Meet the Presidents

Monday, June 7th

I mentioned yesterday that we met some stalwart fellows. Well, here they are. Yes, we walked among some great men and personalities. Rapid City has really upped the bar on public art. In conjunction with commercial businesses and private citizens, the city has placed 39 of the 43 former Presidents on street corners in their downtown core. The remaining four will be set as soon as they have been cast. They have been doing four per year for the last ten years. Read all about it at The City of Presidents. There is a good map on this website that shows the placement of the statues.

The guy hangin' with K is T Jeff.

He wrote some kind of famous papers.

Me and Martin hashin' over some policies.

Some guys always have that superior attitude.

 

Karen and Harry celebrating Dewey's victory.

If you don't know the joke, bone up on your history!

We spent quite a while wandering the streets checking out all of the Presidents. They are a wonderful addition to the city, and if you are heading to Mt. Rushmore, a great introduction.

Speaking of Mt. Rushmore, we drove there under a beautiful blue and fluff-cloud sky. It was a welcome relief from the drizzle of the last few days. Karen had never visited Mt. Rushmore before and for me it had been at least 45 years. I don't remember much about the area, but I could not forget the monument itself.

It seems that the road leading up to the monument has definitely taken on an air of commercialism. Every kind of amusement awaits you around the bend. Okay, no more editorials.

No caption necessary. Just happy to be here.

If Karen has a photo, then so do I.

A couple of mountain goats were climbing among the rocks.

One of 50 shots of the monument I took.

You never know which one will bring you fame and fortune.

Kind of like the Arch & lamp shot, right Laura.

This photo will be enlarged and proudly displayed on our mantle!

After our monument(al) sojourn, we traveled to the city of Custer. We could not believe what was on the sidewalks. More fake bison! There were several around, and all were colorfully decorated.

Bryan, you may have seen the largest, but we have seen the most!!

We had lunch at Baker's Cafe. A good quick sandwich.

Karen had a SW Chicken Wrap and I had a Buffalo burger. Mmmm good!

All the bread, buns, and pastries are made daily at the cafe.

We could not resist the temptation of the Marbled Brownies.

We bought two for dessert later. Deeeeelish!!

We had a 2:30 tour time for the Jewel Cave National Monument. It is currently the second longest cave in the world, with just over 150 miles of mapped passageways. It became a national monument in 1908.

Our guide was an eager young man named Matt. He had been turned loose (solo) for guiding just a couple of days before. We had an excellent tour, and Matt did a fantastic job as a guide.

There are a total of 723 steps on the cave tour.

You start by descending to the 230 foot level by elevator.

You end up at the 300 foot level for the ride

back to the surface via the same elevator.

They are not visible in the photo, but the whole surface of the cave walls are covered by crystals called dogtooth nailheads. They look strong and sharp, but are actually very fragile.

Another type of formation called Drapery.

Karen and I both agreed that we liked Carlsbad Caverns better than Jewel Cave. Carlsbad has larger and more impressive formations. But that is like comparing an apple to an orange. Both caves have spectacular creations, and were formed somewhat differently.

We are now safely tucked into bed in Buffalo WY, and will be mostly just traveling toward Helena, MT tomorrow. No planned stops, but you never know what tomorrow will bring!

Til we meet again, I remain, your "spelunking" correspondent.