We got up early Friday morning, and disconnected the “toad”.? We drove the car from the Wal-Mart parking lot where we dry docked just off the Southern exit of I-29 and drove up I-29 a couple of exits to the Sioux Falls Park which was spectacular.? The park and the surrounding downtown area was just as we expected.? Clean, nice? friendly people, and beautiful.
After we walked around the entire city park and purchased a few souvenirs for the grand kids, we quickly drove back to the camper at Wal-Mart, hooked up and off we went to see Mt. Rushmore.
As we typically do, we drive a couple of hours then stop to stretch, and take care of any needs we have, fuel, coffee, restroom, etc.? and then back on the road.? We typically don’t stop for longer than 15 minutes just to get our blood flowing again.? However, on this particular trip we did want to see the Corn Palace, and Wall Drugs which we had heard about and saw a lot of bill boards on the way. ? So we spent a little more time than usual seeing these “tourist trap” but very nice points to see along the way.
It took approximately 8 hours time total including stretch breaks to arrive at the “Horse Thief” campground and RV resort.? We collectively give them a 4 out of 5 “shade trees”? score because the park was convenient to everything we wanted to do, and fairly easy to get to in our big rig with a toad.? However we don’t give it a 5 due to no internet access even though they offer it as included, it did not work at all.
?We arrived Friday night and got setup early enough to find our way to Mt. Rushmore for the nightly lighting and flag lowering ceremony.? It was AWESOME.? They had all the military in the audience come down and participate in the flag lowering ceremony and it was an intensely reverent few minutes.? Then they lit the monument and had a film documenting the reason each president was chosen to be honored and memorialized.? We then went back to the campground and slept soundly with plans to see Needles Highway and Wildlife Loop road on Saturday…… keep tuned.