Day 58

27. June 2000, Billings to Rapid City

In the morning we drive through Crow Indian Reservation, then Northern Cheyenne Indian Reservation. Interestingly enough the field where General Custer with the US Army lost their battle against a coalition of native Americans still belongs to native Americans. After the reservations comes "Custer National Forest" and we continue driving into Wyoming again, where we see Devil's Tower, an interestingly-shaped mountain. We continue into the Black Hills, a national forest with many bizarrely-shaped mountains and wildlife (we see a mountain goat). In South Dakota, Black Hills also has two "competing" mountain sculptures: On the one hand there is the famous Mount Rushmore, on the other the not so famous, much bigger but not yet completed Crazy Horse Monument together with a museum about the native Americans. An interesting day, which makes us think about American history, more recent and ancient.

TC 212: Billings OUT
7:
17  
TC 213: Broadus IN
11:
57 371.86 km
TC 214: Broadus OUT
12:
44  
TC 215: Devil's Tower IN
15:
14 162.91 km
TC 216: Devil's Tower OUT
15:
15  
TC 217: Sundance
15:
43 (six minutes penalty) 29.89 km
TC 219: Rapid City IN
19:
43 222.69 km

Overall 1 hour 37 minutes penalty

The official results can be looked up on this website

Crow Indian Reservation: a nice tarmac road with almost no cars and no people for almost 100 km, only cows and interesting landscape.

The rally TV crew is caught speeding, that's $40 then. Car number 37 (the "Penguin car") gets by unnoticed.

Time-check Devil's Tower in front of Devil's Tower.

Crazy Horse Monument: A perfect example for the American Dream. A Boston sculptor, asked by an Indian chief to make something similar to Mount Rushmore for the native Americans, starts work on the biggest sculpture in the world carved into a mountain, on his own. After 50 years, the head of "Crazy Horse" is finished. People are now working on the horse's head (see arrow).
Sorry about the fog when I was there, but you can find out more at www.crazyhorse.org. (Also see model top left)

"Mount Rushmore - America's shrine to Democracy carved in stone as a record and celebration of American achievement, growth and spirit." says the prospectus. Need I say more? Ah yes, that's Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln from left to right.

Rapid City welcomes us with sunshine.

 

Little Bighorn Battlefield: This is where Indian chief Crazy Horse and his men defeated General Custer and his army by clever strategy. It was the last big uprising of native Americans against the settlers.

Heavy trucks have left two channels in the tarmac. With today's rain that means aquaplaning.

Today's test: red mud with clay content. Ideal to fill up the profile of the tyres and make them lose their grip. We drive safe and get six minutes and many of the top ten get similar results.

Mountains in the Black Hills are sculptures by themselves.

"Wild West" is a popular theme around here. Wyoming has a cowboy on a horse on the license plate. This photo is Keystone, South Dakota.

Arlette and Yves from France with their Peugeot 404.