Day 20: Scottsbluff, NE

Today I went to look at some Heads.  They were two hundred miles away, but then so is Denver, so I'm quite nicely placed for return the motor-car on the morrow.  The two hundred miles were generally Not Interesting, though the usual rolling grassland gave way to partly wooded hills, viz. the Black Hills of South Dakota.  They are green when covered with trees and brown when not.

Presidential Bonces

The first Heads were at Mount Rushmore.  You can get to see George Washington from the side for free, but to get a proper look costs Money.  Anyway, there are four Heads; those of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Gardner Martin Abraham Lincoln.  Each one is 60 feet (18m) high and they were carved between 1927 and 1941.  And the Native Americans don't like it much, because the Black Hills were ceded to them in perpetuity by the Treaty of Fort Laramie in 1868.  This lasted until gold was discovered in the Black Hills and ultimately the US Government decided it wanted the area for itself.  No change there, then.  Ironically, in the main viewing area today were a bunch of Military Idiots, one of whom was re-enlisting in a very public way.  I bet that went down well with the Native Americans.

While in the area it would be rude not to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial just down the road.When it is finished, it will make the Mount Rushmore Heads look a bit second-rate.  Eventually it will depict the head, torso and outstretched arm of Crazy Horse, and much of his horse too.  So far they have only completed his head, which is about half as big again as the Mount Rushmore sculptures.  Work on this project started in 1948, so the chances of it being completed in my lifetime appear to be this: slim.

Crazy Horse from3/4 of a mile away

On the way back I encountered today's token twat (I'll let this morning's cattle truck driver off with a warning as he probably couldn't see me coming up the hill).  Ahead is a Lexus, which has been tailing a pickup for ages.  Just as I pull out to pass them both, Mr Lexustwat decides he's going to pass the pickup and pulls out without indicating when I'm about two feet from his rear bumper.  Rude gestures were made.

I took a different route back here from Hot Springs.  In the 140 miles of Highway 71 I encountered four other vehicles going my way, and two of them passed me while I was stopped for a fag.  Emily the TwatNav was confused for the first forty miles, but finally got over it.  And so back to Scottsbluff.  Did you know that Eagles bassist Randy Meisner hails from here?  Well, he does.  Also here is a note on my bed saying there is an issue with my credit card.  This is strange, as I used it to fill up the motor-car this morning.  Jessica on the front desk is consulting The Mgt, but it seems unlikely to finish with my incarceration in the local debtors' prison.  In the meantime I will make a valiant attempt to drink all the Fat Tire remaining in the fridge, so as not to have to carry it anywhere.