I guess all the pictures I had seen of Mt Rushmore were just close up of the presidents faces because I thought it was just a big granite mountain in the middle of the desert, or at least an area like he badlands, with 4 presidential busts. I didn’t realize the mountain is in the middle of a beautiful forest with trees, lots of them. I was up making dinner as we were driving up the mountain. We had been in badland country and that is what I expected, when the mountain came into view all the kids started cheering so I came up front to see it and I was shocked. There were trees. I love trees and forests and green. It was beautiful and the faces were magnificent. In a movie we watched on Mt Rushmore it said the builder wanted to carve something as colossal as the American dream and magnificent as the American spirit, well I think he succeeded. It is pretty cool.
We got out and walked around and took some pictures. There were people everywhere and I wondered if we could get a very good of just us with the faces. I thought we just need to be higher so we don’t have the crowds in or the bottom half of the mountain in our pictures. Then I saw our rv and thought – that is higher. So I had Rick and all the kids, except Rachel- who was being a handful, climb up on top of the Rv and take the picture. They thought t was great fun to climb up there, no one fell off and Rick said the picture looked good so it was a success.
We walked down to the visitors center and the gift shops, there were more gift shops there than I think I have ever seen at an attraction. I hate gift shops. We took a lot of pictures, went to a ranger talk in the sculpture about how the faces were made. It was pretty interesting, amazing that someone could not only conceive such an idea but then be able to design it and then calculate the exact amount and area to place the dynamite in order to blow out the rock that was covering the face. Amazing. We then went though the museum and hiked up the presidential trail.
Anna has been so excited to see Mt Rushmore, she was assigned to give us a report on it, so she researched it and feels like it hers. Her report was very interesting, she told us there is a vault behind the mountain where some documents like the Declaration of Independence (not the real one obviously) are on display. So she looked and looked for the vault. We never found it. We toured the museum and watched the visitors center movie.
We went in as many gift shops as I could handle. Rachel really wanted a postcard and sat quietly in the movie so she earned one. So I took her into the shop to buy it, she had it all picked out. It wasn’t in the first shop we went to, or the second shop. It was, naturally, in the farthest shop. I assumed she would choose one of the 35cent post cards – she didn’t. The one she fell in love with that was 2.50. I really didn’t want to spend that much on something I had my doubts would even make it back to the rv but she talked me into it. We went up to pay and found out he didn’t talk credit cards. Well we had $34 dollars in cash and the camping place we were planning on staying cost $32.50. I wasn’t sure if they would take credit cards or not so I wanted to save at least $32.50 (hopefully there wouldn’t be tax on top of that). So I told Rachel she couldn’t get that one – it broke her little heart. She was devastated. The cashier tried to help her find a similar one that was cheaper but she just had her heart set on that one – it had fireworks and that is why she liked it. Well after about 10 minutes of crying and trying to sell her on another one I finally told her I would count to ten and if she hadn’t chosen one we would leave. I got to 10- twice- and so I picked up sobbing and started for the door. She said “ok, ok, ok” I will get another one. I put her down and as her feet hit the floor she turned off the tantrum, she stopped crying and started smiling, she ran over grabbed another one and just like ran over and paid for it herself just as happy as could be. She proudly carried her postcard and receipt around the rest of the day. She was careful not to lose them. Her receipt did get lost at one point – but fortunately receipts aren’t all that hard to find. It is a good thing she can’t read and all receipts look pretty much the same.
