The Beginning: Mount Rushmore or “Is that it?”

It’s funny that I took the opportunity to blog about my vacation while camping in the Black Hills near Mount Rushmore with an iffy internet connection, but haven’t shared much since. For once in my life, I think I tried to just fully embrace the now and live without stopping to take a hundred pictures or write about what was happening. I began missing blogging toward the end of our nearly 3 week vacation, but it felt good to unplug and just be.

To provide some perspective on our trip, we started in central Illinois near Springfield with the Seattle area as our destination. We couldn’t afford to fly home and my husband suggested for the second year that we take a road trip. Last year I laughed and emphatically said “No way!” Tim is a persistent fella, but he also knows how to let me come to things in my own time (most of the time). I really wanted to go home this summer, so I just closed my eyes and decided to jump into the unknown of a major road trip.

Here are some stats from our trip:
*We traveled a little over 5600 miles round trip.
*We crossed 12 states and slept in 4 – South Dakota, Idaho, Washington, and Utah.
*We traveled with 3 kids under 5 – Ella turns 5 on 8/31, Ezra is 2 1/2, and Kai was 2 1/2 months.
*We saw three major US landmarks.
*We slept in tents, cabins, houses, and our van.
* We traveled nearly 20 hours before stopping to sleep the first leg of the trip.
*I have yet to figure out how many tanks of gas we used, but it was major.
(More to come in future posts!)

Our first major stop came at Mount Rushmore. It was supposed to take about 17 hours, but flooding in Iowa and pit stops made it about twenty. The kids had no idea what they were getting into and they slept for chunks of the trip, so I think this is how we made it in the car this long. Honestly, they were such troopers. Thank goodness for portable DVD players (which we learned to turn off when the scenery turned amazing in the West) and new $5 Walmart DVDs because they were a major source of entertainment on the road.

I wish we could have stayed in South Dakota for a week. The scenery near Mount Rushmore is incredible and there is so much to do there – 1800s Steam Train rides in the Black Hills, adventures on a Wild Mustang reserve, a reptile garden (whatever that is), panning for gold, camping, a visit to the place where “Dances with Wolves” was made, and more. We only had a late night camping stop in the rain, then swimming at the camp site, then a day viewing the grand national monument, though.

Driving up to Mount Rushmore is pretty amazing, seeing those presidential profiles carved grandly on the rock  to your right. During the 10 minute drive to this site, the kids began to fall asleep, of course. We parked at the park ($11 for a 1 year pass isn’t bad), pushed the stroller, and carried Kai in his Sleepy Wrap. The sun was shining and it was the perfect day for enjoying the view.

We walked around the park, enjoying the different sides of the monument, but forgoed a tour because I didn’t think the kids would have the patience for it. This turned out to be a good call because my favorite moment of the day came when Ella looked at the amazing site people came from all over the world to see and inquired “Is that it?” 5 year-old’s verdict of Mount Rushmore: Pretty cool, but what’s the big deal? I think they were more impressed with these enormous ice cream cones (Ezra didn’t even make it to the cone):

I was quite a bit more impressed, but I can definitely say that the sites to come on our trip only got better.