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The next day, August
7th, the group decided to split up. Some of us wanted to see the Crazy
Horse memorial and Mount Rushmore. After a healthy breakfast at a local
place, three of us set off for the monuments -- Nathan, Rod, and myself.
The Weather Channel wasn't promising anything good, but as the monuments
were close, we figured we'd have plenty of time before being nailed
by storms.
Seeing
the monuments was perhaps the highlight of the entire trip.
We went first to the Crazy Horse memorial, which could be an experience that fills an entire day. We took far-away pictures, then boarded a bus that took us to the base of the mountain. The tour guide was full of facts, of course, but what most intrigued me was not the length of the project (which may well take a hundred years to complete), but that it is entirely privately financed. The original sculptor made sure that the Native Americans for which he was working bought the land the mountain stood on and put it in trust. As well, the entire project subsists off of the money the visitors' center takes in. The family of the sculptor continues his work, even though he lies entombed in a vault he blasted and excavated himself, with the door of the vault facing the mountain-sculpture. I have opted not to put up a picture of the model of the finished memorial -- if you want to see that, go see the memorial yourself and support their efforts!
After the bus trip, Rod went in to see a movie aobut the project while Nathan and I wandered the extensive visitors' center/museum/gift shop. They had a fascinating collection of historical artifacts. We spent about two and a half hours there, but could have spent longer, easily.
Coming back to our bikes, the weather was looking grim, but we decided to press on to Mount Rushmore. As it turns out, the coming cold front ushered in some better air -- cooler, easier to live in.
By the time we got up to Mount Rushmore, after a wonderful 20 miles miles of excellent twisties, we could see we were about to get dumped on. To my surprise, they've done a lot of work at Rushmore -- whole new visitors' center and -- get this -- a parking garage! The lady taking our money advised us to park on the lower or second levels and be covered. We did. The visitor traffic was kinda slow and we parked in a corner of a nearly empty second level of the parking garage.
A short hike later brought us to the walk leading up to the viewing platform. The walk is flanked at first by the buildings of the visitor's center -- a building on the right with a restaurant, ice cream bar, Starbucks, and restrooms and a building on the left with the large gift shop -- and then begins to meander back and forth through a double columnade of stone pillars bedecked with state flags. Iquickly headed up that way and spent a few minutes gazing in awe and taking a couple pictures. The walkway, viewing platform, and the memorial itself are worth a couple hours of loitering, but it started to hail. Not rain, HAIL.
I strolled back to the shelter where Rod and Nathan were waiting; Rod was videotaping me coming through the hail. Just as it started to get bad, we all ducked inside the restaurant building, where we had ice cream and root beer floats in the entryway, which has a nice display of the flags of the armed forces. I have to say that I think the Marine Corps flag looks the best, but I paid my mental respects to the whole slew of them. Our little group, after all, had an ex-Navy and an ex-Army in it.
When the hail (now mixed with rain) didn't let up, and after Nathan went back outside and gathered up some hail, we all had coffee for a bit in the restaurant. The walls of the restaurant also had the state flags posted. We shared a table with a couple who had also motorcycled up. The man pointed out the dings where he'd gone outside to pose for his girlfriend's camera and the hail dented his helment!
We waited out the hail and then went back to our bikes. With the rain continuing to come down, I loaned Nathan my rainjacket, as my riding jacket's liner would keep me dry enough. The sleeves came a little short on him, but I think the jacket helped somewhat.
The drive back was easier than we thought it would be. It quit raining pretty soon, but then got very cold, perhaps down into the fifties. We were very happy to get home and get a hot meal. One thing I've learned about the Black Hills is that the temperature can vary by as much as fifty degrees in one day. I will definitely be packing some heated gear next year.
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