But for sheer scenery you don’t want to miss Needles Highway.

Needles is part of the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway named for former SD Governor Peter Norbeck who mapped out the entire length of Needles Highway on foot or on horseback. The highway was completed in 1922.

Doane Robinson, credited with the idea of carving likenesses of famous people in stone in the Black Hills, originally thought that the Needles area would be a good spot for the four presidents of Mount Rushmore. But the idea was rejected for several reasons, one being the poor quality of granite for such a project.

Needles Highway is named for the spiked, needle-like formations of granite rocks flanked by aspen, spruce, birch, and ponderosa pines. And the combination takes your breath away — that, and the twists and turns!

With only a 14-mile stretch along SD-87, looking at Needles Highway on a map might lead you to allot half an hour or so for touring. But with hairpin turns, narrow stretches of road (sometimes blocked with construction and repair vehicles), and breathtaking scenery, you’ll want to drive at a snail’s pace just to take it all in. (Maybe an hour will do you well.)

There is a caution, however: quick turns and unparalleled scenery make it a joy for the adventurous but a possible headache for anyone in a large RV or motor home. The Needle’s Eye Tunnel (you want to see this one!) measures 8′ 9″ wide by 9’8″ high, so it’s a fat-man’s squeeze for vans and the like.

Parking is at a premium on crowded days in the area around the Needles Eye Tunnel (near the formation known as Needle’s Eye pictured in the top photo above). But travelers want time to explore, take pictures, and breathe in the beauty. Look for bump-outs and pull-over spots in various places along the highway, all worthy of photos.

If you’re visiting South Dakota’s Custer State Park (one of the largest state parks in the U. S.), take time to take the curves.

Needles Highway does not disappoint!

Stay safe out there,

Rusha & Bert

Travel Notes

• To make sure that Needles Highway is open when you’re traveling, visit South Dakota DOT for the latest travel information.
• Needles Highway generally closes after the first snow in mid-October but re-opens in April.
• There is an entrance fee for Custer State Park: $20 per vehicle, $10 per motorcycle or an annual park entrance fee of $30. See Badlands and Black Hills SD for more info on fees and directions.
• Get the latest on closures and construction on Custer State Park’s Facebook page.

The water was glassy and calm, still candy-colored in the afterglow of sunset.

Although we drive across country each summer to enjoy the beach at Pawleys Island, South Carolina, we’ve also fallen in love with the beauty of the creek at Pawleys. Lying parallel to the ocean, the creek offers a different sight with its interesting docks, slow-moving water, and season-changing marsh grasses. Mornings find us walking the beach to catch just-born light on ocean fingerlings of water. But in the afternoon, we shift gears and head to places west where we can sit beside the marsh and watch layers of sundown unfold in the sky.

The strongest colors arrive in late afternoon just before the sun dips below the horizon — rose, purple, orange, sometimes even deep red at the base. And at that point, many vacationers are tempted to pack up and head back to their cottages by the sea. “Show’s over,” they might say.

But waiting has its reward: afterglow, to us, is the best show of all. A plain blue South Carolina sky (especially when cloudy) can take on delicate colors — pink, peach, even a bit of tangerine — for the best overhead show of all.

And yet there’s more. If you wait for the second act, the afterglow will bathe whatever is below — a dock in the marsh, boats put away until tomorrow’s adventures, a chapel by the sea — in paler, softer candy colors.

It may be, just may be, that God likes to play with color filters, too.

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.

Rabindranath Tagore

Thanks to Leya for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge #98: Delicate Colours, You can delight in more beautiful posts with sweet color on her site, A World in a Grain of Sand.

Do what you love, and love what you do.

Guest host Sue (Mac’s Girl) who writes The Nature of Things threw down the challenge of pastimes — what we spend our time doing outside of our work lives for this week’s Lens-Artists Challenge. Since we’re at the beach for a week at Pawleys Island, South Carolina, for a little getaway (that still ensures a bit of safety during Coronavirus times) we’re sharing how we fill our days, just the two of us in a rental house on the North End of Pawleys.

