Road Trip 2010---the moment when my breath was taken away.....(Day 3)

We had been driving for many miles by this, the near end of Day 3....we were tired, but excited to make it to our next stop.  Our main stop and pivot point for this year's road trip travels.  The sun was setting.  We were making the turns according to our handy dandy GPS...and at one point, when we were within just a few miles of our destination, Temple took the wrong turn (according to the GPS)...although he was following actual road signs instead!! 

 I was yelling, in proper wifely fashion and tone..... "what are you doing? you should have just followed the GPS lady and do what she said, now we're going to have to backtrack and waste even more time."

The kids were yelling that they couldn't see the mountain.  Temple was pointing out the car windows and yelling, "right there it is, just look right there, can't you see it, we're driving right at it."

The kids and I were yelling back with the sun blinding us directly in our line of sight of the mountain in question,....."we can't see anything for the sun, you're wearing those sunglasses and maybe you can see something, but we don't see it"

Temple, "Kimberly, look, it's right there...."

and in that moment, he drove the vehicle around a curve and the sun was shadowed by another mountain, our vision was clear and straight in front of my very eyes was this beauty to behold...

No, my friends, it's not just a mountain with some President's heads carved into it.....it is a National symbol....and it took my breath away.   We rounded that corner, with a blue sky in the background, pine trees all around, and witnessed a moment like no other....I wish I had the video camera on....all of us were stunned by the sight, by the depth, by the magnitude, by the symbolism represented, by the fact that we were really seeing America....right there on that mountain.

And yes, I lugged my big lens all the way across 7 states, just to use it for a few pictures at this monument....and it was worth it and more.

The photo below shoes the mountain as it originally stood, before any blasting or carving began.   Work began on Mt. Rushmore in 1927 and ended in 1941.  Over 400 workers took part in the carvings, each head sculpture is over 60 feet high.   We watched several video clips of the workers during that time, as well as interviews with some of them in later years, many years after the completion.  It was amazing to hear their stories of how they arrived at the face of the mountain each day, the work they did, the tools they used....I just can't imagine it, dangling over the nose of George Washington's head, drilling into the mountain to chisel out some more facial features....even with those harnesses on, too scary for me!!  Fortunately, although there were some injuries, there were no fatalities during the 14 years of work.

After leaving the museum, reading about all the workers, the sculptor's vision, the amount of hours put into this monument, the history behind the Presidents chosen, everything that went into this national symbol, we drove on around the mountain for one last look.....a side profile of George, ol' #1 himself....

would you just look at that glorious blue sky for a background....breath taking, I'm telling you, it was.

We drove further, into another town, before the sun completely set, to see yet another mountain carving....not yet completed:

Crazy Horse---an American Indian Hero

It is an ongoing memorial that does not have an estimated time of completion.  However, when completed the Crazy Horse mountain carving will be 641 feet long by 563 feet high. Crazy Horse's completed head (that you can see in the photo profile) is 87 feet 6 inches high. The horse's head (you can see it drawn in on the lower right face of the mountain), currently the focus of work on the mountain, is 219 feet or 22 stories high.

I still can't believe we were there.... no it's not a trip for everyone....not everyone would be as excited as we were....it's not a tourist spot where you could spend days and days with new activities all the time....but I could have spend days and days looking at it over and over again. 

For Temple and I, it was that impressive. 

My pictures and words are not enough.  They don't do it justice.  Our family in front of a mountain, carved with a monument of granite, faces of our American history.....