Dear Diary, 11 July 2011
We just stopped off at Aunt Rosie’s house in Denver, Colorado. It was so much fun hanging out with our cousin, Zachary. He wanted for us to come back – or to buy the house for sale next door.
~
Sterling, Colorado. A place I hope I never see again.
It’s like Texas in Colorado. For ten minutes, while I had to use the bathroom (and very badly, I might add), we searched for a single descent place to eat. We ended up settling on a Quiznos inside a gas station. There were only two girls running the entire place, probably college students since it was a junior college town (who would have thought from the look of it), so it was another half hour before our four small sandwiches were done. We had lunch at a gas station in the middle of nowhere.
~
The hour and a half tour through Black Hills, South Dakota was very scenic with tall trees peppering the rolling green hills, set off by a background of mountains. It would have been a realizing trip…if not for my mother and Time. My mother because she was worried we wouldn’t make it to Mount Rushmore before dark and Time because it kept going even though we were all practically on the edge of our seats to see the national monument in the daylight. The drive was long and unsure. Every so often, Mommy would glance at Daddy and say, “Are you sure I’m going the right way?” Who could blame her…we drove through two small town (one was rightly named Hot Springs, it was just like Hot Springs, Arkansas) with little indication that we were going the right direction but for the GPS. Up in the Black Hills, we would all wait expectantly around every turn of the curvy, uphill road for the familiar four faces. Time and time again, however, we were disappointed and Daddy had to resort to munching on Chex Mix. Finally, we came to one pull over filled with tourists who were pointing fingers and camera lenses towards one mountain which we couldn’t fully see. Mommy pulled over and looked around. “What are they looking at? Is this it? What should I do?” “I’ll check it out,” said daddy and with an ungraceful departure he did “check it out”. Us three left-behind onlookers anxiously awaited the verdict. When Daddy lifted the camera, we all started murmuring amongst ourselves, debating whether or not this was it and if we should get out. Mommy got out first, took in the surroundings, then jumped back behind the wheel faster than I thought she could move. “It’s just the side of George, dadburnit!” she exclaimed, and when Daddy was in the car, she peeled out.
Finally, around the next bend, was the full, complete Mount Rushmore. It was such a neat experience to finally see it in person. But the escapade did not end there, oh no. Being about 7:45 PM when we parked the van, Mommy desperately arranged us there in the parking lot for a picture below the still very distant mountain. “This is ridiculous, let’s just go closer,” I protested, but Mommy was convinced it would be dead of night by the time we got to the observation deck. So we took pictures there in the parking lot. Of course once at the actual monument where all the other tourists were, we realized that there was still a good hour before actual darkness and before the lighting of the monument. So yes, it was a memorable (and a bit stressful) adventure, but once we got there we were all laughing about it.
The lighting was preceded by a speech outlining the importance of the four presidents and about the making of the statues by Charlie Desmond (after watching LOST so much we thought his name was pretty awesome). Then a 20 minute video gave more information. It was very inspiring, patriotically. I enjoyed it a lot! There were so many people, all different, there, yet we are all Americans. Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, and those who have no political preference, it doesn’t matter. We’re all equal in the sight of God.
The weather – I am wearing a jacket and gloves! “Jacob, feel the window!” I told him during the endless Road to Rushmore. He did. “It’s cold! I’m wearing shorts. I’m so tough.”
No comments:
Post a Comment