Beach watching

Mornings begin early at the beach — well, most mornings — when we wake, throw on something to keep us decent and head out to watch the sunrise. Even though we’re groggy, there’s an infectious energy among morning walkers that perks us up.

And so we greet the sun, wide-eyed and waiting for more, as we take pictures and talk about the morning show.

Later in the day, you can find us under or beside a tent on the beach, celebrating the mesmerizing movement of waves up and back along the shore. (It’s just what we do when we’re not reading.)

But we also love to watch others doing what they like to do: build castles of sand, dig moats to catch the ocean, ride waves on a boogie board, surf, swim, bike, or fly kites.

Sometimes everyone on the beach watches the same event, usually in awe, before returning to life as usual doing something that requires little or no effort whatsoever.

Beach watching on cloudy days mimics what we do on sunny days unless rain threatens to shorten the time on the beach. What gets our attention? Dark clouds overhead and a rumble of thunder or two.

Then we have to weigh in on what to do. Head inside? Or stick it out under the tent to see how long the rain will last? If we think it’s just a long stretch of cloudiness, we usually tough it out. After all, cloud cover can be neat to see, and high winds are fun for bundling up and walking with the wind at our backs as long as we can.

Sometimes we think we’re on the Weather Channel imitating those crazy reporters who stay way too long out in the hurricanes! Sometimes, though, we just have to give it up for the day and head inside.

Shell seeking

This year at the beach, we were on a mission: Find a Pawleys Island shell or two. These little gems of the sea (real name: Imperial Venus Clam) populate the waters in and around Litchfield Beach and Pawleys Island, North End. But try as we have, we’ve never been able to find one along the shore, even a shore littered with shells.

So, what do you do if your pastime doesn’t yield the goods you expected? You go to an expert for advice. And John Henry Whitmire who founded Whitmire Jewelers in 1972 filled the bill. He told us the name, location, and unique habitat of the shells, and how he re-creates them in silver and gold for those who want an authentic souvenir of the island.

And so it is that we are still seeking these shells, but not as ardently as we did at the first of the week. After all, Mr. Whitmire included a real one in the box with my new silver Pawleys Island Shell. (Shell seeking pays off, you see.)

Time spending

And then there are other pastimes at the beach: Working jigsaw puzzles even when you can’t find that one last border piece . . .

and cooking shrimp (from Georgetown’s Independent Seafood) and grits from Kudzu Bakery. (Check out a great recipe from Chef Frank Lee on Discover South Carolina.)

Mostly our pastimes are these: sit, read, rest, repeat.

After all, we’re on island time!

Rusha & Bert

Be sure to check other posts on Lens-Artists Challenge #97: Pastimes.

“Sometimes the only way to ever find yourself is to get completely lost.”

You’ve seen the pictures in brochures, but until you experience it, you may not understand the rush that comes from at afternoon herd movement in SouthDakota’s Custer State Park.

Even though we’d seen pictures of massive buffalo roaming freely in and through highways and fields in the park, we never dreamed we’d be stranded for an hour and a half — partly terrorized, partly thrilled to be among giants at sundown!

We didn’t enter into this rush hour completely unaware. At the Visitor Center, a ranger had pointed to a plastic buffalo atop the topographic map showing the last-known position of the herd. (Positions are verified and updated throughout each day, we learned.)

And that herd stood between us and the state lodge where we had reservations.

No problem, we thought. We’d love to see a few buffalo. And see them we did.

At first, it was only a few grazing along the side of the road as if they knew their boundaries, and we knew ours. We quickly found out that this was buffalo territory; we were just lucky to be allowed passage through it!

Just as the rangers told us, this was a herd of mothers and babies only — about a thousand of them.

The ranger also shared this: Males are kicked out of a herd once the little ones are born. So, the only way we would see males are as singles or two males together off to themselves.

On this day, I was the driver when we happened upon the herd. (Please pardon my pictures. I was clutching desperately to the steering wheel with one hand, holding an iPhone with the other and trembling as enormous, black/brown, swiftly moving animals lumbered past our car.)

I’ll admit we did wonder what would happen if our car came between a mother and her little one, and immediately we regretted renting a small Sentra that could have been tipped over in a heartbeat!

