08/15/2009
Mt. Rushmore finally
We all were dragging a bit this morning and we weren’t quite used to the fact that we all woke up at 7:30 but it was only 6:30 here in Keystone, SD. Not all of SD is on the Mountain Standard Time zone, but regardless it gave us an hour to get going. We made it to the on site restaurant and we were all very hungry. We ate, after waiting forever because the cook quit and the waiter had to cook and wait on people, and left for Mt. Rushmore. As we made the four mile trek to the site I didn’t know what to expect. It’s a weird feeling to know what you’re going to see, but only know it from pictures and of course National Treasure, which is one of our favorite movies. As we drove up and we could see the formations from the road I was already in awe. We got out and began walking up to the site and we, along with everyone else, began to madly snap pictures. As if the heads were going anywhere. We got off to a rough start with Bella not being too happy so Nick decided to walk back to the car to get her backpack. While waiting Nicolas and I went in the gift shop. While walking around I stumbled upon an author that wrote two books about the history of Mt. Rushmore along with many pictures. I sat there and spoke with him about the history and he answered many of my questions about why it took so long to finish, did the begin building after Pres. Coolidge came and gave his speech, was this the original setting of where the faces were going to go……..
He said in 10 years he’s never had someone ask so many questions and know so much about the site before actually visiting. I then told him that I taught history and I am enthralled by the history of American history. He signed his book for me and then asked me if I would like a case of his books to take and give to a school to be used in a classroom. I told him that would be great and I would love to. SCORE free stuff!!!!
We left the gift shop and made our way to the amphitheater where the boardwalk begins for visitors to walk up to the bottom of the mountain. It is so hard to explain the enormity of Mt. Rushmore but it was amazing! We did the entire walk, despite Nicolas wanting to come back another time because he didn’t want to walk anymore. “We can always come back some other time.” Really Nicolas, Really? Each man on the Mountain was chosen for a distinct reason. Washington was chosen because he helped the US begin it’s journey, Jefferson was chosen because of the Louisiana Purchase which doubled the US in size, Lincoln was chosen because he helped keep the US together during a time that could have gone very differently and last Roosevelt, Teddy, because of the Panama Canal as well as his very keen sense that preservation of our lands was and is so very important. What was very interesting was a few weeks before our arrival protestors from Green Peace snuck up to the top of Mt. Rushmore and staked a banner that read something like, Politicians not Politics with a picture of Obama on the banner. All the people that were involved were caught and are facing 6 months in jail and a 5,000 fine. So at the top of Roosevelt’s head there were surveyors making sure nothing was damaged by the protestors. The park is also looking into increasing security although they are being very hush hush about the whole ordeal. After many pictures and some fun video we made our way back to the car so we could make our way to Crazy Horse. On our way we saw some kids on a cliff that were going to jump into the Sheridan Lake. We stop to watch while I took pictures of the pretty scenery. Nicolas rolled his window down and sat on the sill egging on the jumpers. As we were getting ready to leave I got in the car and didn’t realize Nicolas was not yet in his seat. His hand was in my door jam and I slammed my door shut. Yes his hand was in the door while I shut it. Needless to say there was lots of grunting and I jumped out and ran to the back of the car to get a bag of ice and get in the bag o crap to get some pain relief for him. Nick apparently thought I was just hanging out and getting in the cooler to get a soda. He said, “Errin what are you doing? You just slammed his hand in the door.” Uh yea Nick I know thanks. So after getting him some ice and calming him down we decided to go to the town of Custar and see if we could find an Urgent Care to make sure his hand wasn’t going to fall off. We quickly realized that perhaps the Crazy Horse monument might have a first aid station so we decided to run in there real quick and see if they could look at his hand. They wanted to charge $27.00 for us to “visit” the monument. They were very kind though and let us through and told us to go to the visitor station. So we did and we were told that the closest facility was in Custar and all they could do would be to give us ice. We already had that so off we went to the town of Custar. They did give us a free pass though to return to Crazy Horse for free. SCORE!!!! We made our way into Custar and Nick was having a great time with the fact that I’m usually the one that finds the ER in small towns and that Nicolas is well on his way to follow in my footsteps. We arrived at the ER and Nick wanted to take a picture of us in front of the ER sign. In Nicolas and I went. The nurse and I talked and I let her know that I new it wasn’t broken because he would still be screaming and it would be very swollen. I guess I didn’t need to tell an ER nurse all that but feeling very guilty I did. She agreed with me, but she said she wasn’t a doctor and she would have to admit him to the ER in order to have a Dr. look at this hand. I asked Nicolas what he thought. He shook his head. The nurse asked him to put his left hand up to his right hand so we could see if it was swollen. It was a little swollen but nothing too bad. Nicolas decided that ice cream might cure his pain and he didn’t need to enter the ER. Thank God!!!! I thanked the nurses and off we went to go find some lunch with a good dessert area. We found a jackpot of a restaurant. This place had been written up in the Denver post and was on the travel channels, “Where to eat when in SD.” The paper also said that the restaurants in Custar don’t serve dessert after 6:00 pm because they know they can’t compete with this restaurant. Needless to say the food was good and the pie was fantastic. We left there and made our way back to Crazy Horse. It was so interesting for me to understand the behind the scenes of why it has taken so long to get what they have done actually done. This monument has not accepted any federal funding for this project. It is being done all through private donations. They don’t want to feel like the people don’t want this monument. Amazing!!!! We went to the movie that was very informative and walked around every angle of the monument to take pictures. They began this project in 1948 and they have the head completed. This monument will be the largest monument in the world. Mt. Rushmore could fit just on the hair of Crazy Horse, let alone the rest of his head, horse, or his hand pointing to his land. Needless to say it’s going to be huge. I wonder if they will have this monument completed in my lifetime. In 1998 they had the 50th anniversary. 50 years and they have so little completed because for so long it was just one man working on it and then he got married and had ten children and he then put them to work on it. They have turned down, twice, ten million dollars of federal funding. They do not want this to be a federally funded project. They know it would go much faster had they accepted the money but they also do not want to stand with their hands open all the time. The original sculptor DID NOT want money from the Government nor did the Lakota tribe who commissioned the sculptor in 1939.
We finally left after it started sprinkling and began making our way back to out cabin. It began to pour rain so we were very glad to be done with touring and being warm in the car. I wanted to stop at Sylvan Lake for a quick look and so we made our way along the twisty road. Had I known it was going to be so curvy we wouldn’t have gone. We finally made it and we were told it was going to be $15.00 for us to look at the lake. Well we turned around and didn’t get one picture of Lake Sylvan.
We’ve had a long, fun day and Isabella was a trooper throughout the day. She had one nap that was an hour and a half but other then that it was no more than 30 minutes here and there. Needless to say once we made it back to our cabin she was out within minutes. I rarely have time to write because I’m always with Bells by myself so this is great to have Nick here and Bella asleep. I’m so excited I can blog about the experiences we have had and all the very cool things we have been able to see.