June 22

We woke up to blue skies. A perfect day for seeing Mt. Rushmore. It was an entertaining ride to the monument. We passed every conceivable tourist trap: go-carts, mini-golf, waterslides, roller-coasters, pan for gold stops, the list is endless. We paid our fee and parked the car. As we were walking in, Miss South Dakota greeted us! Rambler had no interest but the girls wanted a picture and Miss South Dakota was very pleasant and happily obliged.

 



Pretty ladies

 As you head to view the actual monument you walk under the flags of each state. On the pillars are engraved the name of each state and the date it joined America. It was more entertaining than you'd think.

 

 

 

We hung out at the viewing area for a little while but quickly headed for the trail to walk closer to the monument. I know I shouldn't be amazed, but I really was surprised by how many people were at the viewing area and how very few were on the trail. It was a nice walk and the kids had fun looking for gophers and lizards.

 

When we got back in the car, I noticed the weather alerts on my phone. Not again! Yep, tornadoes in the area we were heading toward.  Again, we decided to drive as far as we could until we had to stop.



 

This is what the sky looked like when we decided to pull over

 The hail was Ping-Pong ball size as we sat in a diner. We waited for it to clear, but the weather was travelling the same direction we were so we found a Hampton Inn nearby and stopped for the night.  We hadn't even made it out of South Dakota!

And another waterslide!!