There’s not much to compare with this experience. Rushing buffalo can come upon you quickly — and, as they move past in a blur, you can hear thumping, pounding movements and the rush of their bodies passing by. If your windows are open, you may be close enough to smell the beasts passing by. One even brushed my rear-view mirror sending my phone to the floorboard and uprighting me as I rushed to roll up the window!

After an hour of inching along through the herd, (exhilarated by this hoped-for experience yet scared at the same time) we developed a plan. Take a right turn off the main drag and escape the herd.

But the plan was flawed: The highway on the right was flanked by a ravine. So now, we had buffalo in a hurry to get to a bedding-down place for the night but anxious to avoid the ravine. That meant only one place for the herd to go: around, in front, and behind us as we poked along nervously and cautiously in the middle of the road!

A bit later a driver in a red truck — local and experienced, no doubt — motioned for us to follow his lead. He taught us this trick: keep moving, slowly, slowly. Don’t stop. Don’t speed up and scare the herd. Don’t honk. Just most slowly and steadily.

It worked. The herd crossed the highway in front and in back of us, spilling into a valley on the way to their resting place.

We began breathing again. And repositioning ourselves more comfortably in our seats. “Did you get any good pictures?” we asked each other. And then we smiled. We’d been in watch-and-try-not-to-panic mode rather than trying to compete with the National Geographic guys!

If you’re looking for wildlife in Custer State Park (usually open October 1 to April 30), visit the rangers to determine the location of the herd. Then follow the appropriately named Wildlife Loop Road with your cameras ready.

Needless to say, there’s nothing like witnessing herd movement in South Dakota!

Rusha & Bert

More and more we sensed that we were creating a truly great thing, and after a while all of us old hands became truly dedicated to it and determined to stick to it.

With nearly three million visitors from all over the world coming to Mount Rushmore each year, we knew we wanted to be there — standing in awe of the art and craftsmanship involved in creating one of the most visited sites in America.

From South Dakota Highway 244 leading to Mount Rushmore, we caught side glimpses of George Washington. Washington’s was the first figure started and the most prominent visage of the four presidents memorialized in an arrangement conceived by South Dakota historian Doane Robinson and executed by sculptor Gutzon Borglum.

The majestic walk through the entrance of Mount Rushmore and the Avenue of Flags added to our anticipation — and pride — as the four 60-foot-tall granite heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln rose grandly before us.

In 1925, federal and state legislation authorized the carving of a memorial in South Dakota’s Black Hills, and sculptor Gutzon Borglum (working on the Confederate memorial in Stone Mountain, Georgia, at the time) was hired to oversee the project that officially began October 4, 1927. Although Borglum passed away prior to the completion of the project, his son Lincoln oversaw the carving until the end and attended the dedication on October 31, 1941.

Traditionally, during the months of May through September, visitors can observe the Evening Lighting Ceremony that ends with the singing of the National Anthem as the sculpture is lit. (If you’re going, be sure to check the schedule since many national parks and park activities have been closed or suspended due to the Coronavirus pandemic.) But it’s also a great place for picture-taking with the presidents in the background!

If you can time it right, visit the Sculptor’s Studio when rangers give a most interesting account of who did the work and how. (The ranger we saw had a sense of humor good enough for late-night talk shows. Yes, that good.) Rangers can tell you about how Jefferson’s head had to be relocated because of flaws in the granite, how the original Jefferson figure had to be blasted away, and how very little of the clothing is included in the figures — and for good reason! (Sometimes it’s the tidbits we remember the most!)

Dining is available at Carvers’ Cafe and Memorial Grill, but even if you’re not ready for a meal, don’t bypass Memorial Team Ice Cream, named for the baseball team formed in honor of the carvers of Mount Rushmore. Order a “monumental scoop” of TJ’s Vanilla Ice Cream supposedly based upon the first written recipe for homemade ice cream by none other than President Thomas Jefferson and replicated for your pleasure.

According to Peter Greenberg Worldwide, “Finally, you can literally taste history!”

You may think that Mount Rushmore is just one more tourist delight.

