June 29, 2012 ~~~ Heat not as bad today as we drove across the southern part of South Dakota because it was overcast, didn't get above 85 degrees!  What a treat!  It has been more and more hazy as we travel west, a combination of dust and smoke.  Smoke from Colorado.

First "tourist" stop at Wall Drug... LOL, pretty awesome place!  Darrell doesn't "do" crowds of people so we hurried through a few parts of it then took off.  I think he was afraid I might "SHOP" there!  That would have been easy to do... lots of leather goods, hats, bookstore, etc., plus all the usual tourist souvenier stuff.  I would have LIKED to have spent a couple hours browsing, but Darrell saved me from myself and herded me right on out of there.

Second tourist thing was a drive through the Badlands!  I cannot imagine anyone, including Indians, living out there.... but I guess they did.  Well worth driving through, and I think the colors were as good as the Painted Desert.  Saw lots of Prairie Dogs and huge Prairie Dog towns ... and learned that their population has been decimated by PLAGUE, and their fleas carry plague, so there are signs posted to stay away from them!  Makes sense I guess, they are a rodent.  Who would have thought anything that cute would be carrying PLAGUE??
Anyway... my photos do NOT do justice to this place!

We arrived at Rushmore RV Resort & Park about 4:30 pm.... and took until 6:30 pm to get checked in!  We have a membership that includes this park, but needed some "points" for our stay.  We purchased some "points".... but the points we purchased ended up on someone else's membership.   Hmmmm... after fiddling around for an hour and a half, with 2 or 3 people trying to fix it, one gal called the membership office (Coast to Coast) and we THINK they may have it straightened out.  BUT in the meanwhile we got 3 FREE nights here because of the problems.  That works for us!  NICE RV park... extra big swimming pool, laundry facilities, shower rooms, mini-store, very clean, and close to everything we want to go see and do.

Finally get to stay in one place for 3 nights! LOVE being OFF the road! Much cooler, in the 80's, is a real treat too.

We went to the night lighting and flag lowering ceremony at Mt Rushmore last night and it was awesome. Our "neighbor", a talkative young man, highly recommended it. We enjoyed it immensely. We didn't get home until about 11:00 pm. LOL I can't remember the last time we stayed out that late!

With my little camera I was able to ZOOM to see the Mt Goat we saw way below us... I almost missed her!  That's her shaggy butt right in front of the railing as she walked by.

Have discovered the ZOOM on my little camera works pretty good!  This is a close up of Old Abe.

This is enroute to the amphitheatre where we sat during the lighting ceremony.  I took video of that part.