Tea, South Dakota

As you can see by the title we have moved again.  I should catch up in this blog.  Yesterday I left it with us getting to Keystone, SD.  We stayed at Kemp’s Kamp about 1 1/2 miles from town.  Of course we were here to see Mount Rushmore.  We had been by Mount Rushmore once before but we didn’t actually go into the park.  We went up the first night we got here for the lighting ceremony.  Turned out it was a special ceremony with former Senator George McGovern as the speaker.  He never was a favorite of mine but he did give a good talk on how Washington needed to work together to solve our problems.  I don’t remember him as too cooperative when he was in office.  The lighting part of the ceremony was nice.  The first picture is just about sunset and the second after dark and when they turned on the lights.  I had to hold the camera still since a flash wouldn’t do any good at that distance.

The next day, Thursday the 25th, we went back.  Twila and I walked the path around the base of the monument and I took several pictures.

They had a model that they used during the carving of the mountain.  They said the carving kept changing due to faults in the granite.  As you can see in this picture, at one time they intended to have Washington and Lincoln in much more detail below the head.

Some facts on the monument.  Each face is 60 feet tall, each eye is 11 feet wide.  Washington’s nose from the top to the bottom is 21 feet long.  Something I didn’t know was why these Presidents were chosen.  Washington is for the birth of our nation, Jefferson for the expansion (Louisiana Purchase), Roosevelt for development (Panama Canal, National Parks) and Lincoln for Preservation of the Union.

We left Keystone and drove to Mitchell, SD, but first I stopped in Rapid City and had the motor home’s radiator fins washed out.  I had been having trouble with the motor home trying to overheat when I pulled long hills.  I had to keep down shifting to keep it pulling without pouring the fuel to it.  I called a truck repair place in Rapid City and had an appointment set up for tomorrow but the service manager suggested I try washing out the fins first.  I had used my water hose several times without any luck but he said that wouldn’t be enough pressure to properly clean it out.  He was right.  I stopped at a truck wash and they used their large hoses with nozzles like firemen use.  Worked great.  Mitchell is the home of the Corn Palace.  The inside and outside of the building is decorated with corn.  Both the ears and the husk.  They are made into murals depicting different scenes.

The first picture shows how the artist lays out the pattern.  Then they cut the ears in half lengthwise and glue the ears according to the color designated on the pattern.  They grow different colors of corn especially for this event.  The design changes every year.

These were on the outside of the building.

They were having a festival and as you can see they had all kinds of food and a carnival.

We stayed at the Famil-E-Fun Campground Friday and Saturday Nights and then moved to where we are now in Tea, SD at the Red Barn RV Park.  We are here to renew our tags on the motor home and the Jeep.  We will be here tonight and tomorrow night.