But thanks to the developers of the monument and the planning by the National Park Service, Mount Rushmore is both awe-inspiring and classic.

Tips to know before you go:

• Park hours vary by season, so check before you go: National Park Service Mount Rushmore.
• Ample parking is available, but there is a fee.
• Walkways are generally accessible to all.
• Getting around to the Sculptor’s Studio, even behind the stadium area, is fairly easy, but there are some tight viewing spots (see below) that may not be accommodating to all.
• The Mount Rushmore Self-Guided Tour: A Living Memorial offers information in several languages about the creation of the monument.
• Check the daily schedule for ranger talks — because you just don’t want to miss one.
• Even before you leave home, visit the National Park Service Mount Rushmore website for an updated schedule of date and times when the monument is open for viewing.
• Download resources and read articles related to travel at Mount Rushmore at the Travel South Dakota website.

This can be a monument and an inspiration for the continuance of the democratic-republican form of government, not only in our own beloved country, but, we hope, throughout the world.

Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1936

Travel safely,

Rusha & Bert

Photo credits:

Thomas Jefferson: Wikicommons

Map of South Dakota Black Hills: National Park Service

But after the short trip from Wall Drug Store down I-90, we began to see what the buzz was about.

After an especially wet spring — “Most unusual,” people kept telling us — the grasslands were greener than ever, and wild mustard added ribbons of yellow to the verdant landscape. We felt lucky, very lucky, to be in Badlands National Park on what turned out to be an especially good day.

Badlands National Park, approximately 75 miles from Rapid City, can be accessed by taking Exit 131 off I-90 to enter the park at the Northeast Entrance. We recommend stopping at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center and afterwards following the Badlands Loop Road, a two-lane, paved surface through the North Unit of the park.

It comes as no surprise to those who have sought advice from the National Park rangers that rangers are the go-to people for information. They know where you are most likely to see wildlife, which roads are closed due to rock slides or flooding, and what not to miss even if you have to wait for a parking spot. We wanted to talk to the rangers first. And, as we expected, the Badlands rangers mapped out our day, stamped our Passports, and offered tips for short-term and longer term trips.

Notably, Badlands National Park can boast of having one of the most complete fossil accumulations in North America. This guy, of course, is a recent acquisition!

But other creatures, not made of concrete, may be lurking in the grass or beneath the undulating rocks.

Our greatest takeaway, however, from this national park is not the animals, but the panorama of the natural landscape: sharply eroded buttes of sandstone, limestone and volcanic ash against a contrasting mixed-grass prairie. For us, Badlands is one of the nation’s most interesting parks.

According to the Badlands National Park website, two processes have been at work for over 75 million years: 1) Deposition — the process of building up rock in a stacking process and 2) Erosion — rocks gradually wearing away, having begun 500,000 years ago by the Cheyenne and White Rivers. It’s these striations and layers of the formations, along with ripples caused by river erosion, that make this signature land known as Badlands an almost iconic sight.

After we parked at a picnic area, we took a close-up of the cracks and crazes of what appeared to be very tentative rock formations. When we returned home, we read that the rock really is eroding — about an inch every 10,000 years. (Still time to see the Badlands in your lifetime, though!)

Our whole trip through the Badlands consisted of driving, stopping (at almost every marked area), taking pictures, and standing in awe. We hardly spoke.

The sense of quiet, the raw beauty and majesty around each turn, and the sound of the wind let us know that there are greater powers at work in the world. We were just two tiny admirers standing on the precipice, aware of our smallness.

Badlands National Park is, for the most part, accessible for all travelers. If you have mobility issues, know that there is much you can see of the Badlands from your car. In addition, added walkways to some of the major formations assist travelers in their quest to view the hard-to-reach places.

We totally agreed with those who had congratulated us (as if we knew what we were doing!) on selecting an especially lovely spring for a visit to South Dakota’s national park. But we suspect that almost any day would be a good day to stand tall with the wind at your back staring out at nature’s beauty at the Badlands.

By discovering nature, you discover yourself.

