19 October 2016, Wednesday

We are off to Rapid City early this morning for Jazz’s oil change.  Although we leave the park at 6:30 am hoping to get breakfast before our appointment, we do not account for the winding park roads and the low speed limit. There is no time for breakfast, so we arrive at Courtesy Subaru at 7:45 for our 8:30 appointment. No problem. They take Jazz in right away and we are on the way to Tally’s Silver Spoon just past 8:30 in the morning. Breakfast is excellent. O orders whole wheat, oatmeal waffles with fresh fruit and a vanilla cream sauce while I have cinnamon swirl french toast.

From the restaurant we drive back to Custer State Park to the brand new visitor center. The volunteer guide there is very enthusiastic and eagerly shows us around. We watch a new film about the park. It is very well done! By the time we leave, it is raining. We had hoped to drive the Iron Mountain Parkway today, but it is closed for the next two days for bridge and tunnel inspection.

Instead we drive Needles Highway. As we climb in elevation rain turns to snow, but the highway is beautiful, even in the rain. We next head to Mount Rushmore. Although the sculpted figures on the mountain are impressive, O and I agree we like unsculpted mountains better. We spend some time in the visitor center and museum and then drive to Custer where we have a delightful dinner at the Sage Grill.

Temperatures tonight are expected to dip below freezing. Even though we know we will be warm in the tent, we are not looking forward to freezing our fingers while cooking breakfast tomorrow. I think we’ll be looking for a warm restaurant come morning!