Bethie and I went to visit there over the holiday break. It was so fun. Last year we went skiing and that was fun, but this was a different kind of weird, desolate, nature-filled patriotic fun. We left Kansas and drove up into Nebraska and then on into the great nothingness that is the middle of our country. We inadvertently stopped at an indian reservation for gas. That was a depressing place. We drove through the starkest, brownest hills on the loneliest highway, and then we drove on the loneliest interstate. We pulled into the frontier metropolis of Rapid City and secured lodging at the local Holiday Inn. We also stopped at a frontier petsmart to get the dog a sweater because it was cold. But this truly was the frontier, as that store had no sweaters that would fit our dog. So we got him one from the frontier Target.

The next day we lit out early to see the Mt. Rushmore. We fretted over what to do with the dog, ultimately deciding to bring him with us and park the car in the sun so he’d stay warm. It worked out great and he seemed really happy to be getting to see some of this great land of ours.

There were very few people at Mt. Rushmore and there were some mountain goats chewing grass by the parking garage. We took pictures of them. I think the most interesting thing about Mt. Rushmore is all the unfinished plans. The sculptures were supposed to be more finished or placed in different positions and there was supposed to be a hall of records carved into the mountain. I like bold plans.

Which brings us to our next sightseeing stop, The Crazyhorse Memorial. I had told Bethie about it but didn’t convey to her the fact that it was a work-in-progress. She was disappointed with the seeming lack of activity, but was excited to return in 50 years and see how it’s shaping up.

Next we went to the Wind Cave, but we just missed the tour. We had stopped a couple too many times to take pictures of animals. So we went to the town of Hot Springs and had a lunch. We returned to the cave for the three o’clock tour. The tour starts with the guy going “Ok, what do you think of when you think of caves? Cool stalactites and huge crystal formations? Well, you won’t be seeing that here. This one is mostly rocks - but there’s a lot of them!” And there was! It was still pretty cool, a short tour looking at tiny crystal formations and turn-of-the-century graffiti.

We returned to our Holiday Inn accommodations and soaked in their frontier hot tubs for a while. Then we treated ourselves to Rapid City’s take on Italian food. It was pretty good.

The next morning, we woke up early for the fourteen hour drive home, detouring down the Badlands scenic byway. We were supposed to stop at the visitor center to pay them $15, but we didn’t really look at enough stuff to justify the cost.

I drove most of the rest of the way home, listening to an audiobook, while Bethie watched episodes of Weeds on her iphone and the dog dozed in the backseat. We got home around nine and rung in the New Year with a toast of beer and the assembly of our new vacuum cleaner.