Monday 30 May (Memorial Day)

Slept really well. Had the $7 (seniors rate) buffet breakfast. Odd - nice fruit but no toast unless you count the ‘French toast fingers’ which were like soldiers, but soggy and very sweet. Anne just had the scrambled egg, but Les added sausages and smoked ham.

Drove back south to Custer, and then east on the 16A into Custer State Park. Great value at $15. Stopped at the visitor centre on the 16A. They suggested we do the southern wildlife loop, which we did after coffee at the adjacent Grace Coolidge site. Saw buffalo immediately and the Pronghorn deer. Took some of the unsurfaced roads across the south to shorten the loop, and back on the main road we saw Prairie Dogs.

We then had to go back across the 16A to complete the loop before going north up Iron Mountain Road to Rushmore. Stopped for lunch at a great campsite (Blue Bell Lodge) - Les had Buffalo stew! Exciting drive up to Rushmore with tunnels and ‘pigtail bridges’. It was at the first of the tunnels that we found out that the horn on the car doesn’t work (you’re advised to sound your horn as you enter). We also found out from some locals that our Wrangler doesn’t have remote locking! Got some good shots of Rushmore from various places, but it started raining heavily as we got to the entrance, so we decided not to go in, and to carry on with the scenic drive.

We turned off the 16A onto the 244 and returned almost to Hill City before turning back onto the 16 and then immediately onto the 87, the Needles Highway. This was another exciting drive with tunnels and fantastic views and going up and down over the mountains. Our photo breaks were very short as by now it was getting very windy.

Got back down to the junction of the 87 and 16 and took the 16 back to Custer even though the satnav wanted to send us back over Iron Mountain Road to Hill City. Stopped for a cup of tea at a camp site to break the journey. Quite a bit of retracing our steps but got back to Hill City about 5.30pm. Stopped on Main Street and looked at the four restaurants. Didn’t fancy three of them and the fourth one already had people queueing for seats.

Hill City looked nice but of course most of the shops were closed by now. However we did see a gunfight on the street between two cowboys. [Post – holiday note – about two weeks after we returned three people were injured watching the gunfight – something seems to have gone wrong with the blank cartridges]

Back to the motel and decided to do the laundry so tomorrow we’ll start off with virtually everything clean. Did a quick wash and then put the stuff in dryer. Anne went down and found that the dryer had been running cold. Decided to go over and eat and mention it on our way back. Did this. Reception refunded our money so we could use the other dryer. Went into the laundry and found a near naked man. He and a couple of friends were doing a long distance motor cycle trip (we’d seen their Harleys outside the door) and this was an odd chance for doing their washing so they were doing everything. Interesting chat with him as he stood there in nothing but a towel. Dryer busy so had to leave it for the morning.