Back Up the Hill

                                                    

 There is a lot to see in the Black Hills area, and we went back up the hill to see one the most famous, Mt. Rushmore. This monument contained a couple of surprises for me. I didn't realize there would be surprises until Carol and I started walking the trail to the upper viewing platform. There is a studio on the path to viewing platform. In the studio is a model of the original design for the monument. One noticeable thing is Lincoln's ear, that's right, the one that is not there. Secondly, if you notice the scraped down areas below the presidents heads. Originally we were going to see their jackets as well. Listening to the park ranger we learned quality of rock prevented them from completing the original design.

The trial to the viewing platform is considered strenuous, with approximately 450 stairs throughout the trail. Unfortunately Carol's knee gave out at 2/3rd of the way up, I shouldered the responsibility of making it to the viewing platform for pictures, which I politely handed off to someone else. I don't want to sway anyone from hiking to the viewing area, but I prefer the photo opportunity at a distance.  I climbed my way back down to the rest platform Carol was at, we made our way to the main area to shop and eat.

What better way to end an afternoon than a drive through animals. We took a drive through "Bear Country", another source of entertainment that allows one to enjoy creatures in an open environment.

 

 These are just some of the animals you can see while driving through the countryside. Once we drove through their countryside, we stopped at their zoo portion of the establishment.

We found two others that should have been in cages, but were roaming free.  Sometimes I guess it is better to just let them roam.

How's this for ending the day?

 That's right, wasps. We came back to the room to find approximately a dozen wasps hanging around our window. I called the lobby asking them to send up maintenance with some wasp spray, he comes up with a fly swatter. Speaking with the maintenance guy, he told me he removed a wasp nest from the eaves near our room. Apparently they liked the broken screen leading to our storm window. The other fortunate thing was the fact that only a couple got past both sets of windows, and into the room, where the fly swatter was called into operation, successfully. We did get a good nights sleep without being bit.