Crazy Horse, Custer State Park

Hello All
Today we decided to rent a car for our stay, the roads and hills around here do not make good driving in an RV.
We headed our this morning to Crazy Horse. It is amazing what a man can do when he sets his mind to it. The blasting the sculptor did on the mountain way back in 1948 with very little tools is outstanding. I am wishful that it will be finished in my life time. Ellie was intriqued by all the indian artifacts that some of the tribes were making on site. Very expensive.
On our way back we decided to take a drive through Custer State Park. Thinking this would not take very long we headed in, it took us a half an hour just to drive to the park, which no one at the first gate bothers to tell you. Poor Ellie is watching out the window looking for all the wild animals that were suppose to be around and there are none. After finally going throught the gate to the park it took a while but we came upon a pack of wild donkeys on the side of the road. They were very cute. One of them was standing right in the middle of the road so everyone had to go around him, he was not about to move. There were other donkeys along the way, one mom and a baby that were really cute. The funniest one was at a pull off site where you can get out of your car and take picuters, there was a white one that people were petting and feeding carrots to. Ellie got out and got some really good pictures. We saw a few deer, gazelles(?) and one buffalo. Ellie had been waiting the whole car ride for a head of buffalo's and she only got to see one.
On the road to The Needles Eye, (which is a rock formation that is standing up straight and tall, and at the top of the rock there is a slit in it just like in a needle) she did get to see a deer that came over to the car window, very excited. The last animal we saw were chipmunks, there was an area on the road to needles eye that we pulled over to, there must have been a dozen chipmunks on this one rock, they would come right up to you, looking for food. Ellie wanted them to come over to her and when they did she would freak out, Paul and I were laughing so hard.
The road to The Needles Eye was so cool, very windy and lots of hairpin turns, also the tunnels we had to go through were very small, there was one I didn't think we were going to make it. I was glad we had gotten the car because the RV would never had made this road.
We were going to go to Mount Rushmore tonight to see the lighting of the mountain but a storm blew in with thunder and lighting, so we will go tomorrow. It is nice to have one more day here, lots to see. Ellie wants to go pan for gold tomorrow and then to a reptile garden, lots of snakes, alligators and other reptiles (yuck).
Things are going very good. It is a very exciting trip for Ellie, thank god she is feeling ok.
Until tomorrow
Good night all
Pattie, Paul and Ellie