hey everybody!
Haha don't worry Cai, I got out of Minneapolis in one piece! I didn't get much chance to look around, just stayed in bed watching tv feelig sorry for myself with a cold. The greyhound left really early next morning and was a much nicer journey than the one from Chicago. As we drove across South Dakota though, I swear there was nothing but fields for hours! I saw the occasional farm house and that was it. I met some interesting people on this bus, an old deaf lady for who I had to translate everything the bus driver said, a photographer who was going to Rapid City to work in a carnival, and a guy who plays with baby tigers for a living and a fellow traveller from Australia. You do meet characters on these buses!
So I got to see Mount Rushnore today, and I have to say I'm impressed! I was picked up at my hotel and taken to the film set of dances with wolves where I got an all you can eat breakfast. We were then taken to mount rushmore. I think I was the only one on the coach under the age of 50, but they were all lovely! The coach driver asked me why I was by myself, like I had an answer to that - um, I have no friends. He spent the whole time telling me he was going to find Tarzan for me, I if course thought he was kidding because you know, I haven't heard that before, but no! There is a guy called brent tarzan!!! What an unlucky name!
I walked the presidential trail around Mt Rushmore. I didn't realise how big the sculptures were! We saw some bison on the road, in fact there were loads, all just casually strolling in the road ignoring the coach! We then went to a game lodge for lunch and had some buffalo stew, felt kind of mean actually. But it tasted good!
After we drove through the black hills and we would go through these tiny tunnels carved into the mountainside. If you looked through each of them you would see Mt Rushmore like a postage stamp on the other side. One tunnel was 100 inches wide and our bus was 96 inches! The driver had to have some skill. As well as being a comedian he was an amateur actor. He stopped half way in the tunnel and started making dramatic gestures like he was stuck and couldn't do it, so all the people taking photos at the other end stared in horror, bug when he dropped his head on the wheel so he was pressing the horn they soon jumped. He was quite funny actually.
We then went to lake sylvan, which has massive rocks in the middle where they film the end of National Treasure 2, which is actually not that close to Mt Rushmore as suggested in the film. Our final stop was the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is not finished, not even halfway to being finished, but when it is it will be the largest sculpture in the world. If weather and finance doesn't get in the way, it should be finished in 40 years. Saying that, the driver said there has not been much progress in the last 16 years. It's pretty cool though. Crazy horse is a native American who was killed by an American soldier during a peace treaty. The sculpture is so much bigger than that of the 4 presidents, which is fitting as the land is supposed to belong to the Native Americans. On the way back we drove through Custer, it's a small town that still looks like a cowboy town. It was really cute!
we finished the day at the film set again for dinner and a show. Dinner was good, some BBq beef, yum! The music was so good! The girl in the bad was only 16 and was amazing at the violin! I made friends with a cowboy called Jordan, so I can tick meeting a cowboy of my list of things to do haha!
Rapid City looks like a lovely town. I only drove through it today, but I've got time tomorrow to have a nosy around before I get my bus to Denver, so should be good!
Speak soon, love lots
xXx