Trolley Tour of Rapid City

Today we took a tour on the Trolley....

I did not take many pictures on this trip....  They have bronze statues of the Presidents on Main Street.

 

 

Children are at play at the fountain...

The Rapid Creek....

A city view from the drive up the mountain....

 

 

Dinosaur Park..up on the mountain.

This evening we picked up Chuck and Lorraine for dinner at the Firehouse Brewing Company.  This is a 1915 firehouse.

 

We had some delicious food with great friends.

We left the restaurant and went to The North's coach to play a game of 10,000.  We enjoyed the games....

Thank you, Chuck and Lorraine for spending time with us.  They will move on tomorrow morning....be safe.

Wall Drug in Wall, SD

We visited the historic Wall Drug today.  In 1931, after the depression, Dorothy and Ted Hustead purchased a tiny drugstore in Wall, SD.  Ted had just graduated from pharmacy school and Dorothy was a school teacher, who left teaching and went to  work in their drug store.  Times were very hard and they did not know whether their drug store would make it or not.  After five years of struggling, Dorothy decided she had to promote the pharmacy so that travelers would stop by their place.  She came up with the idea that they would post signs (large signs or billboards) stating "Free Ice Water".  By the time the Pharmacist returned from putting up some of the signs, they had a store full of travelers....   The Drug Store has grown, bringing in good business...

 

The town is in the middle of nowhere on the edge of the South Dakota Badlands.

  

   

   

We had lunch here....                                             They have many many wood carvings...

    

These carvings are support posts in the building...

 

  

Manuel poses with the hat he bought here...

 

  

This was one more town to visit....very interesting.

Yesterday, Lorraine and Chuck North called us.  They are on their way to Rapid City.  We met them in Quartzsite, AZ several years ago.  They also visited San Antonio a couple of years ago.  We look forward to seeing them.   Will await for their call when they get here.

Crazy Horse Memorial

Our drive up to The Crazy Horse Memorial was beautiful thru the Black Hills National forest.

This is the world's largest mountain carving in progress.  The first blast at this mountain was in 1948 and work to complete one man's dream continues today.

Imagine this:  The head is 87 feet high, The arm  is 263 feet long and the horses head will be 219 feet tall when finished.  Since the sculptor died, his wife and family continue working on this project. 

 

When finished, this is what it will look like....

these are casts for the model.  The project is 34 times this size....

This Harley Davidson was specifically made with the Sculptor's pictures...

Picture on the Harley.

This one, too.  This is the Sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski...

the museum is huge....

The Black Hills Nature Gates....

This was an unbelievable place to visit.  The artist was brilliant.