We made Jesse work until the very last day.
We clung to her, until the very last hour.
Then we loaded the car at 8:00 p.m. and headed out.
Bert and I pretended to be younger than we are, and drove through the night.
That we made it is alive is a miracle-
like Moses type big.
We loved the Badlands!
We loved Mt. Rushmore!
We loved Custer State Park!
We really loved the Crazy Horse Monument!
(Who knew??)
And we were more than ready to crash that night in our tent.
No cushion necessary.
But before we could get there we had to wait for this bus.
It got stuck in the tunnel.
It was worth a good chuckle.
And our campsite was worth the wait.
It had a waterslide, 15 different bounce houses, life size chess,
basketball courts, miniature golf, gold panning,
-and earplugs for sale...
The next day we toured Waldrug and Deadwood.
I have no pictures.
And that is sad, because they were both fantastic!
Our favorite part of Deadwood was, of course, the cemetery.
Wall Drug was one of Bert's finds.
And this time, I was impressed.
...but I'm too far behind, and it's too long of a story.
I couldn't have been more thrilled to run across the buffalo jump.
I've always wanted to visit one!
This was another of Bert's finds.
I don't know where he gets his info on these out of the way places,
but they sure make a long drive a lot more pleasant...
Because there's not much to see between Custer's Last Stand and Devil's Tower.
But wait, I think I'm out of order.
Oh well, it's not like you're looking at a map, right?
So somewhere in there we hit Custer's Last stand.
I love this picture.
It's typical.
Bert explaining, answering questions, being patient, and teaching.
He's awesome.
It's a sobering place, and a thought provoking spot.
...or maybe they're just worn out.
If you're lacking reading material, please, feel free to continue. But, I'm pretty sure only missionary's are this desperate-
Dear Justin and Cache,
Today has been a great day. There are lots of good days in life, but the great days are pretty fun surprises, huh? I'm sitting here in the beautiful Black Hills , South Dakota KOA campground while I type. I'm (semi) watching Hydn as he runs from amenity to amenity to play. Dad and the others are behind me playing a game of Knockout on the basketball court. This KOA campground is a 6-12 year old's dream come true. It has over ten blow up bounce houses, a big playground, a waterslide, pool, little toy trikes for adults, and a life size chess/checkerboard. Hydn's having a ball! So anyway, back to today. Well, I guess even further than that. We borrowed the Underwoods nice big car (they are amazing, aren't they?) We're pulling the little carry trailer behind us. There was no way to fit sleeping bags, clothes, food, and all of Jesse's things. We left Friday night when Dad and Calder got home. Dad and I thought we could pull off an all nighter. Well, we didn't really "think" it, but we knew we HAD to if we were going to make it in our alloted time frame. Dad listened to a Patrick McManus book on tape while he drove, the kids watched Jurassic Park , and when I drove I listened to a book called 'Freakanomics'. I don't know about the others' choice of entertainment, but mine was fascinating!
We got to our KOA last night around seven and crashed. This morning we got up, had all you can eat pancakes (Dad won the game of miniature golf last night we had to 'serve' him for his prize this morning), and then took off for Mt. Rushmore . I don't know what your expectations of Mt. Rushmore are... It's probably somewhere between Pal's and mine. Pal has had it at the top of his bucket list for the past four years, while it didn't even make the top 100 places to see in America on mine. Fortunately, Pal was smarter than me. It was great! I stared at it forever. But, I still can't say that I agree with the choice of busts he chose.
I also worry that IF something big were to happen, like say Obama brought us under UN power, that I would also have to blast poor Lincoln's face off -in order to assuage my guilt. Because I wouldn't want him staring at me when I joined the Texas revolution for liberation.
This opinion was verbalized, and of course led to another 'discussion' on the never ending question on whether the North or South of the Civil War were correct. We came to the conclusion in this particular round (or at least I did - Calder held out) that IF you were to side with the North then you couldn't have been a patriot in the Revolutionary war - you would have been a Torry. This discussion lasted most of the way through our drive of Custer State Park . A beautiful park of the Black Hills . Just beautiful. Fortunately we were distracted right as the discussion was taking a turn to debate, by none other than a tour bus STUCK in one of the tunnels. There were about five tunnels on the road. All of them only big enough for one way traffic. This bus attempted it and stuck itself tight. It was too funny. It got stuck just enough to scrape all it's sides and make us wait for fifteen minutes, but not long enough to make us turn back and retrace our steps. So, perfect!!
