It was a dream come true to visit Mount Rushmore and it did not disappoint. I was amazed by the scale of it and the likeness to the four presidents (George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln). The Americans have a real reverence for their past presidents that is both touching and quite foreign to us as Australians. I was also inspired by the vision and nerve to take on a project like this and succeed.
We also visited the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is still a work in progress and when finished will depict the Sioux leader on his horse pointing to the horizon saying “My lands are where my dead lay buried”. The memorial is a moving tribute to the Native Americans’ dreams and plans for their land and their country prior to colonisation. Dreams which now will be difficult to realise.
We spent the rest of the day touring around the Black Hills. There’s heaps to see here and we really only just scraped the surface. Lots of Americans holiday in this area, so there are lots of activities for families. We had time to go zip lining which was too terrifying for some, but lots of fun for others!
As we were driving through the Black Hills a very loud flash flood warning sounded on all of our devices simultaneously and was repeated at five minute intervals. It was so loud it sounded like it was coming from a loudspeaker! This was very alarming as we had no idea how we should react to the warning. Should we stop the car or keep driving and where would we go? Not knowing what else to do we kept driving, except when the hail became so heavy we had to pull over!
The hail was so heavy and fell so fast that it looked like snow lying around everywhere. We were very glad we didn’t wash away in our car and managed to get back to our base in Rapid City safely!
Rapid City is a fun place to hang out, with a bit of a cafe culture (something we didn’t encounter much of in our travels) and a great place to walk around and do some shopping. It also has lifelike statues of most of the American presidents dotted throughout the city, which was fun for the kids. Although not really alike, it was the city most similar to our home town, meaning we felt really comfortable here.
I’m taking a break for the next few weeks for school holidays, but will be back to finish off this epic road trip soon! Have a very happy Easter x