It's a faux western town surrounded by kitschy tourist traps like Reptile Gardens that brought back memories of my childhood. If you grew up in the sixties before America became Disneyfied you know what I mean. Places like Frontier Town or The Enchanted Forest which were small mom and pop amusement parks that no longer exist. In Custer, there is even a Flintstones Bedrock City. I don't know if it's a good as the one Saddam Hussein built in Iraq, but if I was a kid again, I would certainly want to check it out.
To get to the 'real' town, you take a left at the light, population 311.
Mount Rushmore was impressive.
I didn't pay the $11 concession to park since I could see it fine without parking. Right down the road is the Chief Crazy Horse memorial which I did pay to see.
It's been under construction for over 50 years. It is hard to get a sense of the perspective, but it is already the world's largest sculpture and all the heads of Mt. Rushmore can fit inside the area of the Crazy Horse head.
When completed in another 50 years, it is planned to look like this.
There is a nice exhibit of Native American history and art along with a restaurant and gift shops. I'm glad I visited. Since finding arrow heads on my parents property as a kid, I've had a fascination with Native American culture and religion.
The project is funded through donations and profits from sales and they've taken no money from the government even though it's been offered. It is a monument to all Native American Indians. I bought a book there I've always wanted to read, Lies my Teacher Told Me, by James Loewen. Check it out at Wiki or Amazon.
I spent the rest of the day touring the Black Hills having fun on the windy roads. I searched for Buffalo which roam freely in the park, but only found some Antelopes, Mountain Goats and Prairie Dogs.
These little guys were all over the place. This one got mad and starting yelling at me and wagging its tail as I walked toward it warning his/her mates. Anti-evolutionists used to consider signaling a trait that could not have evolved since evolution supposedly teaches that animals are selfish and signaling is an unselfish act and poses a survival risk to the signaler. Wikipedia has a decent page on signaling theory.
My GPS is alive! I plugged it in again to see if it would respond before I called Garmin and it did. I discovered that it sometimes comes on after I turn my motorcycle off draining the battery. My original unit didn't malfunction this way, so I was unprepared...but I can live with it. It's amazing how reliant I am on technology. It becomes an extension of one's mind...which is a popular philosophical notion now called the Extended Mind. But of course, mind is what the brain produces, but it is an interesting metaphor...I won't bore you with the details.
South Dakota is a state that allows motorcyclists to ride without a helmet. My normal riding gear is steel reinforced boots, Kevlar reinforced pants and jacket, helmet and gloves. I did ride today with only my helmet, but I draw the line at the helmet. I ran the cost-benefit numbers and they came up with wearing the helmet. As Clint Eastwood's character Dirty Harry said, "A man's got to know his limitations.'
Tomorrow I'm heading to the Devil's Tower and Billings, Montana to check out Yellowstone.
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