Next we drove over to the Crazy Horse Monument . Have you even heard of it? Fifty years ago they started a project to carve out Crazy Horse - one of the chiefs of Little Big Horn Battle. I had not thought much of the project when I first heard of it in high school. I didn't even want to go see it today. I have repented. It. was. awesome! Justin, you may not be aware that I have moved our hero wall. I moved it to where we had our family pictures. I've had one empty frame sitting on the wall for a year and a half now. I couldn't decide which hero to put up there. I have made my decision. It will be a picture of the man and wife who started the Crazy Horse project. What an inspiring story! Still not convinced? I'll work on convincing you both when we get home. I'm in love with that guy. It will probably not be finished in my lifetime. Maybe you can take your kids someday though.
And now we are back at camp. I'm supposed to be cooking supper (tortilla soup tonight), so that we can head back up to Rushmore for the night lighting ceremony. I got distracted because I wanted to make sure you got a letter this week. ...I also got distracted by the water slide. Dad and I tried it. Pretty funny. Who knows if we'll get time to eat tonight or not...
I love you both! We're missing you on this trip, but not feeling OVERLY bad as we know you're LIVING/SEEING twice as much.
Love,
Mom
P.S. We saw one bison today, one turkey, and six mountain goats - not bad. We're having a contest to see who finds the most unusual and most game by the end of Yellowstone . Winner gets a t-shirt. First bison spotted IN Yellowstone gets a bag of jerky. My votes on Dad or Maddie.
P.P.S. Hydn asked me today for some "wishing money" to throw in the fountain. He was shivering with excitement. I gave him a penny and he ran for the fountain. He came back just grinning. I said, "Did you make a wish?" His face fell, "I for-dot." So I gave him another penny. He smiled even bigger and ran back to the fountain, while I watched. He threw it in, paused, turned, then hit his forehead with his palm. He came back, "I for-dot A-DIN!" I gave him one more, with a stern warning. He ran back, paused, threw it in, then clapped. He'd remembered this time. When he got back to me I said, "What'd you wish for?" He whispered, so I bent down and had him repeat it. He whispered again, "I wished that I tould FWY!" It was too cute. He's been sadly disappointed at all his attempts for take off since, but that hasn't kept him from trying to jump off every bench and wall.
Again, you are both loved and missed.
Mom
Dear Justin and Cache,
After South Dakota we henpecked each other all the way to Custer's Last Stand. Another interesting character to review when you come home? Crazy Horse. Pretty interesting person. We spent a few hours here listening to speakers, hiking, and driving around the site. I came away with the conclusion that history misleads you a bit by saying ALL of Custer's men were killed. True, all the men with him were killed, but not his entire group/regiment/squadron/passel/flock?? Maybe I should listen to details a little more carefully... While I was there, all I could think of was, "Where would I have hidden?" And there was no place to hide. So, I spent the rest of the time agonizing over which hill would have been better to die on. I came away deciding the first one. Wherever that was. Just an arrow to the back, in the very beginning, would be my choice. I did finally 'get' Johnny Horton's song "Comanche the Brave Horse". It's about a horse from that battle. The only horse that lived - and he had ten bullet wounds. He lived a very pampered life after that battle. I think for Comanche, it may have been worth living through.
We then piled back in the car and continued henpecking all the way to yet another 'Pinks'. This one was out in the middle of NOWHERE. Seriously. Population 13. There was a store kind of like Caddo's. Jesse picked up an old picture for her hope chest, for twelve dollars. We brought it home, since Jesse can't hang anything on her walls at school, and Maddie has already hung it in their bathroom. Technically we think this is okay, as it's still kind of Jesse's bathroom. After we'd stretched our legs here, we continued on to Devil's Tower. Another check mark for our 'seen this/done that' as a family. Probably no need to go back, but good to see once in your life. Further down the road we saw an Indian buffalo jump. I was super excited for this. I had hoped we could, but we didn't think it was on the way. Lucky for me, there was one right by the freeway and the day we stopped was the very last day of the year it was open. SCORE. Did I ever tell you that originally when I went to BYU I was going to be an archaeologist? That first semester had two whole classes dedicated to my newly discovered major. I had to drop the dream when I found out it takes them up to two months to clean a bone. Seriously? Definitely not for me. I was hoping to be an archeologist more like Heinrich Schliemann. :) Born too late I guess... Anyway, that was great fun. Or, so I thought. You may have different opinions if you get letters from others. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if they forgot that stop.
More coming next week.
Love you!
