Travel Udate

The flight to SLC was easy. Our rental car was a so-so domestic SUV, a Mercury Mariner. Kind of gutless and not very comfortable. The cabin also let quite a bit of ambient heat in. Just not the best, but for an SUV it made decent gas mileage, 22mpg.
SLC consisted of swimming, hamburgers, movie, church, games and talking.

The drive to Cheyenne was uneventful. It rained the whole way and was very foggy from Laramie to Cheyenne. I was driving 40mph and passing everyone. I felt so-so from some popcorn I shouldn't have eaten so that slowed me down initially. It was good to see nieces and nephews I hadn't seen in a long time. The city was not particularly beautiful, but my different family members seem to like it there.

From Cheyenne it was a planned drive to Rapid City, South Dakota. We thought we might as well go to Devils Tower as it was not much out of the way. You come around a corner and it just springs out at you. A short walk around of about 1.3 miles really lets you see all sides of the monument. I need to go back and do a guided climb of one of the easier routes, 5.8 or so. Now I need to netflix Close Encounters of the Third Kind to really put it all together.

First let me say this, South Dakota is not going to be the home of any future Miss America winners. There is something in the water that makes people there just unattractive, it was odd and very noticeable. Maybe I am just used to a San Diego level of physical beauty?

Rapid City let us go to Bear Country, and enjoyable drive through zoo featuring bears. If you are lucky like I was, you can even see the bears "doing it." HA HA. Next door was a Scandinavian themed store for a few little things. About 23 miles away was the National Treasure 2 set, I mean Mt. Rushmore. Having watched a PBS documentary about the carving of the monument I didn't need the audio tour or park rangers and could just concentrate on the visual enjoyment. I do wish you could get closer to it though. I mean, if you can hike up that ladder on Half Dome in Yosemite they should be able to rig something up for Mt. Rushmore visitors to bring them closer.

Now I am in Austin Texas and enjoying some good food. If I had to live anywhere in Texas it would have to be Austin. And finally being in a place where it isn't raining everyday is nice, which it has done everyday so far of this trip.

All in all, good times, good people and seeing new things in new place. That makes me happy!!

Pictures to follow in a few days.