Day 13 and 14: Mount Rushmore in the fog, Custer State Park, a nightmare, and drive from Golden to Moab

With a 2-day delay, we continue with the travel report. Unfortunately, this should not be our day.🙁

First, we set off to Mount Rushmore. It was not far from Hill City. We quickly noticed the increasing fog in the mountains. At the entrance to the National Memorial Area, the friendly lady told us: The president heads cannot be seen today due to the fog. Whether we still want to enter. We were naturally disappointed as we had driven hundreds of miles just to see the president heads. We wanted to try it anyway, just on principle. After parking, all we could see was a laundromat. We quickly continued to Custer State Park. Here we saw our faithful bison for a final farewell.

Then we set off for Golden near Denver, Colorado. It was the worst car ride of my life. It started snowing in Wyoming. We drove higher and higher into the mountains and the snowfall got worse and worse. Not fun with summer tires. At some point, I thought we would get stuck in the middle of the highway. Then the snowfall decreased but the wind increased, and there were snowdrifts on the lane. And the drive didn't seem to end. Then we took an interstate towards Colorado, yes our 9th state, and it got slightly better, but the road quality was terrible... huge potholes in the middle of the highway. Finally, we reached Denver, then Golden. Exit, the final left turn... crash! Collision with another car. Of course, a huge shock. Luckily, neither us nor the driver of the other car got hurt. 3 snowplows immediately stopped, offered help, and regulated traffic. Then it took a while for the state police to take everything down. The car was a total loss and was towed away. We could walk to the hotel, it happened practically right in front of the door. Then a nerve-wracking phone call with the car rental agency. We were worn out... A day to forget! 😩

After a bad night's sleep and chest pain (from the impact...), the next annoying phone call with the car rental agency followed. After about 1.5 hours of being transferred multiple times, using an interpreter who I understood worse than the actual person in the broadest US-English, we finally got a replacement car. Unfortunately, a tiny one that had never been cleaned... The main thing was, we could continue driving. More snowfall was predicted in the Rocky Mountains for the day. We set off with an uneasy feeling. All in all, the drive was okay. However, I was relieved to leave the Rockies behind me. I was happy when I saw the first red rocks in Utah! I probably won't warm up to Colorado... When we arrived in Moab, we checked into the hotel and treated ourselves to a burger dinner at Denny's in the evening. The calories are listed on the menu: My double cheeseburger with fries had up to 1500 kcal! Respect! The calories of Evi's bacon gouda burger with fries are conveniently left out...! But it was very delicious!

~ C.