It was drizzly today. It was in the 30s pretty much all day, so time outside was limited. As we drove back into South Dakota, we made a stop in Deadwood, the town known for its lawlessness -- now home to tacky tourist shops selling confederate flags and t-shirts with Donald Trump riding a motorcycle. We plugged a meter for 45 minutes, and this was ample to explore the town. As previously mentioned, it was also rather cold, so we didn't feel like lingering too long outside in the elements.
After arriving back in Rapid City and checking in to our hotel, we made a brief stop near Ellsworth AFB to visit the free air & space museum. As it was free, there wasn't a lot to it, but they did have some aircraft parked outside. By now, it felt like the temperature was in the 20s since the wind had really picked up. We went to the movies to get out of the elements for a couple hours. After that we had some fine Italian dining at some place called the Olive Garden. After stepping back outside into the cold, we debated whether we should go check out Mt. Rushmore at night.
This was, after all, an outdoor activity. After a brief discussion, we decided to do it. We were the only ones there and it was almost a little eerie. Snow had started to fall. I attempted to catch some of it in the spotlights as it fell onto the monument when all of a sudden the lights went out. Now we were looking out into a black void. I fiddled with my camera settings to work some magic. Unfortunately the sky was a thick overcast, so the prospect of getting the monument with stars was not in the cards, but I did get this bizarre shot of the monument.
Yes, this was taken at night despite appearing to have been taken during the day. The weird scratchy texture is from the snow streaking over the image during my long exposure. It's lucky we showed up when we did, so we saw it illuminated for a few minutes. And that was that. As we returned to the car and headed back into town, our random trip to South Dakota had drawn to a close.
