Carl Henning

How do you mine paint? Well, dating from prehistoric times native Americans used pigments found in nature. At the Paint Mines Interpretive Park in Colorado you can learn more about it.

Usually the winners write the history. But at the battle of the Little Bighorn, the losers wrote it; the losers, that is, the whites. At Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, corrections are made.

There are some apps for my iPhone that are indispensable for automobile travel. A free downloadable map program. Finding off-beat attractions. AAA, your auto insurer, weather, and more are recommended. Including one that provides a tour guide in your car, virtually.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park has three units: North, South, and Elkhorn Ranch. We did get to the North Unit. Somehow going due north took us into the Central Time Zone. We saw virtually no wildlife, but we did see beautiful scenery and cannon balls (the rock formations, not iron balls shot from cannons).

From Theodore Roosevelt’s face on Mount Rushmore to Theodore Roosevelt National Park which hosts a cabin he stayed in while in North Dakota.

The kids headed home after the morning visit to Mount Rushmore, leaving Kay and I to continue our epic journey with Wall Drugs, Badlands, and Missiles.

Mount Rushmore: It’s smaller than you thought. It’s more crowded than you thought. It’s farther from civilization than you thought. But Mount Rushmore is an inspiring monument.

The Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota is a huge tourist draw. But no one knows what Crazy Horse looked like; there are no photos of him. And the work has been going on for 50 years and is maybe 10% done. But it’s a huge tourist draw.

We’ve got more life in Deadwood City than in all of Illinois. According to Calamity Jane in her namesake musical. She’s buried in Deadwood near Wild Bill. Deadwood, SD has more casinos than Vegas. Or maybe it just seems that way.

Readers of a certain age will hear five distinct tones when they view these photos.