RAPID CITY, SD April 2012

Our FIRST  Trip to our new home state turned out to be a wonderful 4 days! We flew from Las Vegas on Allegiant Air since there was a great price and we just never seemed to figure out how to drive the motorhome without spending way more money and time. We left the motorhome at the North Las Vegas Elks Lodge, found boarding for Foster at PetHotels, caught the flight to Rapid City and checked into our room at Americas Mailboxes Hotel. The hotel is a new addition for the company we use for receiving our mail which is then forwarded on to us. It was perfect!

At the DMV we were personally greeted at the door, easily got the papers filled out and within about 40 minutes we had our new licenses printed and in hand. It's official...we're now South Dakota residents.

We drove into Rapid City for lunch and Paul wanted to show all the Presidents his new license. These wonderful bronze sculptures are on every corner of the city. 

He especially  liked talking to Abe...

After lunch at the Firehouse Brewery we found the County Courthouse and registered to vote. We still had several hours to explore and decided to go north and see the towns of Deadwood and Sturgis. Deadwood, an old mining town from the 1800s is now a Casino Haven. We walked around for a bit before driving on to see the very quiet, empty town of Sturgis. Hard to believe that it would be transformed into a booming motorcycle rally location come August. 

 Saturday morning was cloudy and windy but we set out early to visit Mt. Rushmore National Monument only 20 minutes from downtown Rapid City.  As we drove into the Black Hills the landscape totally changed to a pine tree forest from the flat plains. 

The entrance to the Monument is lined with flags of the states.

And then the vista opened completely for a full view of the monument. We toured the visitor's center and walked the perimeter trail getting glimpses of the carving from different points. It is an amazing sight to be standing below the towering faces.  Such an incredible feat, completed in 1941!

From Mt Rushmore we drove a little further south to visit the current granite carving at Crazy Horse Memorial, being built by on private land. IF completed, it may be the world's largest sculpture. It has a long ways to go and has been in progress since 1935.

This photo is of the carving at the Visitors Center with the actual mountain in the background. Only the face is carved at this time. From there we wanted to check out Marcy Owens' childhood home in nearby Hill City. It's still there and in its original state though Marcy's family left when she was a teenager. What a fun place to have grown up!

Our next stop was at Sylvan Lake along the Needles Highway and a walk all around the boulder studded lake.

It was cold and windy but a beautiful walk even some scrambling up and over the  boulders to get to the other side.

It felt like a mini Yosemite with all the granite rocks.

Driving through the Custer State Park we found  a few buffalo hiking our same road. 

They moved along and got off to the side so we could go around and get this photo. Huge guys!

The highway also had several carved NARROW tunnels!

and several "pigtail bridges"

It was a fantastic day in the Black Hills! After a bite to eat we headed back to the Firehouse Brewery Theater in Rapid City to spend a wonderful evening laughing through the production of "39 Steps". It was hilarious and so very well acted.

Sunday morning was crisp and clear! We spent the day touring the Badlands National Park, driving 50 miles east this time.

Incredible rainbow colored hill formations evidence of a jungle on a seabed here millions of years ago;  Fossilized red and yellow soil now called Yellow Mounds Paleosol. Whatever caused it to happen...it was beautiful to see. The drive though the park was so peaceful and quiet. We stopped at several view points to learn how this formation came about.

 Our last stop gave us time for a nice long walk up thought these pine trees.

Since this was our last full day in SD we didn't want to miss seeing the night lighting at Mt Rushmore. We drove up once more getting there about 9PM. Not disappointed at all...and a great ending to our visit to South Dakota. 

 We left Monday morning and arrived in HOT, HOT, HOT Las Vegas about noon. Too hot to do anything outside so we spent several hours walking around inside The Bellagio's Gardens. These are changed seasonally and the spring bulbs were blooming everywhere. We had dinner looking out at the gardens, I was happy.

 This "painting" is actually formed of live flowers to replicate one of Monet's originals.

From Vegas we drove 300 miles on Tuesday to Oceanside, CA where we had a new motorhome waiting for us. Not totally new, just newer and slightly larger, a 1999 Fleetwood Flair. It is 32 feet with 2 slide outs which will give us way more room for our traveling lifestyle. We bought it on Craig's list and were excited to actually see it. Now the fun begins for Paul as he tears it apart and renovates it into our style.