Fireworks! - worth the wait

We have talked about being in Mt. Rushmore for their fireworks extravaganza hand in hand with hitting the road in our RV since the discussion first came up, calling it the real starting point of our adventure. Since they usually draw 20 to 30 thousand spectators we decided not to take any chances and get the lay of the land the day before, find out where to park, where to sit, how early to show up etc. We were told by a park ranger that unless we showed up by 9am the parking garage would be full and we would have to walk 3 miles up the hill (little did we know that walking would be preferable, but more on that later). His next piece of information was a shocker.... unless there was rain in the next 24 hours the fireworks would be cancelled as the immediate fire danger was extremely high. Current forecast showed the chance or rain at less than 30 percent, (might I add it was 95 degrees and not a cloud in the sky). We awoke the next morning to find.... guess what....low clouds and drizzle, the fireworks gods were indeed smiling on us! We got to the parking garage by 9am interred the park, placed our chairs in perfect positions and then......hmmmm... what the heck are we going to do for the next 13 hours! After walking the trail 3 time, listening to the audio tour, checking out the museum, gift shop and eating we only had.....uh.... 9 hours left to kill. I won't bore you with the minute by minute details, suffice to say we killed the time.
The show started with a Lakota tribal prayer that ended oddly enough with a low level fly by from a B-1 bomber with full afterburners that rattled your teeth! The fireworks were everything we expected... pictures to be posted soon. After the show we headed to the garage only to find that they would not let traffic out for at least an hour and a half, that was to let the thousands of people walk down to their cars safely. When we did leave the parking area we were directed down the opposite side of the hill, a detour of more that 20 miles.... why....because they had accidently set fire to part of the park with the fireworks.
Today we went to the Crazy Horse monument, Carving began in 1948 and when finished it will be every bit as spectacular as Mr. Rushmore, it's a truly an amazing story worth checking out on line if you have a chance. We were lucky enough to arrive just as they were blasting away part of the mountain, talk about fireworks!
Happy 4th of July to all!