Monday, June 1, 2015 – Broken Arrow Horse Campground, Custer, SD

 Dean has been dreaming of the large cinnamon rolls he saw at the restaurant where they had breakfast the other morning and has decided he cannot wait another day before having one of them.   The restaurant is called Baker’s Bakery & Café.  Their sign says “You’ll love our buns!”  So we headed into town to try them out.  Well, Dean and Tucker did love their buns.  Dean had the caramel and pecan roll and Tucker had the good old fashioned white icing cinnamon roll.  Logan chose biscuits and gravy and I opted for the traditional breakfast with homemade toast.  Oh my gosh, that bread was good, but I had to share it with Dean because I could not eat anymore.  They were huge, thick pieces.  Probably the best place we ate on our trip in my opinion.  The breakfast was good, the bread was excellent. 

 After breakfast we headed to the Custer County 1881 Historical Museum.  This was something Tucker really wanted to visit and I think we all enjoyed it.  One of the things I found the most interesting was they had an authentic uniform from every war in the US except the Spanish-American War.  I took a picture of the former Treasurer’s office for my sister who is Treasurer of Labette County, Kansas and her friend who is the former Treasurer of Allen County, Kansas.  Thinking of you ladies and all you have done for your counties!

 

 

Notice the sign on the left of the doorway.

 

Once we were back on the street we walked around while I took pictures of these buffalo that were on most every corner on Main Street.  Aren’t they amazing?  Tucker was trying to photo bomb these pictures and did a pretty good job on one of them.

 

 

 

 

 

After checking out the buffalo we headed on up the Hwy 16 to the Crazy Horse Memorial.  What an interesting visit.  The mountain where the Crazy Horse is located is 6,543 ft. high and is the 27^th highest mountain in SD.  The site for the sculpture was chosen by Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear.

 

All of the work to date has been done with private funds.  They will not accept funds from the Federal Government for this memorial.  They have formed a foundation “Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation” with the intent to preserve the heritage of the North American Indians.  The foundation is now overseeing the completion of the Crazy Horse sculpture.  There are many, many Indian artifacts on display and several artists displaying and making their products on site.  It is a beautiful facility and we thoroughly enjoyed our time here. 

After Korczak died his family picked up where he left off and are dedicated to seeing the project through to completion.  Maybe I enjoyed it more knowing of my own Indian heritage.  I felt a real connection to what it stands for.

 

 

 

We decided to take a bit of a break this afternoon.  Today was quite warm and it just wasn’t much fun being out in the heat of the day so we headed back to Bentley to just enjoy a little downtime before our last big event before packing up and heading home tomorrow. 

I took advantage of the time to begin getting some things in order for leaving tomorrow and the guys watched some TV.

Later in the evening, we drove the last of the scenic routes to reach Mount Rushmore.  We wanted to visit at night in order to see the lights and hear the program that is presented.  It was hard to believe it was so hot earlier today, as the temperatures really dropped and it was almost cold.  I was glad I grabbed my jacket or I never would have lasted until the program was over.  There was a trail that led behind the stage area where you could get a little closer look at Mt. Rushmore, but is began to lightning so we did not complete it, and besides I was so sore from climbing Harney Peak by now I could hardly get up and down the steps here. 

We did discover they had some wonderful ice cream on site and we all enjoyed that while waiting for the evening program to begin.  Since it was so windy which caused us to be cold, we stood near the ice cream shop out of the wind to stay somewhat warm.  The ice cream sure was good though.

 Here are several pictures I took, including one of the veteran’s that were in the audience that evening.  They call them up on stage and it was very moving how the group clapped and clapped for them to show our appreciation for their service to our country. 

 

 

 

It was sad to leave knowing it was the end of our last full day in Custer.  We’ve all had a great time and it was super to be able to spend the time with Logan and Tucker.  But we still have a few more days to spend with them before we get back home.  There’s more to come!