Sunday, September 10, 2017

Reno Weeks 7 & 8 & Mt Rushmore

Weeks 7 & 8 have been busy with lots of finishing work going on.  And so.....we've decided not to include any pictures until we can show you everything fully completed.  Floors are done, backsplash is up, bathroom has been started, baseboards are mostly up. Lots happening.

In the meantime, we'll talk about South Dakota. We went to Mt Rushmore over Labor Day weekend. Really bad timing because there was so much to do at home but by the time we decided to cancel, it was too late and would have had to pay for the hotel anyway so we went.



And we saw Crazy Horse. They're still working on carving this - it's MASSIVE - and I don't think it'll be done in my lifetime.



They had so many tunnels like this:


It's hard to tell but there are just layers and layers of mountains here. The wildfires in Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, etc. have sent so much smoke that you could hardly see much beyond what was in the immediate vicinity. By Monday our throats were sore and noses started to get stuffy. I can't imagine how people in Montana, etc. are feeling!






On the Wildlife Loop we saw lots of donkeys. They came right up to the car and if people had their windows open they poked their heads right in. We kept our windows closed. No need to get slobbered by a donkey...


We didn't see too many buffalo (they had apparently gone to the interior that day) but there were a few lone buffalo here and there.


Keystone is a cute town with an old western look.


The wildfires made the sunsets just gorgeous!


We went to the lighting ceremony at Mt Rushmore. It was ok but not quite what we expected.


On Monday we had tickets to tour Jewell Cave. We got there and checked in and the lady said I couldn't bring my purse in so I had to take it back to the car. We walked all the way to the far end of the parking lot and all the way back and went in to catch our tour. And the guy said, "They've left. No way to catch up with them." We went back to the desk and asked if we could exchange our tickets for the shorter tour that would start in 15 minutes. The guy laughed and said nope but we could buy tickets for that.

We were so annoyed because they don't have signs posted anywhere to let you know that you can't bring bags in and there were people walking up the whole time with bags and they had to go back to their cars. And mostly I was frustrated with the attitude of everyone who worked there. They were so smug and snotty about it. They really should have signs in the parking lot stating that you can't bring anything in with you. They should also put it in the email when you reserve your tickets.

We bought tickets for the short tour and learned some interesting things but it was very anticlimactic.


We can say two things for sure about South Dakota.

1. The mountains are absolutely gorgeous.
2. The food is awful! Awful! We literally did not eat anything good up there except for the pancake bar in the hotel - which is saying something because they were just your typical bisquick type pancakes. We came home not wanting any food at all because it all sounded so gross.

We're glad to be home and so ready to be done with the renovation. And we cannot wait to cook real food! We're tired of eating out! The house is done enough that we moved stuff back in this weekend and now we're working on putting it all back together. We should have good pictures next week. Yay!