Maxime Lagase

See the USA,

Rusha & Bert

We flew from our hometown of Knoxville, TN to Rapid City, SD, a city that takes pride in displaying statues of every president of the U. S. standing proudly on street corners.

Historic Hotel Alex Johnson Rapid City, built in 1927 and known for Native American art, became our home for three days. In addition to its resort club feel, excellent beds, and posh amenities, the Alex Johnson boasts one of the finest gift shops in the area where you can find handmade items for the folks back home.

For breakfast, we indulged (well, gorged might be a more accurate term) on a bountiful repast at Tally’s Silver Spoon: three-egg omelet with all the fixin’s and a plate of fluffy but packed-with-blueberries pancakes.

After breakfast, we headed to a site we’d heard repeatedly as “the place you gotta see” — Wall Drug Store — but we were waylaid by a glimpse of kids on horses when we stopped to fill up our rental car with gas.

I knew when I saw those kids on horses that we had to pull over. (A little travel serendipity never hurts, and, after all, I’d never seen a small-town rodeo for kids ever.) This, I thought, could be fun. And it was.

As they paraded around for judges, young kids and teens dressed in Western attire followed protocol for good showmanship. And we could tell this wasn’t their first rodeo! (But it was mine!)

Some even stopped to talk to us about the event, what it takes to keep and train their horses, and what they like about the hard work of showmanship.

We stood on the sidelines watching the calf roping event and talked to two ladies who waited for the next round of competition that somehow was going to involve their goats. Although we didn’t have time to watch, we appreciated the friendliness of the adults who could tell we weren’t from “these here parts,” and then we snapped a few more pictures.

It occurred to us that parents who give up their Saturdays (willingly, of course) to provide and assist with rodeos for kids in South Dakota are similar to our folks who pitch softballs to elementary kids or coach basketball, soccer, and Little League baseball in our neck of the woods. It was good to see.

Then on to Wall Drug Store where up to 20,000 visitors per day pick up South Dakota souvenirs, admire the grand art collection in the dining room, or pose with a hand-carved likeness of Wild Bill Hickok. If you’re there in the summer, take advantage of Wall’s offer of free ice water to each and every one of you!

To get there, drive west from Rapid City along Interstate 90 and exit at Mile Marker 109 or 110. Right now, according to the information on their website, they’re closed temporarily due to coronavirus concerns. Please check before driving to see Wall Drug — but keep it on your must-see list. It’s Americana at its best.

We hope you’ll join us as we post more of scenic South Dakota. The Badlands, Custer State Park, Mt. Rushmore, and the Crazy Horse monument just might be in your future!

Rusha Sams

5th Place: Discover Prompt 16 : Slow Day at Kiawah

It seems a lot of you agree with us on this one: There’s no better way to spend a day than leisurely soaking up beachy vibes under a big blue umbrella at Kiawah.

4th Place: Discover Prompt 27: Team

Near and dear to our hearts and popular with our readers is this post that reflects on work with a dedicated team of Habitat Global Village volunteers building affordable homes in Nepal and Lesotho and renovating a school in Bucharest. Good work for a great cause!

3rd Place: Discover Prompt 24: Elixir

Many of you were charmed by the elixir of sunrise on one of America’s most beautiful beaches, the beach at Kiawah Island. And who wouldn’t be?

2nd Place: Discover Prompt 17: No Distance Running in Boston this April

It’s not just collegiate spring sports we’re missing right now. The shelter-in-place mandates related to the coronavirus pandemic also cancelled one of America’s favorite races in 2020: the Boston Marathon.

1st Place: Discover Prompt 15: The scent of lavender in Provence

Well, of course you clicked on this one. Provence in springtime is one of the most popular destinations in the world — and it all has to do with the heavenly sight and smell of row after row of lavender. Well done, readers. You picked a winner!

Thanks again to those who helped us get through the pandemic in April by clicking and reading posts on Oh, the Places We See! And thanks to WordPress for providing prompts that were open to interpretation in a variety of ways. It’s been an interesting April 2020, to say the least!

Stay safe out there.

Rusha & Bert

So, I’ve saved my Joke post ’til last. And then a No Joke for the end.

