Day 4 continues with more pictures and video. I'd like to apologize once more for my camera skills. These definitely aren't professional. Hedrin, they're can't even be generously labeled amateur photographic poetry - well, maybe Apollo-level haiku.
I enjoyed walking around in Deadwood. While the geographic topography caught my imagination first, the old-style buildings continued to feed my imaginations. I spent some time in Adams Museum, even getting up close to possibly my very first major fossil.
Eventually I headed off on the road again. Day light was already at a premium in November, but I couldn't help but turn around and stop at this little outlook. I know many who live where I do are fixated with the beach. Me, give me this - mountains and forests and cool, relaxing lake.
After my lakeside stop, the trip took on a race against time. I managed to get one of the last tours down to the Crazy Horse construction site. At first, I didn't see it. Everyone around me was oooing and aahing and I was like, "Okay, it's a mountain that will one day be a huge sculpture." Well, my eyes finally found the carved face. I have to say, the stories they told of family generations all living, working, and dying on a task they knew they'd never survive to see done inspired me. It's hard writing a book from blank to complete, but their work on the monument is on a whole other level.
Unfortunately, my stops had me all but dead broke when it came to time. I managed to reach Mount Rushmore as the sun was setting. To my later surprise, my camera did just fine photographing the monument in the failing light.
It had been run, run, run all day, and I hadn't found a lot of stops. My old Boy Scout training paid off, allowing me to make a turkey on sourdough sandwich from my ice chest before heading on toward Cody, Wyoming.
The drive between proved far more dangerous than I expected. We returned to hard turns and steep drop-offs, but this time with blinding snow (and no chains yet). I crawled up and down those mountain passes with the heater blaring and an audiobook to keep me company. In the end, I made it through.
