Buffalo? I don't see no stinkin' buffalo!

Hello South Dakota!  It sure is beautiful now but come November...no thank you ma'am!

We nestled ourselves at the base of the foothills leading into the beautiful Black Hills National Forest.  Centrally located to Custer, Rapid City, Hot Springs, Deadwood, and Lead but hysterically, no where near a grocery store!  We'll take what we can get though, our surroundings were peaceful and our neighbors were nice. We of course wanted to stay away from the touristy attractions but alas, they sucked us in.  We saw Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial (which coincidentally is crazy for several reasons), Needles Highway, Lake Sylvan, and the amazing Custer State Park.  We were under the impression that we would see buffalo on our breathtaking scooter rides through Custer State Park.  There are warning signs everywhere that specifically tell people not to approach these massive creatures because they are consistently unpredictable.  However, we have been to the state park several times and still haven't seen these elusive creatures.  Do buffalo know how to hide?!?  After 3 weeks of living in South Dakota, we sat down to look at the map to see what we were missing.  Needless to say, we found where the buffalo might be hiding, wait for it, Wildlife Loop Road.  The only road in the whole park that we neglected to turn down.  This is what we were missing.

Ha!  Can't fool us buffalo.  This was only 1 out of 3 herds that we saw that afternoon.  Really amazing creatures but they spook really easily.  A little bit down the road, I fed this little guy a carrot.

All in all, a great day for sight seeing and animal spotting.  In addition to the buffalo and donkey, we saw Pronghorn Antelope, deer, prairie dogs, and not that day but eventually, Elk!

During our 4th week in South Dakota, we received a Couch Surfing Request from two British girls that were traveling through Canada and the US.  We were their 14th couch surf since they started their journey 6 months before staying with us.  We accepted their request and they stayed with us for two nights.  I would like to introduce you to Catherine and Karen.

They wanted to see all of the touristy sights as well so here we are at Mount Rushmore, where we took the guided tour with a ranger to learn all of the things that we have forgotten about since school.  The girls were very well informed from all of the google searches they had done before coming to South Dakota, so they knew all of the answers to the Ranger's questions.  Thanks for showing me up girls!
Next, we went to Crazy Horse Memorial.

The memorial has never accepted governmental funds, so they rely on the public to continue blasting away at the mountain.  They do 2 blasts a year, and they do them at night so the can light them up and make a show out of it.  This is what the memorial will look like when it is done.

As I mentioned earlier, Crazy Horse Memorial is indeed crazy due to the fact that they do not even know if this is what Crazy Horse really looked like!!  This is a compilation of the descriptions that were given to the architect.  We will never know if he got it right but it seems to be pretty set in stone.  After the memorial, we headed into Custer for some lunch and a hail storm.  Poor Grey Truck.

Next, we went up the scenic Needles Highway.

Then Sylvan Lake.

After our long day we all were in need of some rest, so we headed home for a cookout.  The next day, the girls went on their way to Yellowstone and we were left behind to start making our way down south.  Next up, Colorado and the majestic Rocky Mountains.