Heading home Day 5

Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - Rapid City, South Dakota. Well, the news is that they have another motor home ahead of us, but they should be able to start on it sometime today. By 3 p.m. were were supposed to know if they would finish today or whether we would have to wait one more day. Having the rental car meant we could still do the touring we had planned for the area. Our first stop was Mount Rushmore. It was extremely busy compared to the other sites we have seen on this trip. It was pretty awesome to see and then learn about how it was made. We spent most of the morning there. Then we went to a place called the Cosmos of the Universe. It was a gravitational anomaly that was very strong. We took the tour and have pictures of Amy standing on a wall and hanging from a chin-up bar but "hanging" diagonally. We also have pictures of me being eye to eye with Ken and then a whole lot shorter compared to him than I really am. It made my head spin and gave me another type headache, but it was worth experiencing. We then went to the Big Thunder Gold Mine. Here we just watched people pan for gold as the entrance fee for the tour of the mine and to pan for gold was $14.00 a person. It seemed that everyone wanted the same fee - $10 per person or more - to do anything no matter how small. We drove back to Rapid City and the transmission shop and was told that it would not be done until tomorrow. They offered to move the motor home out so we could stay in it, but then would have to move it back in the next morning to work on it. We decided to find a hotel room for the night as well as a laundromat to do laundry. The cheapest place we found was motel 6 and it was still $80. At least we'll have air conditioning, a swimming pool, showers, and electricity for the night.