Day 5- July 4th at Mt. Rushmore
We woke up on Independence Day morning and dressed all in red/white/blue. Most of us had matching shirts, which was fun. First, we went to see Devil's Tower, in Wyoming, which was featured in the film, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." It was pretty impressive. While we were there, the girls found the biggest wishing flowers we have ever seen! They loved "sending" their gigantic wishes flying all over. Then we left Wyoming and headed into South Dakota, which was a first for all 8 of us. As we drove to Mt. Rushmore, it was neat to see so many flags flying in celebration of our wonderful country. We also enjoyed the cute little town, especially the Dairy Queen. (Although, I have to say that it was a bit too commercialized for my taste.) We had been told recently, by many people, that Mt. Rushmore was a bit disappointing because everyone expects it to be larger. However, it didn't disappoint one bit for me. It was really amazing! And quite special to be there on the 4th of July. We even had a request for a picture of our cute patriotic family in front of the mountain, by a cute elderly couple. We were able to see lots of fun things at Mt. Rushmore like the row of state flags (Sariah especially like South Dakota, which has the same initials as her, and Riana liked Rhode Island, and of course, we all liked the Washington flag,) the men dressed up as the 4 presidents, the small practice sculptures and plans for the mountain, and the girls thought it was neat that we rode in the Washington elevator and parked in the Washington parking lot. After spending the afternoon learning about Mt. Rushmore, we headed to Jewel Caves. On the way, we saw "Chief Crazy Horse Monument" from the road. Unforunately, Jewel Caves was all sold out. Who knew? I guess they can only let a certain amount of people in at a time. On our way back to Mt. Rushmore, we drove through a downpour and lightning storm, which made for really cool clouds. (It also made us really happy that we didn't set up our tent, when we stopped and grabbed a campsite, which was recommended by a worker at Mt. Rushmore.) The girls also had fun playing barbies and watching movies, on the way. When we arrived back at Rushmore, we let the kids pick out souveniors, as we waited for the program to begin. It began with a ranger speaking about Mt. Rushmore, it's creator- Gutzon Borglum, and about our country. Then we watched a movie about each of the presidents, who were chosen for Mt. Rushmore, and just what they have done for our country. After the movie, they brought everyone in the military to the stage and thanked them. Then, the entire crowd sang the National Anthem, which brought tears to my eyes. As we sang, they lit up the mountain, which was pretty neat. (I feel so blessed to live in this incredible country and am especially thankful for those who have sacrificed so much to make our freedoms possible.) I have to say that being there on the 4th of July made it just that much more special. I highly recommend it! (On our way to our campsite, Washington's glowing head popped out of the trees. It was pretty cool!)
Day 6- July 5th
We woke up and enjoyed our perfect camping site-- overlooking a beautiful lake, perfect temperatures, a great price, not overcrowded, and only 2 miles from Mt. Rushmore. (We were so thankful for the recommendation.) Then we headed toward Omaha, Nebraska. However, while we were still in South Dakota, we stopped (also because of a recommendation and also a million signs) at Wall Drug, which is a drug store, or more like a mall. It is probably the world's largest drug store. It was a bit too touristy and a bit overpriced, in my opinion. However, it was fun to see and I don't blame the town for trying to reel in tourists (which it seemed a lot of towns out in the midwest did.) While there, we took some fun pictures-- including one my girls like to call, "Chief Mama Crazy Horse." LOL!! Hilarious! I made that face just to be funny and didn't realize Grant was actually taking the picture. After we left Wall Drug, we stopped to grab some ice cream at Dairy Queen, since it was pretty hot outside and the girls decided to take some pictures with the giant ice cream cone. Cute! (We also fed the kids all kinds of fun snacks on the trip and I decided we should bring paper/plastic cups on every trip, to divide out the snacks. It worked well!) Then we drove on, right down the border between Iowa and Nebraska (adding two more states to our check list- neither of which we had ever been to.) Through there, we saw lots and lots of flooding! It was crazy, and sad! We even saw a water park. Well, it wasn't suppose to be a water park... more like a park full of water. We also drove through a part of the freeway, that had sandbags lining both sides. Then as we drove closer to Omaha, we actually had to be rerouted because of all the floodings. Freeways were even closed! It actually added 30-45 minutes to our trip. (You can't tell from the pictures but during that last hour or two, Calyssa was having her hardest night of the trip. So glad we decided to stop and feed her and not just wait out the last 15 min., which turned into almost an hour.) However, during that 30-45 minutes, we saw one of the coolest things on our whole trip! As we were driving, and the sun was almost set, I looked over the fields next to the road. I saw the craziest thing-- there were little glowing lights blinking all across the field. There must've been thousands of these little glowing lights!! I turned to Grant and said, "what is that??" He said, "It must just be a reflection of some sort." And then it dawned on me! "No!! It totally has to be fireflies!! How cool!!" Seriously, one of the coolest things I have ever seen! Right then, one hit our windshield and the guts glowed for probably 3-4 minutes! Then another hit! And another! Sad but cool at the same time!! (My brother-in-law, Brian, joked that if we hit enough, we wouldn't have to use our headlights! Silly Brian!) I have to say that fireflies/lightning bugs were an unexpected, yet pleasant, surprise! (More to come about those later.) When we arrived in Omaha, we drove over to Winter Quarters (which isn't in the best part of town) and checked it out. We ran into some BYU-I students, on a tour. That was fun. But then we drove a safe distance away and found a hotel to stay in.
