Day 5

Although the hotel in Greybull was not the most extravagant with all the amenities, I actually had a pretty good night’s sleep. I scored one of my highest sleep scores from my watch monitor. Haley on the other hand, not so much. We got our bags together, packed then into the car and walked down the street to the local diner for some breakfast.

It was a very nice diner but thier menu was up on the wall which was difficult to read with sleepy eyes.

I ordered a large stack of pancakes which was very good.

Haley wanted a latte for the ride and there was a coffee shop just a few doors up the road.

With our bellies full and our caffine fixes taken care of, we got back on the road for a 5+ hour ride to Mount Rushmore. The terrain through Wyoming and into South Dakota was amazing but very repetitions. I took what pictures I could along the way. Since Haley was tired I drove the whole distance to Mt. Rushmore.

We actually ran into a red light in the middle of nowheresville on a mountain pass. Road construction.

We arived at Mount Rushmore and they must have known we were coming because we found a parking spot right up front. It only costs $10 to enter the park. Unfortunately, we were not able to use Haleys annual pass here.

It is a beautiful monument. Having grown up in the DC area, I have had the opportunity to visit many of the national monuments there. This monument is on a grand scale in a serine setting.

We walked through the exibit and learned how difficult it was to build not only physically but financially. It was also interesting to see what the scupltor originally had envisioned to how it eventually turned out to be.

The only thing I was disappointed about is the cafè. I’m a big Alfred Hitchcock fan and especially North by Northwest. I always thought it would be cool to eat in the cafè that is in the movie. Unfortunately, the cafè was modernized and all the charm from the movie is gone.

We decided that we would get food on our way to the hotel instead. We found a pizza place along a section of tourists traps headed away from the monument.

There was a lot more of the same scenery along the way.

We crossed another time zone and lost an hour. So, we ended up with another late check-in. This hotel was much better. Pool, hot tub, breakfast and all the amenities one could hope for.

We ordered some food and watched the US soccer team beat the pants off Paraguay. Since we don’t have too much planned for tomorrow we planned to just relax the rest of the night.

Come back tomorrow to see what we find on our way to Kansas City.