Day Eleven - SD/WY

Our room in the Wall Econo Lodge was downstairs -- the basement. It did have a small window above the bed, closer to the ceiling, that we could escape from if need be. But in the morning after waking up we packed up the car and drove towards Mount Rushmore. Right before getting to Mount Rushmore we drove through Keystone which is the start of all the tourist attraction with wild west themed restaurants, hotels, and activities. The drive up the mountain is a long, curvy, steep road and it provides remarkable views of the monument. Therefore, instead of paying the park fees we pulled over onto the side of the road and took a self-portrait. In order to do this though, we first had to turn around in the Mt. Rushmore parking lot which is guarded by National Park Service (NPS) officers. Jessica thought it was going to be strike 3 with NPS!

Jessica and Orit at Mount Rushmore.

There are several different natural wonders in the area, but we had to make some choices based on time and level of interest. Our next stop was Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills. When completely finished -- building began in the 1940s -- it will be the largest sculpture in the world.

Crazy Horse Memorial (right) and replica (left).

Next stop was the city of Deadwood -- home of the famous Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. At the Mt. Moriah Cemetary located just south of the city lies their graves side by side. To our surprise the cemetery also had a Jewish section and a description of the Jewish community of the area.

Wild Bill Hickok's grave.

Calamity Jane's grave.

The town still preserves a lot of the wild west culture. The building facades were preserved and some of the people dress up in old western attire. The sites where Wild Bill sat, was shot, and played cards are all highly publicized.

Saloon where Bill Hickok was shot and killed.

The drive along I-90 West was fairly uneventful (often times we were the only car on the road), but the Wyoming landscape kept our interest the entire way.

Welcome to Wyoming sign.

We were determined to make it to Buffalo, Wyoming but we had one stop on the way -- Devils Tower. What we failed to realize that it was at least 30 miles from the exit. After about 15 miles we noticed a scenic view stop and pulled out the camera for another self-portrait. We turned around and back on the interstate.

At this point, Orit was driving and Jessica was reading out loud the book 1776 by David McCullough. And somewhere in between driving, reading, and looking at the landscape the low gas light came on and there was no gas -- or even a town -- in site. We both envisioned the car going "Kaput, kaput, kaput" and waiting at the side of the road for help. We did everything we could think of in order to make the gas last just a little bit longer (including going 55mph and throwing it into neutral when going down the hills), and finally after an agonizing 30 miles of wondering if we'd make it to Buffalo or not the exit appeared. The first stop we made was for gas and the next was our cabin.