But I'll admit, I had ulterior motives in forcing Jess to go to the Old Trail Town. I don't know how many of you know who John Johnson is, but his grave is located right outside of the "town." I used to watch the movie Jeremiah Johnson over and over again. Over the course of his life, he was a trapper, hunter, woodhawk, army scout, marshal and a Civil War veteran.
Immediately after, we hustled down to the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, which encompasses five museums. We wandered through the gun museum, which houses 1,500 hundred historical guns and countless stuffed animals (not the cuddly kind). Another 1,200 guns were in the stored in additional space in the basement, but we moved to the Plains Indian Museum, then the Buffalo Bill Cody Museum and finally the Museum of Natural History. We ended up missing the Western Art Museum.
All of our morning running around meant that we didn't leave Cody until around ten. On our way through Wyoming we found this city marker...
We stopped in a slightly larger town, Shell, Wyoming - population 50, where we found a post office to mail some things off. The postman was just finishing up his route as we were heading out.
Our goal for lunch was to find a hometown cafe (much like our beloved Country Cafe). We ended up finding a small chain restaurant, JB's, with very reasonable priced food and a delicious chicken noodle soup bread bowl. Making decisions is not my strong suit, but with the expectation that we would pass another JB's on this trip, I refrained from ordering everything on the menu that looked good and stuck with the soup.
Right about the time we hit the South Dakota line, the rain started to fall. Not a nice misty rain either, but big fat ones that could soak you with one drop. The clouds ahead of us did not herald promising weather for Rapid City, where we had reserved a campsite and had planned on setting up the tent. After seeing lightning, our minds were made up. Once we arrived at the KOA, we upgraded to a cabin with heat, bunk beds, and -most importantly- a rainproof roof.
After unpacking the car, it was still decently early, so we headed up to Mt. Rushmore. Thirty miles and countless tourist traps (which Jess made me avoid) later, I was ohhing and ahhing over my first view of Rushmore from the passenger window then Jess hits the brakes and points out the window. We park and jump out of the car. Right on the other side of the guardrail was a buck! Not a huge one, but he definitely had antlers.
Our cameras weren't the most cooperative with the waning daylight, so we wandered around the gift shop until seven or so, when the spotlights are turned on and illuminate Mt. Rushmore. I don't think that any of them can fully capture how high up the carvings are. I get queasy just thinking about dangling over that cliff.
Tomorrow should be one of my favorite drives (and I use that term loosely, since I have been the passenger 95 % of the time thus far). I-90 through South Dakota is filled with interesting tourist-y stops and photo ops. But it does require a 6:30 am departure time, and I need my beauty sleep. :)
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