2016 Motorcycle Adventure (DAY six)

Today I decided to play tourist so I have a whole slug of photos to share. I wanted to get an early start because I had a lot of ground to cover. I had a nice shower and shave before the bathrooms got busy. After a very quick and simple breakfast of yogurt and fresh blueberries I was down the road on my way to see Mount Rushmore. I have already figured out that the weather in this area is very volatile and punishing storms with huge hailstones were forecasted for the afternoon. There had been a few ugly clouds on the horizon early on but now it was hot sun and clear blue above. This area is known as the Black Hills of South Dakota.
Here's a cool archway on the ride to the monument.

It's wonderful to finally be past the wide open prairie states and into some higher elevations with rock and pine trees just like home.

As I got closer I could catch glimpses of the mighty monument. It's just such an incredibly imposing sculpture. I had my new Nikon camera and telephoto lens so I could zoom in for some real close up shots. I took lots of pics but these are the best ones.

Here is a little history for you:

The construction of Mount Rushmore National Memorial took 14 years, from 1927 to 1941. Gutzon Borglum, having decided on the location of the sculpture, he decided to make this monument of four presidents of the United States. He chose the two most famous presidents in American history, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. He chose Thomas Jefferson because Jefferson nearly doubled the size of the United States in the 1803 Louisiana Purchase (which included the land that became South Dakota). The last president Borglum chose was Theodore Roosevelt, suggested by President Calvin Coolidge (who insisted that at least there be two Republicans and at least one Democrat represented)^[2]because of Theodore Roosevelt's introduction of the National Park Service.

A few hundred workers, who were usually miners, sculptors, or rock climbers, used dynamite, jackhammering, and chiseling to sculpt the model from the mountain. A stairway was constructed to the top of the mountain first and ropes fixed. Workers were supported by harnesses attached to the ropes.

The irises of the eyes were sculpted as holes. A cube of granite was left in each to represent the reflection highlight thereby making the appearance of the eyes more realistic.

I snapped this profile of George Washington as I was headed back down the hill to the Crazy Horse Monument.

The next photos show the as yet unfinished sculpture of Chief Crazy Horse and is expected to take decades more to complete mainly because unlike Mount Rushmore this is not a U.S. government supported site and relies totally on public donations and tourist fees (only $5 for a motorcycle).

You can see in the last photo the outline of the horses head. Engineers are currently working on the chiefs pointing finger and hand which could take years of work to complete. Below is a 1/34 scale sculpture that depicts the way the monument should look when completed.

My next stop was the little town of Sturgis which is the home of the world's largest annual motorcycle rally each August. During the rally each year thousands of mostly Harley riders descend upon Sturgis which provides a huge surge of income to the town. It's just one huge week long party. 

After returning to camp mid afternoon I could see the huge storm clouds building in the west. Normally I could just hunker down in my camper but I still wanted to see the old mining town of Deadwood. Back when I worked as a District Sales Manager for American Honda I became good friends with Bill Rusher who managed M & M Honda in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He and his wife Bonnie coincidently were touring the Dakotas and asked me to join them for dinner in Deadwood. I was very much looking forward to seeing them again so I put my rain gear on and rode the one hour to Deadwood. Well, wouldn't you know, this storm had tornado warnings which never materialized but man did it ever rain hard. Figuring it might be late going back to camp I stopped for gas on the edge of town. As I was filling up a guy saw me, turned off into the gas station and came over to warn me about the storm and suggest that I get out of there before it really got going. I told him I just got there and hopefully it would pass while I had dinner. I found a covered parking spot behind the Gem Hotel and saw Bill and Bonnie playing the slot machines in the lobby. We had a delicious meal and wonderful reunion while the storm slowly moved to the east. Here are a few shots taken after our meal. 

On my way back to camp the sun was sinking in the west and I pulled over to catch this photo heading east on I-90 which shows the rolling hills in the area. It was a perfect end to a perfect day.