Day 4

Today will be a better day. The sun is shining, always a welcome relief after a couple days of rain. Hope everyone is doing good back home, I heard and seen the news. Miss. Prissy, I mean Marissa is already in rare form. Again, today is a better day… Not sure what is planned today but Mari would like to go to Mt. Rushmore, a cave (name forgotten), and Firehouse Brewery. We made reservations for Days Inn in Gillette, WY so we would not have to travel clear across Wyoming tomorrow. Well I've got to get ready for the day.

Michelle (my sister) and her family headed out at 7:30am. They went to Mt. Rushmore to take a helicopter flight. They paid over $120 for a 10 minute flight for 3. They enjoyed it. After gathering the rest of the family we decided to head to Wal-Mart here in Rapid City. Ha. See there are Wal-Marts everywhere. Then go to the Firehouse Brewing Co. in downtown Rapid City for lunch. I thought is very good. I had the Reuben, still don’t compare to Capt Morris’. Tried the Harvest Wheat beer, I actually liked this, but a little expensive at $4.25 for a pint. This might be a good price, but remember I normally don’t drink beer. I also thought the service was excellent compared to some of the service I had the day before at the diner. Michelle and her family joined us at the brewery.

My sister and her family took off on their adventure. We headed towards Mt. Rushmore. On the way we were going to stop at Bear Country. Holly smokes, at $55 a car I could not bring myself to pay for that. David agreed, Mari and Marissa were a little disappointed. So onward we went. Came up on Cosmos Mystery Area. Yea, another tourist trap but it was fun. I took a few pictures. They clam some weird forces are present. But if you saw the setup you would realize that it is more optical illusions with the buildings built perpendicular to the side of the hill.

We headed to Mt. Rushmore. Boy, I was getting frustrated with little miss know-it-all, you realize at age 17 she knows and has experienced more than Mari and I have in our lives. Anyway, it did not stop the rest of enjoying the sites and views of Mt. Rushmore. I’m still in ah. I have been here about 5 times. A sculpture had and idea and he made it work. We walked the trail around the front of the Presidents heads. I have several pictures. After more arguing with Marissa I was able to get a reprieve and she road with my parents. We missed the road to go to the Needles Highway from Mt Rushmore to Keystone. Instead of turning around we decided to forge onward to Gillette, WY. It did sprinkle but never really rained. We made a couple of rest breaks on the way there. We finally made it into town about 19:00.

We got into the hotel only to find that they did not have everything that Expedia.com said they had (pool, sauna, and restaurant/bar). Well this was disappointing to some in the family but I was ready to rest. After a short look over the internet this was the best choice for the night. We got settled in. Yes, things got better with the family. Tomorrow is another day. Let’s hope tomorrow the weather continues to be good and family gets along.