Cold Mountain...

Hey Everybody!!

I'm writing to you from Rapid City, South Dakota, my last stop before heading into Yellowstone and my new living quarters. Tomorrow is the big haul, 7 and 1/2 hours from here to there, the longest leg of my adventure. Not to worry though, I have driven from Clemson to Washington DC and back by myself, so I am comfortable with this long drive. It should just be a straight shot. I don't plan on hitting any sites tomorrow.
I started my morning by leaving Sioux Falls, SD around 8am. Remember, that is after I get up, shower, get dressed, pack up all of my stuff, break down my tent and load up my car. It has been early mornings all week but well worth it for the amount of things I've been able to do. The drive from Sioux Falls to Rapid City is quite easy for those of you who are interested...pretty much you get on I-90 West and... that's about it! :) I'm sure if you have driven this route a couple of times it is a boring and tiring drive. However, seeing how I have never seen this part of the country I couldn't get enough of all of the surroundings I was going through.
Under penalty of personal shame and possibly injury, too, by my good friend from Iowa, Jasper Ray, I began my day by stopping at the one and only Corn Palace!! Get excited! The Corn Palace is (today) a basketball gym that is decorated completely out of corn! It is an interesting place and according to the movie ranked as one of the top ten places to play high school basketball in the country. The Original Corn Palace was built in the 1800's for the corn festival when Mitchell, SD was fighting to become the state capital. They lost, unfortunately, but the Corn Palace lives on. The outside murals change every year unless there is a drought and the inside ones (which surround the court) are refreshed, but not changed, every 10 to 12 years to keep their color! To be honest I'm happy I stopped at the Corn Palace - it was an interesting place and you could tell the people of Mitchell are truly proud of it! A big Thank You to Jasper for the forceful suggestion.
After the Corn Palace, I headed straight West, the plains soon fading to amazing rolling hills that just never seemed to end, and then BAM the grass gave way to large rock formations - The Badlands. While temped, I just didn't have the time to stop off at the Badlands National Park, so I will have to save it for another trip. I did finally make to Rapid City around 1:30pm. No new states today but I did enter the Mountain Time Zone for the first time in my life. For those of you playing the home edition, that's three out of the four time zones now. As soon as I got to Rapid City, I left and travelled out to Keystone, SD and Mount Rushmore! An amazing site! I really enjoyed finally seeing the memorial with my own eyes. For those of you who have never been, you can actually see the faces just as you turn around the last bend up the mountain. It was a great surprise! Again I did all the things to do there, I watched the video, went through the museum (which once AGAIN, has an incorrect reference to Fort Sumter, but I won't bore you), went on a ranger walk, and sat in on a ranger talk in the sculptor's studio. I spent a good 3 and half hours at the site and learned a lot of things. For example, the man who sculpted Mount Rushmore, was originally hired to do Stone Mountain in Atlanta, GA but after getting into a fight with the organizers, he destroyed all of the work he had done so far and quit. The current work at Stone Mountain was done over the original after it was blown off.
After ending my Mount Rushmore adventure, I headed to the campsite and set up camp for the evening. I'm getting pretty good at it! I set up my tent in 15mins tonight which I think is pretty fast for one person. I was given some other suggestions about where to go in this area but to be honest I'm a little wiped out and I think I will save those for a family vacation in the future. Well as I said before, I have a long haul tomorrow so I should get on gettin' on.
Thank you all for your amazing support and communication as I make this long journey. Even though I am so far away from home now, I still feel like many of you are right here with me when I get your emails. Keep'em coming!! I don't know when I will have access to my email on my computer again, but I should still be able to get and to send one-on-one emails from my phone.
PS: Aunt Susan won the contest last night, your prize will be in the mail shortly...

Until next time, with God's love,
-- Brent Everitt
Visitor Use Assistant
Northeast Entrance Station
Yellowstone National Park