TODAY (friday) IS MY GRANDAUGHTER...ROWAN'S SECOND BIRTHDAY!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROW!  I love you and miss you !
We put some miles on the Jeep today, ending up in Gillette Wyoming.
But first, the second half of Monday's adventures.
I feel terrible that I am going to miss Row's birthday party tomorrow...I won't miss anymore promise!!
Mike and Courtney...her gift should show up before the party....

This sign isn't far from the entrance to Mt. Rushmore...one of my all time favorite movies was filmed in this area...North by Northwest, a great Alfred Hitchcock movies with Cary Grant!

Another National Park that discriminates against dogs.....why, why, why?
We had already been thrown out of this area by the Park Ranger, but unlike the guy at the Lincoln Memorial he didn't  offer to oblige me with a ticket...damn!

If you have never seen this...you must at some point in your life!
It  (to me) speakes of the greatness that this country encompasses.
The scope and magnitude of this memorial is awe inspiring!

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We caught a really nice day at Rushmore (at least for me, not necessarily for The Rubes), mid eightys, clear blue skies and the California flag in the foreground...at this point Ruby was in the car panting her ass off...poor baby!

Tried to get a picture to prove that I was really there...not one of my better shots!

This is the Crazy Horse Memorial about 10 miles from Rushmore...I was under the impression that the sculpture was further along than this represents.  Really the only part that is finished is the face...it has a long way to go!  I doubt that it will be finished in my lifetime...probably in Colin and Courtney's...maybe longer...note the skiploaders to the right of Crazy Horse...they really give scope to the magnitude of this ambitious undertaking!

Advertising for the Cubs this time...sorry Mike!
The sculpture of Crazy Horse as the finished product...now you have a better feel why they still have a long way to go!
But it will be really impressive when completed.

These are the Black Hills...considered as sacred grounds for the Plains Indians for thousands of years...until the discovery of gold...theres gold in them thar hills!
The Black Hills are really an anomaly...with hundreds of miles of nothing but sagebrush and prairie grass around it , these beautiful hills rise like an apparition in a spectacular mountain setting!
The hills are 125 miles north to south and 65 miles east to west.
Again, a magical place that makes you actually feel as though you were in a sacred place!
I think that the Native Americans may have been right and I can see why they protected them so fiercely.

We took a shot late in the afternoon... maybe it was early evening to make it to this famous landmark.
The infamous Devil's Tower, the first of the Nations National Monuments..I didn't know that...you?
This was from about 15 miles away and is the prominent feature of the landscape.
This was also the initial shot when Richard Dryfus saw the Tower in Close Encounters of the Third Kind

Close up of the tower...really unusual for this part of the country...I close my eyes and I see this constructed of mash potatoes!
The Tower was an important landmark for the Plains Indians, who called it...Mateo Tepee.  The Tower rises 1280 feet.
Indian legend has it that seven little girls were playing  in the hills when a group of bears approached with bad intentions.  The ground suddenly began rising to protect the girls.  It rose so high that the girls were stranded, turning into stars that overtime became known as the Pleiades Constellation...7 stars in the heavens..I like that story!
I'll try to catch up and get us through Tuesday but we have to get on the road shortly...destination..Seattle!
Back to the Pacific...finally.
I need sushi bad!