Whenever we travel, we try to find children’s toys, something simple and fun to bring back to our granddaughter and other kids as “gifts from afar.” So, in Morocco, we were intrigued by some plain little boxes sitting in a bowl in Chefchouen, the blue town.

The proprietor of the shop noted my interest and immediately stepped in to play a joke on me. Because when you open the box yourself — as he let me do — a black snake quickly — and unexpectedly — pops out and taps you on your finger– much to your surprise. After all, who expects a snake to reach out and bite you from an unassuming wooden box?!!!!

And so I opened the box, jumped back a bit, squealed and laughed — and then I had to have one. Or a dozen as it turns out . . . because I got a deal!

And so it was that all the kids we invited over on Christmas Day that year got Moroccan snake boxes — and they couldn’t wait to surprise their parents. So, jokes all around — all from unassuming little boxes.

No Joke

And now for the second part: I completed one post each day during the month of April 2020 — one each morning right after I mulled over the word for the day, searched through old photos, and commenced the writing process. Looking back on the exercise, it was fun — rigorous to keep up, but fun. So NO JOKE — 30 posts in April — and a great way to spend my time in quarantine!

So, here’s what I’m asking you. I want to share the “most-clicked-on” posts from those 30 this coming Monday, May 4th. If you haven’t had a chance to check ’em out, now’s the time. I’ll look at the “number of views” stats and share which prompts and posts were most popular.

As of today, April 30, here are the 10 most-clicked posts on Oh, the Places We See listed by date. Hope you’ll take a look at any you’ve missed.

April 2: Open — Just as the Dogwood Arts Festival opens in Knoxville, so do the buds of beautiful flowers.

April 4: Street — Oh, those beautiful painted streets on the Greek island of Mykonos!

April 9: Pairs — A mother-daughter pair stroll the beach at dawn on Pawleys Island, South Carolina.

April 12: Light — The magic of morning light from Castine, Maine, to Morocco!

April 15: Scent — A smell to remember: lavender in bloom in Provence.

April 16: Slow — Watching a slow day on Kiawah Island unfold from sunrise to sundown.

April 17: Distance — Remembering when Boston Marathoners ran the distance in 2016.

April 21: Music — Hoping to hear music to my ears by UT’s Pride of the Southland Band this fall.

April 24: Elixer — Drinking in the elixer of a sunrise at Kiawah Island.

April 27: Team — Remembering the joys of working with a team to build homes around the world with Habitat Global Village.

As always, thanks for visiting our site.

It’s great to hear from you — No Joke!!

Rusha & Bert

Today’s word is Grateful, so here goes.

I’m grateful that . . .

• Elton John has rescheduled his Knoxville concert originally set for June 6, 2020 to some time in 2021. (Thanks, Rocketman!)
• none of my favorite grocery stores ran out of coffee during the quarantine.
• we’re retired and don’t have to work from home in cramped quarters, don’t have to home school our kids, and don’t have to barricade ourselves in a closet to squeeze in some “me time.” We’re good.
• I have enough ball caps that I can wear to hide my shaggy locks and silver roots.
• I didn’t weigh myself on the first day of the quarantine, so I’ll never know how much poundage I’ve put on!

But seriously, folks. Bert and I are fortunate — all the time, really, but especially during this pandemic.

We’re grateful for . . .

• family and friends who have checked on us by phone, FaceTime, text and email (and who love us no matter how shaggy we look).
• professionals who go above and beyond to provide services — not because they’re paid to do so, but because they love what they do and the people they serve. (I’m thinking educators, health care professionals, day care workers, service industry folks, news gatherers and reporters, grocery store employees, and the list goes on.)
• good health so we can continue to travel, see the sites we love to photograph, and meet people around the world as well as in our own hometown
• strong faith and the people who help us stay grounded by providing internet church services and religious music on Sundays.
• and the someone who loves us unconditionally even when we’re stir crazy, sleep deprived, and wanting to stream something we’re just not into.

Thank, WordPress, for the April Discover Prompts and the opportunity to connect with many creative, interested bloggers and readers.

We’re grateful!

Rusha Sams