Day 5: Moonshine Gulch Saloon, Black Hills South Dakota

Early this morning as we had just finished our breakfast, one of the KOA employees stopped by to engage in some Jeep talk. He and Merle conversed in "mechanics" lingo, while I did some odds and ends things around the campground. He had lived in this area all of his life and so was able to tell us about a nice drive down a little dirt road by a stream that eventually would take us to the Moonshine Gulch Saloon where we could have burgers and fries for lunch. So, we put the top down on the Rubicon, took off the doors and headed out. The drive was very pretty and sure enough, we ended up in Rochford. The fish above was on the wall next to our table, so you have something of an idea about the decor. The ceiling was covered in old crusty ball caps. There was stuff tacked up everywhere and lots of it was dusty. A skinny legged, wide bodied little doggy came by and put her head on my leg begging for french fries. It was a pretty busy place, apparently quite popular with the biker crowd. The burgers and fries were adequate. It was the atmosphere that was the draw.

Here's Merle. He was smiling at me, but because I had the camera stabilized on the table and pointed upward, it looks like he's smiling at something else.

Black Hills, South Dakota. We drove here yesterday from Devil's Tower. It was a cool, beautiful drive. This area is very clean and neat. We were here about 7 years ago and it looks pretty much the same. After checking into the hugest KOA ever, we made the 10 minute trip up the highway to Mount Rushmore and did a drive by visit. Tonight, in about 30 minutes, we are headed to the evening "lighting" ceremony. It's done every evening for a certain length of time until the weather gets too dicey. We didn't go last time we were here, so I guess we had better do it now.

Tomorrow is supposed to be considerably cooler (around 70F) with 50% chance of rain showers. We are looking forward to relief from the heat. Our plans include a hiking/biking thing over in Needles area but we'll have to see what the weather does.

That's all for now, folks. I've got to grab a box of Kleenex before we head out. I guess the patriotism involved in this Rushmore ceremony tends to makes one dissolve into tears..........