Touring & Needles Highway

We did the best we could to avoid the thousands of motor cyclists visiting this area.  Their annual rally is held each year in Sturgis, SD just a few miles away.  They love the mountain rides & especially the infamous Needles Highway.  We toured many different routes while in the area for a week.  Needles Highway was hands  down our favorite!   

Mount Rushmore!

When sculptor Gutzon Borglum looked upon the knobby, cracked face of Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota, he saw a vision of four United States Presidents carved into the mountain.  Between 1927 & 1941, with the help of over 400 workers & several influential politicians, he began carving a memorial to the history of America. 

I visited this in 1964 & it still amazes me.  How could they actually carve this on a mountain?  The monument is still the same but all the buildings and crowds around it differ from the quietness of the times when I first saw it.  Now there are parking garages & attendants everywhere, gift shops, restaurants & so much more.  It almost takes away from the magnitude of this display.  I tried to shut it out and capture those memories from when I was a little girl who marveled at the faces on this mountain top. 

Ha Ha!

Our friends Debbie & Rick from Gulf Waters RV Resort met up and stayed at our campground.  It was nice seeing a familiar face after being on the road so long. 

Badlands & The Black Hills

No words of mine can describe these Bad Lands.  One set of buttes, with cones & minarets, gives place in next mile to natural freaks of different variety never dreamed of by mortal man.....The painters' whole palette  is in one bluff.  -Fredrick Remington, American Landscape Painter & Exporer.

Located in southwestern South Dakota, Badlands was established as a National Monument in 1939 & became a National Park in 1978.  The south half is located on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation & is co-managed  with the Oglala Sioux Tribe.

We left the interstate to take this scenic drive through Badllands.  We came across this beautiful statue called Dignity *Earth & Sky*.  It was truly breath-taking, both Dignity & our ride through Badlands.

We saw our first ever Prairie Dog!  They were everywhere.  So cute!  They leave their holes & other small animals take over.  

Wish you were here with us!

The Corn Palace!

Mitchell, South Dakota - Home of the Corn Palace!  This is the World's only Corn Palace dating back to 1892.  275,000 colorful ears of corn are sliced & nailed into place on the murals that adorn this building.  It's all done by hand, a folk art that is all but lost.  Originally, there were 34 palaces in the Midwest.  The murals change every year. 

This palace is awesome and worth seeing.  It's situated in an all American small town with the nicest people.  We enjoyed scouring the gift shop inside while hunting for souvenirs.  It was a lot of fun to visit and a very nice surprise, as we didn't know it even existed. 

Poole Knob

Campground #3 in Nashville - Poole Knob on Percy Priest lake.  Oh my goodness!  This is by far one of the best campsites that we have ever had.  It's right up there with Gulf State Park & Skidaway!  The sites are large, private & wooded.  Too bad, that I became ill while staying here.  We extended our stay and had a nice quiet place to rest.  We booked this again for a couple days in September.  I hope to be enjoying it more this next time. 

Cedars of Lebanon State Park - Nashville!

We lived in the Nashville area for 27 years and passed the sign for this State Park hundreds of times.  Since we could only stay at Longbranch for 2 weeks, we had to move somewhere and this was our choice.  My goodness!  Why haven't we stayed here before?  This is a nice park with a nature center, picnic areas, playgrounds, pool and more.  We booked it again for our upcoming stay in September.