Sept. 17 - Yesterday went as planned, mostly. Except for a problem in the parking lot of Mount Rushmore. Spaces were squeezed to the max, so we in the smaller r.v.'s weren't given much room, side to side. We were crammed in between two others, in other words. In extracting my rig from my space after our visit, I managed to clip the bottom of my neighbour's awning mount, pulling away a screw from the frame of his camper. Also left a wee gouge in the rear of my baby. The van, not Gail.

Not a good thing. And my fault entirely. Gail was giving me directions, capably as always, and I seemed to decide not to follow, so cut the back-up a little too sharply. You may recall that when we have made mistakes in the past, we say we're 80 percent stupid. This time I get 100 percent. The other party was nowhere in sight, so I left a note on his window, and will likely hear from him with some unpleasant news in future. Guess for all of the miles we do in this sizable unit, the occasional thing like this is going to happen. Doesn't feel good when it does, however.

Aside from that, we had a very good visit at the Crazy Horse Monument, which is quite something. It will truly dwarf the guys at Mount Rushmore. Seems the Americans love carving up mountains to create monuments to their great ones. Makes for interesting tourist attractions, and certainly feeds the fire of nationalism, particularly Rushmore. It's good that the native Americans are doing their part to emphasize their importance as part of the American culture. It's not just the huge carving of Crazy Horse, which has been going on for decades and will continue for many more. It's the display of Native culture on the site that has a more lasting impression. They've done a great job of displaying their history, arts, music, and daily life. Well worth the time to visit if  you're in the neighbourhood. Don't drive on by. We almost did, and were very glad we didn't.

Rushmore? Again, a marvel of engineering and artistic accomplishment. Quite astounding what well-placed dynamite can do, along with an array of mining equipment manned by experienced miners. The center is very attractive, the ice cream is good, following Thomas Jefferson's formula, and the figures on the mountain are quite something. The parking lot? That's another story.

On we soldiered to Deadwood, trying not to be too upset by my mistake. We found a nice camp within walking distance of town, so did just that after a bite of supper. It's a town of history, and has turned to gambling as a way to pay the bills. Every hotel and restaurant along the old Main street has slots by the score, the larger ones also hosting blackjack and poker tables. Didn't see any of my favorite, roulette. Good thing after my earlier bad luck. There's a big music event happening this week-end, so the whole town, small as it is, reverberates with the massive volume of guitars, lead and bass (pronounced 'base'). (Speaking of 'lead', there's a town only 3 miles from here called Lead. We thought it was likely pronounced 'led', as this is mining country. Turns out it's pronounced 'leed', for reasons we're not sure of. Sort of like the capital of the state, Pierre, which is pronounced 'Peer'.

Anyway, we enjoyed wandering about, had a beer in a great old bar called Wild Bill's Bar, in which there were lots of images of the famous man. Later, we caught the shuttle bus, which for a buck apiece, delivered us back to the r.v. park. Talk about good service.

Only a little more. Today we walked our bleeping bleeps off. Into town, up the gulch slope to the cemetery to see the gravesites of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane, back down to wander the town, and then off on a walk of another two or more hours on the Mickelson Trail (no Kathy, not named after Phil, but rather a former Governor who promoted this wonderful Rails to Trails track). Five and a half hours on our feet. But we needed it, as we've been doing the road tourist thing for a couple of weeks, and hadn't done any hiking. Feels good to be physically zonked.

This music event going on in town features, if you can believe it, Buddy Guy, tonight. Tickets for the day are $45. So we may take the trolley into town, and go to the big Holiday Inn across from the venue, where they have a heated outside bar, and listen from there. Could have quite a few drinks for the 90 bucks saved. All this supposes we have the energy for such a venture.

That's it. More later. Stay tuned.