Giant faces of dead men and trains…yes, the past two weeks we were in Rapid City, South Dakota. My dad had to go on a business trip to Orlando so we stayed an extra week. We visited Mount Rushmore, Mom and my other siblings rode the 1880 steam train, and we went to the Badlands.

On our first day in Rapid City we headed into the Black Hills. We were planning to go to Mount Rushmore but it was so crowded we decided to just grab a glimpse and headed off into the hills. The Black Hills were quite cool with all the jagged rocks and tall pines. Later the next week Rebekah, Simon, Mom and I returned to the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore. Admittedly it was minorly underwhelming. In pictures you see these colossal faces that take up a large chunk of the mountain. In reality, despite being quite large, they are not as big as I anticipated (although they were still very cool). We took a tour and learned about how the faces were made (mostly dynamite) and why the sculptor chose those four faces. (editors note: the sculptor started the project at age 60 and finished 14 years later.  He was up on the face of the rock just about every day. We also learned a little about the Sioux tribes who consider the Black Hills sacred land.

On our second day in Rapid City, Rebekah and Dad went to a maze. Although they anticipated that it would be easy, it turned out to be much the opposite as they struggled for over a hour going in circles and doubling back to get through even with some help. After this, we all went go-karting which was also really fun even though I was defeated in the tight race between me and my dad.

Rebekah, Simon, and Mom took the 1880 Train ride that goes along a ten mile stretch of track in the Black Hills.  The train we were on is a “steamie” and Simon was especially excited.  The train did not travel very fast (10 miles an hour) but it was fun to just sit and watch the scenery from the comfort of a restored period railcar.  The conductor (complete with buttoned vest and conductor’s hat) collected the tickets and there was a local man who gave lots of interesting facts along the route. After we returned to our station, Simon asked why we couldn’t get back on and go again.

Then, as our stay in Rapid City came to a close, we packed-up our trailer and made our way an hour south to Wall. Wall is somewhat famous for its drug store that sells everything from cap guns to burgers. It was made famous for offering free ice water to travelers to draw them in back in the early 1930′s. There was lots of western stuff, like wagons, statues of cowboys and indians, and (on a different note) dinosaurs.

Taken at Wall Drug. Is it a Bunny or a antelope?

Wall is also famous for its vicinity to the Badlands. The Badlands are really impressive with all sorts of funky rock formations. These formations are formed when certain kinds of rock gets erode away leaving the sandstone. The Badlands erode at the rate of about an inch per year. There are other very cool things about the Badlands such as the prairie dog towns and the silence that seems to be over the whole area.

Well that’s all for now, we are near Sioux City, Iowa currently and we will by making our way to St. Louis this weekend, and from there to Nashville. I am still trying to catch up on albums, but the internet here is not good so I won’t be getting them up yet.