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Showing posts with the label Rapid City

South Dakota Finale is Historical

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My final day in South Dakota was filled with some of the nation's most important landmarks. I hadn’t seen any of them since I was a kid and it didn’t take me long to regret not having come back sooner. I knew it was going to be a long day and I fueled up at the Hill City Holiday Inn Express with a yogurt, fruit and oatmeal breakfast before hitting the road. My first stop of the morning was at Mount Rushmore. I was just blown away by this amazing mountain depicting four of our country’s most important presidents. It was even more special after I heard two kids playing “America the Beautiful” in front of the mountain, and then saw the film of how Gutzon Borglum, and his son, Lincoln, sculpted it. I walked around Mount Rushmore National Park for a while before getting back in the car and heading for a short stop in downtown Keystone. It looked like a fun touristy town that I would probably spend more time in some day when I didn’t have such a full schedule.

Discovering South Dakota

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As a child, I drove with my parents and my brother cross country almost every year. We would stop along the way, sometimes for a few hours and other times overnight if there was a lot to see. By going different routes we managed to see all of the continental United States. Around the time I was 10, the vacations were by airplane and there were states I would never see again. South Dakota was one of those.  With my new role in charge of the Midwest Travel section for About.com, I had more reason than ever to get to South Dakota so I was excited when the tourism board invited me on a trip. The day started with an early morning flight and included a tight connection, so I was pretty tired and hungry by the time I met Julie Jones-Whitcher of Rapid City Tourism .  We had planned to meet directly at The Journey Museum, but I had called and asked her if we could meet somewhere for a late lunch first. We met in Main Street Square and proceeded to Alternative Fuel s