Day 68 Mt Rushmore, SD to Billings, Montana 576km

We had to stay for the pancake breakfast so we had a later than usual start. These guys have pancakes down to a science. A vat of batter that can travel over the hot plate. Press a lever and batter flows out of four holes to make pancakes. Roll the vat along and four more pancakes get started. It looks like the cook could get at least 48 pancakes on the go at once. Can you guess who’s writing this? One of us writes continually about food and the other writes about the health of Ryan. Speaking of Ryan’s health, he fell backwards off of one of the inflatable slides yesterday and gibbled his left arm. I’m sure it’s just a sprain. Poor little guy. He’s been a real trooper. 

After breakfast we drove the few kilometers out to Mt Rushmore. As one of the wonders of the modern world we gave it a ten second stop at a traffic light to take a few photos, say ‘Wow’ about 6 times and then drive on back up to the I90. 

Mount Rushmore, South Dakota

George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln

Just to add to our late start, there was an accident just ahead of us that stopped traffic completely. A state trooper directed traffic onto the other side of the road after about 30mins wait and we drove around. There were tons of emergency vehicles including a helicopter.

The stress level went back up to max when we had another engine light come on. This time it was the ABS light. You gotta be kiddin’ me! The good news is that we pulled off to gas up and across the street was a car and truck service centre. The very kind and generous mechanic hooked up his little computer and told us that we had a failed wheel sensor that would affect our anti-lock brakes. Nothing too serious unless we need our anti-lock brakes. He reset the alarm and we drove off. 10 minutes later the light came back on. We will get it fixed in BC.

It seemed like a very long drive day and the kids were getting a bit restless when we pulled in to the KOA at Billings, Montana at about 6:30pm (the first ever KOA). No, we do not work for KOA.

Winding our way through South Dakota