Day 9 Sept 16, 2018

Pierre, SD to Sturgis, SD

295 miles

The support crew had the choice of leaving before 7:00 am to go sight seeing or after 9:00am to not go sight seeing. Well we decided to go sight seeing, the problem with this, is that we left before Mike did so we couldn't help him with his route chart. So, we left this very important task to Larry. Of course being them, they called Mom in a "panic" saying they couldn't get it. Fear not my friends, we didn't fall for it. However, later in the day we found out that there were changes in the schedule of the day WHERE WERE YOU ON THAT ONE LARRY!!!!

As support crew, we enjoyed our time taking in the sights. We stopped at the Badlands. It was extremely windy but breathtaking. Mary enjoyed identifying poop that we found on our walks to look around. We found butterflies that we tried to get pictures of for about 5 minutes. Don't you worry, we got the pictures. This also happened with a baby bunny. It was just so cuuuuuuuuute. We ran into two couples who were slightly older, and one of the gentlemen seemed slightly afraid of heights, needless to say, he got his picture taken with his wife and friends with a beautiful background.

We were then off to Wall drug, which was pretty cool. Nothing to exciting happened there. Shopped a little bit, then we headed to Mount Rushmore. At Mount Rushmore we learned about the construction of it, how long it took. It was really neat to see it in person. You really don't think it's necessary to see it in person, but I do have to say it was pretty unique to see it. I later found out through a fellow support crew member, Mike, that there is a tunnel behind Abraham Lincoln's head. I looked it up briefly and according to the National Park Services I guess it was going to be made into a Hall of Records for important historical documents, like the Constitution of the Declaration of Independence, famous Americans and list of U.S. contributions to the world in scent, industry and the arts. Anyway, it was halted because Congress wanted to concentrate on the faces. Also the death of the artist, and involvement of America in World War II, work on memorial came to a close. I did learn that in 1998, repository of records was place in the floor of the hall entry. 

     On the National Park Services Website " The repository contains sixteen porcelain enamel panels.        Inscribed on the panels is the story of how Mount Rushmore came to be carve, who carved it, the reasons for selecting the four presidents depicted on the mountains and short history of the United States. This repository is not accessible to visitors but is left as a record for people thousands of years from now who may wonder how and why Mount Rushmore was carved."  

There you go a little history lesson.

At this point we got to Sturgis, had some reservation mix ups, had to find a new hotel. We got it figured out though, had a sponsored dinner, went back to the hotel and I personally crashed. 

Mike said his ride was nice, slightly chilly, but not to bad. Sorry everyone, I'm trying to get him to tell us more. Bike is running really well so far. Mike physically is doing great. Let's keep our fingers crossed.