Voices of the shutdown: "I had everybody cancel"
The owner of a small bed and breakfast, Rene Baustadt, from Custer, S.D., was really looking forward to the month of October.
"I was booked for October. This is my first year in business and I was really excited for October. September was pretty good but October was looking really good," said Baustadt, 52.
Her three-bedroom inn, Jake's Bed and Breakfast, is located 21 miles from Mount Rushmore.
"I had everybody cancel, because that's why they go there," said Baustadt.
Baustadt says her guests all told her they had to cancel their travel plans because of the government shutdown.
"They're [tourists] very upset. Some of them have waited their whole lives to see this place," said Baustadt.
Baustadt charges $175 a night; all three rooms were booked the entire month.
"I have some people at the very end of the month who are holding out hoping the shutdown will be over. People base their whole vacations out here on this kind of stuff. I've had to give back thousands of dollars already," said Baustadt.
"This will set me back at least six months in my payments, easily," she added.
Baustadt said tourists can't even stop along the road to take photos of Mt. Rushmore. Cones have been placed to block cars from pulling over.
"There's a place where you can see Mt. Rushmore from the highway and they wouldn't even let them look at it from the highway," said Baustadt.
Baustadt is worried about how long the shutdown will last for.
"It's just frustrating this being my first year in business, cause this is hurting me a lot. It's not like I'm a rich person," she said. "I couldn't go on for very long, trying to make those payments on that place and keep it."
Asked about the politics hindering her business, Baustadt replied, "In my opinion, don't punish the people that are trying to make a living because of tourism and stuff, you're just hurting American public and those are the people that vote for you."
"It's just wrong because it's like two children fighting, one of them won't give up, and everybody else is suffering from it," she added.
