Rushmore and Devil's Tower

Awoke in the town of Wall, South Dakota on Monday morning (I think). Laid around reading for a while and finally decided to get on the road. The next stop was Rapid City and Mount Rushmore.

It wasn't long before we were nearing Rapid City. We pulled in for gas and decided to go over to the local specialty outfitter. The store is named Scheels I believe. I've heard of it but never been to one, so I wanted to check it out. Nothing special. It is like a Dick's Sporting Goods but with more outdoor clothing and a smattering of everything. I did notice they carry disc golf discs and was excited by the amount they carried. This can only mean that out here it's actually popular. If the local sporting goods store has over 100 discs in stock then your doing well. I used to have to special order my discs from online vendors. Anyway I was excited. I ended up only buying a knife sharpener for my pocket knife, but it was neat to see another store like the KTP.

In the parking lot I decided it was high time to call our slouch of a real estate agent and see what she was doing for us. Turns out nothing is the answer. I did get in touch with her though, for a change. "Oh, yeah, maybe we should drop the price. We haven't had anybody show interest in a couple of weeks.", was her answer to my line of questioning. Finally got her to fax us a change of price agreement to the local Coldwell Banker and ran over to get that taken care of. After this we were heading to Rushmore!

The route from Rapid City to Rushmore is extremely steep going both ways. At first this was fine as we were in two lane highways doing 60. It soon became a problem though when I was forced to slow the van from 55 to 25 coming down a 7% gradient. Our braking problem from earlier had returned. Coming down the last hills before climbing to the monument I thought we might loose the entire rig. Kristen was white knuckled, holding onto whatever she could find. The van made wide sweeping turns down the hill, which was all I could get out of her. Thank God the light at the bottom of the hill (in town) was green. I rolled through the town without taking my eyes off the road. Just as quickly as we descended we began to climb again. Winding our way up to the monument, higher and higher. Kris and I had to think about the real possibility that the brakes would not hold us on our trip back down. As we parked at Rushmore I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomache. I tried to put it in the back of my mind so that I could enjoy the monument.

Everyone told me I would not be satisfied with the monument but I think I really was. I mean someone carved four giant heads into a mountain. That takes some effort. Anything that someone spends that much time and energy on has to be admired. I did wonder why Teddy R. was facing another direction, but I figured it was because he forgot his glasses and couldn't see what the others were looking at. Anyway the entire grounds is cool, the monument is really neat and the bathrooms were clean.

Back in the van I decided there was no better time than the present to go down. I had about 2.5 miles to get back to the small town at the bottom before we were out of the woods. I inched along the two lane road in second gear at most times to keep the brakes from having to do any work. Even in this gear the front right caliper wheezed in protest. Kristen said it was like someone banging a hammer against the wheel. I thought it sounded like someone drove sandpaper into my brakes. It seemed like it took forever to get down, but we did eventually come into town slowly. Through it all the van ran well, but we knew it was time get her into the shop.

We drove back into town and looked up the nearest reliable VW pro in the area. It turned out he was in the next town down, about a 25 mile drive. The van had been impeccable on the interstate, so we drove slowly and made it in about 40 minutes. The GPS located the garage for us and before we knew it we were outside a dusty old building surrounded by VWs that were in all states of dis-repair. Numerous old beatles, a bright green Rabbit with racing stripes, and a sweet old Rabbit pickup were all sitting outside. This must be the place! I walked in the front garage door and found a man, obviously the mechanic and owner, tapping his teeth with his pen and looking over the rolling chassis of some old bug. It was in the middle of a frame off restoration but the running gear, suspension and all the major parts were there, just no body. I told the mechanic of my symptoms and he looked at me wearily. "Not many people know a Eurovan in these parts, and I'm backed up for over a month", he stated. After my numerous questions he agreed to come take a look at the brakes from underneath the van. Even with the aid of his trusty light and mirror he could not see any problems. I did get him to give me the number to a few other wrenches in town.

After the second call to a local mechanic I hung up the phone. Nobody could get the van in until Thursday. South Dakota is the last place I wanted to stay for three days straight, Kristen agreed on that point. Kristen had the idea first. Call ahead to somewhere down the road and make an appointment for an upcoming day. I called Dana Motors in Billings, Montana and sure enough they could see the van on Wednesday. That meant we could still hit Devil's Tower and be there in time. Sweet!

We left immediately for the tower and made the highway exit in about an hour. Finally in Wyoming my urges to keep moving were settled, for the moment. The rolling hills of grass with copses of pines were gorgeous. I've seen anything that made me feel like I was in the west before. That was it. We hit the KOA right at the base of the giant monolith that night and it was the first time since the trip began that it rained. Just enough to clean the dust off the van and then it was over.

In the morning we awoke, ate and had coffee and it was off to the tower. The first thing you see are the prarie dog fields and by coincidence we parked there to enter the trailheads. If you haven't seen prairie dogs do yourself a favor and go see them. They are ridiculously cute, super annoying and funny to boot. They do this yelp thing and at the same time they wave their arms in front of them...very cool. The trail leading up to the tower was much nicer than the road we guessed and so we walked up the 1.5 miles to the base. The pictures don't do it justice obviously, but it was beautiful. The tower is over 800 feet tall and made from columns of rock. The word is that a volcano erupted but did not make it past the cone. The magma cooled inside the cone and produced the shape. Then over millions of years the soil and debris eroded away and what is left is the tower. Very cool, go see it.

We headed down to the car at around noon to get a jump on the 300 miles to Billings. The drive was luckily uneventful, and the weather was sunny and clear. We hit Billings around 6pm and scouted out the market and where we had to drop the van off on Wed. We found a nice little KOA in Billings on a dead end road overlooking some cliffs. Besides the fact that it is the windiest place on Earth (could give Mt. Washington a run) it is very nice. It was so windy in fact that I tried to start a fire last night and it blew out twice. The only reason I actually acttempted a third time was to prove to myself that I could. Once going the fire was a flame thrower and I had to douse it before I burned down the campsite.

This morning we dropped the van off at Dana and hopped on the bikes to go downtown. We got coffee, visited a local outdoor sporting goods store and then went into town for lunch at the Montana Brewery. Beers were good, prices were good, things were good. I called the mechanic around lunch time to find out about the van. They had found nothing of any concern in the front brakes, and just to be sure they pulled the rear as well and also found everything ok. The right rotor had some marks like there was something caught inside it, but they didn't find the object. Their advice was to run it, things were A OK. I only owed them $46 and she had a clean bill of health. Good news, I hope it's accurate.

As I write this we're back at the campground in Billings for another night. Free wi-fi, showers and electric sounded good for another night. On to Yellowstone tomorrow and then we'll see from there. We also pulled the trailer apart and re-organized everything so that the bikes will be accessible without moving other stuff. Came out pretty well, nearly perfect I would say.

This is the first time you guys are actually caught up to the moment by me...don't get used to it! Talk to you all soon. Don't forget to write.