glimpse of Mount Rushmore.

Then we went further down the road, and came to another tunnel. This time I ran out ahead of the truck to get a shot coming through the tunnel.

And we got another view of Mount Rushmore!

We're not actually going to Mount Rushmore until we get our VIP passes, but it was neat to see it from a distance, and with the help of Photoshop's zoom function, I think we took some cool pictures.

We headed away from the Black Hills after that and headed for Rapid City and Chinese food for lunch. We passed by a place we're going to go back to some day.

Even if our friends from Spring Training hadn't told us about this place, I think I would have been drawn to it.

And that's about it for our latest tour of the area. There are some super cute towns around here, though, and if we get the time, we'll go through some of them and take some pictures. I'll end this post with a picture of the town of Keystone, right near Mount Rushmore. But before I sign off, our jobs are going well. Phil has already started his main job at the front desk of the Creekside Lodge. He's checked folks in and out, he's cleaned rooms (major snafu on visas for our foreign workers who were slated to do housekeeping), and he's done the night audits. He's working long hours, but he says he's having fun. I don't start my real job in the gift shop until May 1st, but I've been staying busy in the warehouse getting the products distributed to the five gift shops located around the park. It's tedious work, but I work with some fun folks, so it's all good. I'll be glad to have the stores ready for opening day, though.

On the RV front, our rig is still in the shop, of course, and we can't wait until it's fixed. In the meantime, dorm life has been bumming me out because the walls are paper thin and people moved in next door and I can hear every move they make (plus they like Whitney Houston music, and I just can't abide that). So I've been using headphones and ear plugs quite a bit. Don't get me wrong. I'm thankful for the place to stay, but I'm too old for this. So we posted a Wanted Ad on Craigslist for an RV to rent, and we got a call from a guy today who'd be willing to rent us his RV for a month or so. We go and meet with him this Thursday, and I'm really hoping that all works out. Keep fingers and toes and eyes crossed for us on that front, would ya?

And on that note, here's Keystone...