We survived the night! And we didn't even have to use the axe! After some cereal, we drove to get a closer view of this National Monument! It was cool looking but not cool enough for us to pay the park fee to get closer. We were in for another long day of driving. We passed the South Dakota border, stopped to pick up a map of the place and headed straight to Crazy Horse! 
Crazy Horse, like Mount Rushmore (which is abut 10 minutes away) is carved/ being carved in the side of a mountain. It is of a Lakota Native and his horse. The Lakota's wanted it carved there to show that they to have great leaders. So far it's been in progress for 63 years and by the looks of it, it will at least be that long until it's done! A man and his wife started the carving. The man (I forget the names) has passed away but the wife is still around directing the progress of the carving while 7 of her 10 children do the carving!
The picture shows a white model of what the mountain will eventually look like and behind it, is what it looks like now. From there we headed to Mount Rushmore, which compared to Crazy Horse, it quite small BUT still impressive! I don't think I need to fill you on what Mount Rushmore is...
Driving in this area was pretty neat! The landscape is similar to home, winding roads, rocks, trees and water (inside joke). But there are really cool little old towns nestled into the mountains. It's fun to drive through! We saw one little house that holds the guiness book of world records title for the biggest teddy bear collection! We didn't have time to stop and peek in...We kept on our journey East, always looking for interesting things to stop and see. Carl does most of the driving while I read up on places to stop or the history behind some of what we are seeing. North Western South Dakota is a tourists paradise! I guess because they get so many people coming to see Rushmore, they suck you in for everything too - Bear World, Christmas Village, Reptile World, the list goes on...I reaaally wanted to go to bear world but Carl said no :(
As we drove, we kept seeing signs for the place called Wall Drug in the town of Wall. They have free ice water, they have five cent coffee, they apparently have everything and are the largest drugstore in the world! So we had to stop! And we did! We walked through the entire place, taking them up on their offer of five cent coffee (which was better than any other free coffee we've gotten this trip)! In the "backyard" of the drugstore they have made it look like an old small town with many things to find amusement in...So we played around a bit! After acting like children for a bit, it was time to be adults again and hop back on the road! We took a small byway through the badlands of South Dakota. It was beautiful! 
The flat, dry grasslands broke off into cliffs and valley's of sculpted red and gray rock. We stopped a few times to take in the beauty of it all but were leery of rattle snakes and the hot humid weather outside! Our drive continued and we crossed another time zone. Kinda weird that some of South Dakota is ahead of the other but either way, we are now two hours ahead of home!
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