Mount Rushmore will always remain in my mind as having 2 distinct, but almost conflicting qualities. The first is how small the carving itself is compared to my mind's eye. As we drove around the mountain to reach the top level of observation, we kept expecting to see the famous faces of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln. (Whoever placed the observation lot was a marketing genius~you have to pay before you can see anything but a glimpse.) We literally had to pull into the parking lot before we could see anything noteworthy, and were immediately shocked at how "small" the actual carving is! We are so used to seeing Mount Rushmore on postcards and in pictures, that we were expecting it to be huge and it doesn't seem so from the distance. The shock is immediately replaced by awe, however, because we couldn't help but notice how wonderfully intricate the faces are~what a labor of love & respect! We are so glad that we made this detour! Although it adds time to our already long journey ahead, the memory will forever remain~
We decided that we wouldn't drive more than 6 hours per day throughout our trip, so the end of day 2 took us to Wall Drug, South Dakota. I'd heard of this "town" before because Joe stopped here when he visited the mid-west with Bruce~ in fact, I got a t-shirt & baseball hat as a souvenir. Joe was so amused by what the town had to offer that he made that our goal destination for night 2. After stopping our first night in Casper, WY, we were hoping to have a little more activity for the kids when we stopped. We were definately entertained by what Wall Drug had to offer, and I'm sure that the kids had just as much fun in the pool at the hotel with Dad as they did at any of the silly venues all through town. Lucky for us, the old-fashioned picture place was closed for the night before we pulled into town or I would've forced my family to participate in some silly saloon girl/cowboy vintage picture. Joe couldn't hide his relief when we discovered the "Closed" sign on the door~as if there isn't enough shame in the pix we took ourselves!
Apparently, we couldn't get enough of South Dakota. Who knew they had so much to offer?! Our next stop (a very brief one, mind you) was in Mitchell, SD, to see the Corn Palace. WTH?! The Corn Palace is a community center that is decorated with whole cobs of corn~all different colors, to form murals on every single wall. They also, we were told, hold sporting events, concerts and plays there. How corny!!! We had to tear ourselves away from the wonders this building possessed, so what we needed was an equally appealing distraction upon which to re-focus our attention. Good thing Mitchell, SD also has a doll museum. Seriously, anyone with a daughter Mykah's age has no chance of escaping Mitchell without having to fork over $9 per person, including children, to walk through a venue completely dedicated to dolls, their history and every variation on the original ever created. Joe volunteered to wait outside with Max~galant, isn't he?! Of course, pictures of the Doll Museum were available~for an additional fee. I just hope we can remember it without one!
After our 2nd night's stop, we realized that the only thing the kids cared about on this trip was having a movie in the car, something to munch on while watching said movie and a swimming pool at the hotel we stopped at to rest for the night. This being said, night 3 was spent in South Bend, Indiana, where we had our first difficulty in finding a hotel that had a swimming pool and no policy against dogs, since we were obviously traveling with Bodie. You don't want to know, I'm sure, that we had to sneak Bodie into the hotels pretending he was a baby more than once! From there, we traveled on the next day and stopped for a couple of hours in Cleveland, Ohio at the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame. Mykah loves music so much that we just knew she would get a kick out of the displays there. Although she didn't appreciate the same things we did, it was still fun to expose her to some of the memories Joe and I associate with particular songs of the music icons represented there. The most memorable moment for me & Joe, however, was etched into our long-term memories on our way to the museum. It was Gay Pride day in Cleveland, and the festivities seemed to be centered directly around our entire walk there. How many of you, our family and friends from Idaho and Utah, have tried to explain why the boys were wearing more makeup and fingernail polish than the girls and why those same boys were kissing & holding hands with other boys? Talk about culture shock!
After the Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame, we drove for another hour and spent our 5th and final night on the road in Ashtabula, Ohio. This night proved our most difficult. We could not find a hotel with a pool, let alone one with a pool that would let Bodie within 100 feet of the place. We finally found a hotel that led to a discussion with Mykah about the really important things in life~like families being together, not how yucky our hotel was! It was under remodel construction, but we honestly couldn't figure out which part was old & which part was updated. Joe promised her that the next day we would arrive in Ithaca and since he'd been staying at the same hotel we would be staying at, he could absolutely guarantee that this would be our only night in a hotel with no pool. She was such a good sport! The only time we came seriously close to a melt down on her part is if we approached a new state line without first buying a postcard with the name of the state we were in on it. And, as much as I hate to admit it, the kids and the dog did GREAT in the car for 6 days~sadly, I cannot say the same for myself. Between the pain that my not-quite-healed tailbone put me in and the anxiety over traffic that was beyond my small town girl comprehension, I was really a pain in the ass! But now we're here and looking forward to moving on with this new chapter in our lives.
I wonder what New York has in store for us...
No comments:
Post a Comment