Well we had seen all we wanted to see by about 6:00 pm. The lighting ceremony starts at 9:00 so we debated what to do. Some wanted to wait some wanted to leave. So we took a vote. 4 to 3 – leaving won. So we headed out. But Anna, Ryan and Dallin hadn’t spent all there money and since this was our last stop to buy souvenirs we had to go back to the gift shops. I didn’t think I could handle stepping foot in a store, especially with Rachel, so she and I went for a walk. We walked around for close to an hour. I took a lot of pictures of her – she loves to get her picture taken, all alone without the other kids. She is quite the poser. Anyway a group of Japanese girls were watching her. She was really hamming it up for the camera and they were eating it up. They smiled at her and waved and she smiled back and they took a picture of her. Well then she wanted a picture of them. I told her I wasn’t going to go over there and take a picture of a group of girls I didn’t know. But I let her hold the camera and take it. Finally they came over and ask if they could take a picture with my little girl. I said they could and so they each took their turn taking a picture with her. I wouldn’t let just anyone do that- but these girls, and one guy seemed innocent enough. Plus we had seen them earlier each getting their picture taken with Miss Mt Rushmore so I figured they just liked pictures with cute girls. Rachel also had to get her picture taken with “the Mt Rushmore Princess” we had to stand in line to do it. I thought it was kind of weird – actually really weird – that so many adults wanted their picture taken with miss mt Rushmore. She was cute but I wasn’t super impressed. But there were a couple groups of oriental people, old and young and then a couple groups of senior citizens. Even the old men wanted their picture taken with her. I doubt she was more than 15. But they ran up and put their arm around her while their wives were snapping pictures. Weird. Anyway so let Rachel pose with these girls. She loved it. Absolutely loved it. After they left Rachel said – now I am like the Mt Rushmore princess. It still surprises me how many people come up to me and comment on how cute Rachel is. When she was a baby I couldn’t leave the house without strangers coming up to look at her and comment. It really was constant. She is really beautiful – but I still think it is odd people comment on it so much. While we were waiting we ran into one more person who liked to watch Rachel. It was a young man – maybe 25, and kind of rough looking. I felt like he was following us around, closely. Every time I looked over my shoulder he was there. Well Rachel wanted to ride the elevator so we went over to do that. He followed us. I ignore it but as we were standing there waiting for the elevator to come I got really nervous. I told myself I was being sily since we were in a public place. I just didn’t want to be alone in the elevator with him. So right as the door opened I picked up Rachel and said, “let’s go potty first” and ran in the bathroom. She of course screamed I don’t have to go. We walked in the bathroom that was right next to the elevator. I told her I just wanted to wait till that man left so we could ride all by ourselves. She thought that was a fun idea and giggled because we were being sneaky. Well she peeked her head out of the bathroom to check if he had left. He was gone we came out. But as we came around he was standing in the elevator holding the door open. I picked her up and went back in the bathroom. That kind of freaked me out. No one else was around. Why would someone stand in the elevator and hold the door open – it had been awhile. Anyway he finally left so we came out. We saw him a couple more times – once he was sitting on a bench smoking. Rachel just had to comment on “there is the man from the elevator we ran away from and he is SMOKING” she can be such a delight.
Anyway we met back up with Rick, the kids had successfully spent all their money so we headed back to the RV. I was a little disappointed at not seeing the lighting program but at the same time I was relieved at not having to hang around for a couple more hours. Rachel was wearing me out. Also it would have been a really late night by the program was over at 10:00 and we got to our campsite – about an hour away.
Well it was early enough that we decided we would just keep driving as long as we could. The kids turned on a movie and we just pushed on. With the help of the 5 hour energy drink we brought for emergencies we made it to Cody Wyoming, about 3 hours further than planned. We pulled in a Walmart parking lot and crashed. It worked out great because we didn’t have to scrape together the last of our pennies for a camp site – it was cool enough we didn’t need the AC and it is fast and easy to stay at walmart. I did have Rick run in and buy a gallon of water and I stood in the shower and washed me hair by dumping the water over my head. The campground in the badlands didn’t have showers and I really needed one by the time we got there – another day hiking meant I was desperate. I would have just used the shower but with no water hookups I was afraid we would run out and we need to have enough water to make it through the day. Since we had planned at staying somewhere with hookups we hadn’t bothered to dump or fill up the night before and we are running pretty full on the one and pretty empty on the other.
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