9/19/14 Day 5

Joe contacted Lane today, a fellow member of the National Street Rod Association who lives in Custer. Lane stopped by our hotel and took some pictures for the local weekly news paper. He called a friend who has a shop in town and we headed there. Lane's friend has a fairly complete machine shop and a large bay to work on cars where he is finishing up a '55 Chevy for a customer.  He has his own hi-boy fitted with Hilborn mechanical fuel injection with his own designed idle circuit so it could be driven on the street. We also got a tour of Lane's shop , a 4-bay garage with only two doors. The left bay has a Bridgeport lathe and other metal working tools, The right bays have his present ride, a blue '40 Chevy, and his next project, a 4-door 34 Ford.  it's in pieces that he will start on after his current customers car gets back from the upholstery  shop and he does the final finishing touches.

Lanes Chey

After geeking out over the shops, we said our farewells and headed for Jewell Caves. We decided on the 90 minute tour because it started just 15 minutes after we arrived.  To pass the time we browsed the exhibits in visitor center. The tour started with a group elevator ride down about 275 feet to our starting point. The ranger told us about the cave and how it was found and formed and why it was only about 10% mapped.  After the first 45 minutes we noticed that the ranger was spending a large amount of time talking about the same thing after we had climbed or descended the stairs. I think this was because our group was composed of what the locals call " Newly wed and the almost dead" fall tourists.  Our group was made up of 3 new couples, 3 singles and about 15 older couples.  Maybe our ranger thought we were easily distracted or having short term memory issues.  After the tour was completed we headed toward Mt Rushmore.

On the way to Mt. Rushmore we turned onto Hwy. 16A,,The Iron Mountain Road. What a great road for a motorcycle or a sports car, but not so great for a vintage freeway cruiser; 17 miles, 314 curves, 14 switchbacks, 3 pigtail bridges (think corkscrew') and 3 tunnels cut out of rock that are  about 12 ft in width. We made it,  Joe was driving and he was a little more conservative than I would have been on the corners.  Mt Rushmore was worth the twisty trip.  What a project!  It looks much better in person then in any picture. The vintage pictures of how they deconstructed the mountain to form the presidents and the layout to make it all happen are remarkable. We indulged in a little lunch while we were there,;Buffalo hotdogs and a Thomas Jefferson Recipe ice cream.  Both were good.  We took the road most traveled back to our hotel by way of the Crazy Horse Project. All I can say is keep at it, they have a ways to go.

A Cadillac Club is staying at our Hotel as well this weekend.  The cars range from a 1941 to a 2013, including a 502 CI '69 convertible.  I thought the 390 CI in the T-bird used a lot of fuel but this beats it.  Off to a car show tomorrow.   See, we do actually plan some things in advance (sometimes).

1950  Caddy

1941 Caddy