Susan’s Journal

The sun rose with a sunny and chilly sky over Custer, South Dakota. We ate our continental breakfast and mulled over what our day would bring. Our first stop would be Jewel Cave; and after a phone call, I found out their first tour was at ten o’clock. Perfect.

We poked our way out of town along the winding road we had come in on; and as we were just about to head into the mountains, I saw something that was on Dylan’s list for this trip: bison! There was a dozen or more of them, and we decided to stop and take pictures on the way back after our cave visit.

We paid for the Jewel Cave tour, and a few minutes later a park-ranger-monkey-suit-dressed tour guide was stuffing the dozen of us into an elevator. It took us down over 200 feet! Jewel Cave is the second largest known cave in the world… though they believe they have only explored 3% of it so far! It stretches for miles and miles. This was the kids’ first visit to a cave, and I could tell they were excited.

The tour took us down metal stairs, along concrete trails, into big caverns, and along high-up, kinda-scary bridges. The tour guide taught the kids all kinds of interesting facts, and the kids took lots of pictures. He assigned Rain as the junior deputy (she was SO excited) and had her lead the group along the path through the near-darkness twice. Then, on a huge platform, he turned out the lights, and we got to experience what “total darkness” was like. While he talked for about thirty seconds with the lights out, I stood there, smiling though no one could see me, opening my eyes wide, and wondering at the darkness. It’s a rare experience, for sure.

A few hundred footsteps and stairs later, we were back at the elevator. Our lowest point during the exploration was 385 feet! Up in the gift shop we picked out a couple postcards and a key chain, and then we headed back up the stairs to the car.

I kept my eyes on where we were on the winding road and pulled over where the bison were grazing. The kids and I got out and took a few pictures. It sounds so simple, but there’s something spectacular about the bison. They’re big and furry and beautiful, but dangerous at the same time.

For lunch, we asked the lady at the front hotel desk for a suggestion, and she recommended “Our Place,” a little dive in town. Rainlin has specifically asked that we eat at little mom-and-pop places, which I think is so cute… so we have whenever we see them. This one was decorated with Harley Davidson and Betty Boop things, and the food was good.

Our next destination, the pinnacle of our vacation, was Mount Rushmore! We turned right onto the ten mile winding road to the monument parking area (ten bucks, by the way). As we shut the car doors, we marvelled for a minute at the garage’s echo (oh… oh… oh…) and then headed up towards the memorial. The entrance has all the state flags in a present-arms overhead, and marble carved stones showing when each state joined the union. The kids ran here and there, taking pictures of the states they knew. Then we all took pictures of the monument itself, and the kids found those put-a-quarter-in-and-view-it things. Then I talked the kids into taking the half-mile trail around the base of the memorial, and we read a little about each president at the four little platform rest stops. The day was beautiful, though a little chilly–so perfect, really. Another gift shop, a few shirts, another keychain, a stuffed bison and a raccoon, and we said our goodbyes to Mount Rushmore.

On the way back to the hotel, we saw a face carved into the side of a mountain, we saw signs for “crazy horse,” and we decided to check it out. What I thought would be just a quick stop ended up being a couple more hours to our day… And I was already tired. Crazy Horse is quite a project though, and extremely interesting. It’s completely privately funded, and has a museum and all kinds of interesting Indian artifacts. When it’s completed, it will be twice as tall as the statue of liberty, and in the round, not one-sided like Mount Rushmore. Oh–and all of Mount Rushmore will fit in the Indian’s face–that’s how big it is! The kids each got to pick out a big fist sized blast rubble rock to bring home, and they lugged them with them to the car.

Is the day over yet? No, not quite… Though I was exhausted, we hadn’t eaten, and we stumbled into the car and down the street to Pizza Hut. I sat like a bump on a log while we ate. Then back at the hotel, and guess where we went…

…the pool, of course. It’s been an incredibly awesome vacation.