Side Trip Away from Crafting - Coming Along With Us on Vacation - Post #2

This is my second post that takes you on a side trip away from my crafting and with me on a vacation with my family where we are road tripping across the US – the ultimate way to learn the geography of the U.S. You can see my first post here where I showed you some of the resources we used to learn about the United States on the way.   I promise to be back next week with my regular crafting posts!

After Independence Rock (see this post to learn more about it) , we then headed on through Wyoming to Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota.

Wow – what a neat place! If you ever have a chance to go there, make sure you plan to spend plenty of time. We had the kids do the Junior and Teen Ranger Program which is basically a booklet that you fill out that sends you on a scavenger hunt throughout the park to find out information, including requiring you to talk to the rangers and read/watch/experience various exhibits. We all learned a lot more doing the booklets as we had to “research” to find some of the answers. Even the my little girls (7 & 9) now understand what presidents are on the monument and why. The area around Mt. Rushmore has a lot to do and see…we wish we could have spent more time there but we were on a schedule to get to the quizzing competition. One other neat monument really close to Mt. Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Monument that is being built.

This one is being done with private funds and being built by a family. One of the neatest things we found about the monument is the story of the late sculptor, his wife and his 10 children who are carrying on the process of building the monument. There is a lot to see and do there….the sculptor’s wife is now 80 years old. It was her birthday when we were there…..she continues to run the “show”.

I have to tell you that we loved South Dakota! When we headed from Mt. Rushmore, across the state, we ran into a big thunderstorm! I’m talking BIG! We had never seen hail so big:

We found out later that a few miles away the hail was even bigger…..tennis to soft ball size….which broke people’s windshields! We were blessed enough to be under an awning at a gas station, filling up, when the hail came….no dents for us!

(Braving the elements to collect giant hail)

Come back tomorrow to see where we headed to next…….one of the real surprise highlights of our trip…..any guesses?