The Scenic route -
USA from coast to coast

Thursday, July 27'th

The next morning we left Kens house just after 9AM, the Agenda said "Crazy Horse", "Mount Rushmore" and "Devils Tower" and then go as far west before nightfall. The road North is excelent and with sparse traffic, on the highway heading for Cheyenne you could hear me say the words "I have never seen a road as straight as this. For the last hour there have been this truck 300 feet ahead of us and we are going at excactly the same speed." The speed thing is controlled by the auto-pilot. At other occations we were part of an overtaking that lasted half an hour, waving to the children in the back of the other car going by at a relative speed of 5 inches a minute.

After a few hours we were running low on fuel, I was behind the helm so it was my responsibility to stop for gas. The light on the dashboard, indicating a pit-stop was needed, had been glowing for twenty minutes when the sign for the next service station said 50 miles. There was no immediate exit on the Highway, no towns in the vicinity so we started our economy drive. Off with the AC and driving slower than normal. I began having visions of myself walking with a can of gas in the immense heat.

Finally, a service station. We learned one thing though, from the time when the fuel-low lamp start to glow, there are at least 100 miles left in the tank, nice to know.

Half a days drive north of Boulder/Denver through Wyoming going east a bit after Cheyenne you enter South Dakota. Follow the signs and head north towards Mount Rushmore and on your way you will pass the wonder-of-the-world-in-progress project Crazy Horse National Monument. An entire mountain is being sculptured into a gigantic memorial monument of the great Lakota chief "Crazy Horse" (small model in the photo above). The project began in 1947 and so far only the head of the war chief is finished. My guess is that the monument will be finished in 2-300 years.

At first we stop at "The Fort - Tradingpost" from where you can see the monument

going 14 miles north on 16/385, we start to notice the signs for "Mount Rushmore", the parkinglot is packed but we are directed to a wacant space not too far from the entrance down the valley where the mountain-carvings can be watched.

Originally conceived by Doane Robinson as his "shrine of democracy", but designed and sculpted by Gutzon Borglum. The model has the presidents torsos carved as well but has newer been made. We stay there half an hour, they we drive on, fuel is low again and we fill up the car. Prices here are higher than normal - it must be due to the heavy touris-traffic, the old demand and supply story. We follow the road all the way to Rapid City where I give in for my hunger. We have been driving all day without anything to eat. Shehab do not have any problems but he has his protein-powder, I have settled all day for apples and crackers

A quick McD pit-stop and back on the Interstate going West into Wyoming. We will try to reach Devils Tower today and the sun is still high sky, the clock show 4PM. We follow the directions from the Guide Book and suddently we spot the odd mountain, faintly in the. We slam the breaks and tumble out of the car, A Kodak moment. We drive on towards the "tower", and there it is again a bit closer and even more photogenic (when I develop the film I have five series of pictures, closer and closer to the mountain).

Devils Tower is a natural phenomenon but it look very artificial. It is an extinct volcanic core. Centuries of rain and snow eroded the surounding sandstone leaving this rock. If you

We pay the entrance fee to the national park and drive all the way up to the base of the mountain. As the sun decline the ripples are shown clearly, the imprent of the lava-tubes. The only way to get to the top is by climbing, register with a ranger at the Visitors center and rent the climbing gear. There are also a lot of excellent hiking trails that provide you with amazing views of the Tower and the plain below. The African Kopjes on the serengeti are formed the same way but their shape have a more roundish finish. Not a cloud in the sky and we stayed until twilight (looking for the mothership).

Heading straight west again we would go

No wonder so many Scandinavians settled up here, the climate are much like that of the old country. We drove all the way to Buffalo, Wyoming where we found a Comfort Inn with room for us. A PizzaHut for late dinner and back to our room to sleep, tomorrow we would cross the Rockey Mountans.