15 May ‘08
Thursday
Yesterday we got right at the reason that we came to Rapid City. We are here to establish “residency”. We’ve lived most of our married lives in Washington, set up an LLC in Montana, and feel that this is the best route for us…South Dakota. Actually I was born here, but that was many, many years ago. We met with the people that will help us establish our needs and then spent the rest of the day checking out Rapid City. Rapid City is very clean, has a good selection of stores for all our shopping needs, and is easy to get around in. It also offers a ton of options for those wanting to explore hiking trails, kayaking, or sightseeing some fantastic sites, natural or man-made. Today we went exploring… a couple of years ago, we were here but we still wanted to re-visit a site or two and visit some new. As we left this morning we had in mind to do a little hiking, but as the day went on, hiking soon became something we would be putting off for another day. Our drive took us on one of the most twisting and winding roads we have been on. At a couple of the curves, we found ourselves facing a single lane tunnel that had been carved out of solid rock. Directly through and at the other end were the faces of Mt. Rushmore in the distance.
Over the next 20 miles of hills and dales, we saw Mt. Rushmore from 6 or 7 different angles.
Taking another route that would take us through the Needles we came upon the Lodge at Sylvan Lake. The original lodge was built in the early 20’s, but with a little remodeling and enlarging, it has still maintained its true character. It sits above Sylvan Lake and is shadowed by the highest peak in America east of the Rockies. We were hoping for a place to have lunch, so having the lodge in front of us we ventured in. As we walked into the entry of the lodge, we were met by the General Manger. Now it was either that we looked like we were VP’s or maybe it was that they haven’t started their “season” yet, but he was there to take care of us PERSONALLY.
He gave us a lot of information on the area and answered all of our questions like we were family. When it came time to head into the dining room, he escorted us to the entrance and introduced us to the hostess…nice huh??? Yep, we had a very nice lunch and will go back again. Following lunch, we headed for the Needles.
These rock formations are really unbelievable and have been worth our while to make it back again.
We ended our drive with a coffee break at a restaurant/bakery in Custer. It was a very full day and when we got back to the coach we were more than ready to just crash…