Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse

This morning we hit the road for Mount Rushmore.  We were bracing ourselves for it to not be what we envisioned after the whole Statue of Liberty thing, but when we got there we were all very impressed.  What an amazing area and memorial to the past Presidents.  Maybe one day someone will do a sculpture of Stephen Harper in the Rocky Mountains.

Since the Crazy Horse monument was not far away we thought we'd just set the GPS for it.  We have had some really great experiences with the GPS.  Gone many places we would not have otherwise, and ended up in some pretty cool (and not so cool) places.  The GPS had us turn on a different road than all the signs were saying but since we've had so much fun with the GPS we decided to follow it.  It took us on a really neat back road which turned out to be a great drive until it asked us to turn on a hiking trail.

Needless to say a little common sense is necessary when dealing with a stupid GPS lol.  Anyway, we ended up at Crazy Horse monument eventually and got a pretty scenic tour.  Crazy Horse memorial has been in progress since the 1940s.  It is quite a bit larger than the sculpture at Mount Rushmore.  It isn't completed yet and probably won't for some time because they will not use federal funds to complete the project, and most of it completed by the original sculptor was done by hand.  All funds are generated through donations, admission and sales of gifts, etc on site.  It is quite an amazing place.  The original sculptor died in 1982 and his wife and 7 of his 10 kids have been working on it since. 

This is what the monument is going to look like when it is completed.

This is where they are at now.  I would definitely love to come back and see it when it's completed, if I'm still alive.

After we left Crazy Horse we drove through BORING Wyoming.  I think Saskatchewan is even more exciting, and that is hard to believe.  No wonder there are no toll roads, no one would take them.  We have set the GPS for home and are making our way back.  It has cost less for this whole month trip across country than it cost for us to go to Hawaii for 11 days.  That really seems hard to believe, that we could be away from home that long, seen and experienced as much as we have, and for less money.  Who would have thought?