Scenic Drive and Custer State Park

Two days ago we went on a very scenic drive where we saw pretty forests, beautiful overlooks, and other nice things. We saw the cool black hills, and even overlooked Mount Rushmore. It was all very scenic, and in 2010 it got in the top 10 of the worlds most scenic drives. Now, that's pretty cool.

Then after that we saw Custer State Park, where we were just cruising along and we saw buffalo right on the road! We slowly drove past them, and as we went past one behind us grunted loudly and crossed the road. You can imagine how scared we were!

We also saw packs of donkeys, and when we drove toward them others from the hills rode down toward us, and as we kept going, the white and black quadrupeds kept running, and we were thinking we were being ambushed. They wanted our food!

The only time we gave a donkey our food came when we saw a thin, lone donkey, and he came up to our car, putting a kind of, "Please?" face on him. We rolled down the window and threw some grapes onto the road for him to get them. He ate that, and then stuck his head in my car window and licked the frame. He wanted more! It was so funny. Eventually he got out of the road, and we kept driving.

At a restaurant, we ate lunch. It was very nice, and I ate some buffalo meat in buffalo stew. It actually tasted pretty good.

We went home, and Rebecca and I played at a playground. Two kids came up, and although our relationship with them was bumpy at first, we became friends and played a lot of games with them, like Zombie Tag and Ground. The eleven year old boy was named Slade, and I questioned what his real name was. "Slade," he answered firmly. "That was my name from birth." I didn't say anything about the matter further, but later I asked his Mom if that was his real name. She answered yes.

We left late at night and ate dinner. It was a really fun day.

The ground is rising,

Andrew.

The Rest of the Day of October 21st

We left Mount Rushmore and went to Crazy Horse, a carving some people said was better. We paid a very rip offy price, but we supposed it was worth it. It wasn't. When we got in the parking lot, there was maps and brochures on what the place WILL be. A big museum, a rose garden, a crafts center, and a lot of other things that they didn't have at the moment. A mile away, we saw a large rock with a head on it. The carving was said to begin in 1948. Today is 2011. It has taken 63 years? I asked myself. They're lazy! J/K

We ate the picnic lunch we brought, and ate it in the car. Then we went to the little complex, and read about Indians and such. We saw a long video, which explained a man who's name I can't pronounce was a good sculpture and so some Indians asked him to create a memorial for their people, a Indian on a horse who's name is Crazy Horse and is pointing at his land. The pointing arm was still a block and the horse was not done yet. But anyway, the sculpture worked on his own for five years, then he married, and had ten kids, so then twelve people were helping out. So, they have now like 70 people working on it, because of the admission fees for the museum, they have enough money. The reason why it's taking so long is the amount of workers, how so big the carving will be, and other things. We went into the museum and it wasn't terrible, but to a degree it was quite a rip off. Who knows, it might be really cool some day, but at the moment, commitment is lacking.

We drove to Sylvan Lake, a beautiful small area with a beautiful lake with round huge rocks of different formations in the water, making a mirroring image. It was really cool, and we walked all around it, going on straight flat ground and rocky, mossy, hard terrain. It was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it, even when I fell down a hill. It was so surreal, and very very beautiful, and I really loved the plant life and such. I think it is a good place to make an action adventure; I had an adventure there alright. When we were done we went back in the jeep and ate dinner and went to bed. It was a very good day, minus the rip offs.

Come and see an unfinished carving that you pay 30 dollars to see!,

Andrew.

Crazy Horse

posing?

acting excited

very excited

amazing beauty and serenity

we walked the trail around the lake

Mount RushMore

Mount Rushmore. A mountain with carving of four of our greatest presidents, some of our greatest leaders:

George Washington: George Washington lead our country toward Independence as he was a wonderful General and then later became our country's first president. Truly a great leader.

Thomas Jefferson: Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence and later became America's third president, and he bought the Louisiana Purchase, striving toward new frontiers and making America bigger. A wonderful man at his pen and a smart president.

Abraham Lincoln: Lincoln preserved the U.S. in the Civil War, and also freed slaves from being slaves. A powerful speaker, and an even greater man.

Theodore Roosevelt: Roosevelt helped make America emerge as a World Power, and connected east and west in the Panama Canal. A great conservative, an outdoorsman, and a man with a sharp instincts.

These were all great presidents, great leaders, and even greater men. They were all very inspiring. I mean, they did what many failed to do... to establish themselves as legends. Who here would know the name Rutherford B. Hayes or William Taft? Exactly. Although I'm sure they were great men and leaders, they did not make their mark or do anything of wonderful velocity. The four on the mountain, Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Roosevelt, did make their mark. And that's why they're there.

Three days ago, on the 21st of the 10th month (October) we rode in the jeep up a huge hill and parked in the parking lot of Mount Rushmore National Memorial. We paid, and walked into the place. Even from a distance, I could see the wonderful faces by the ticket booth and in the entrance. It was big, and the mountain was of a curved square type, and Washington was bulging out far and outward, Jefferson behind him, Roosevelt squeezed in by, and Lincoln barely more than a face, off to the right, looking out. Washington was proud, Jefferson contemplating, Roosevelt distraughtly looking forth, and Lincoln looking before him. All were crazy to look at, and as we walked into an open threshold with two small buildings with 3 blue little awnings that were curved. One said Mount Rushmore Information Center and Bookstore, and one said men and women restrooms. Before going further onto the Mount, we went into the bookstore, a little area of sales. I expected to see biographies about the four great men and I wished to get some, but the only things in that place were books like: Jeffersons Women, An Abraham Lincoln Conspiracy, and other things of the sort. They had a bio on Roosevelt, but no bio on his WHOLE life. There was a lot of good stuff on G.W., but since I went to Mount Vernon and other places about him I knew too much to get a book about his life, as I would not be learning much, just agreeing with what I already knew. But anyway, we got out, went to the restroom, and continued further on.

In front of us was a long wide walkway, of stone. We walked through an outside hallway of flags, and saw columns with four sides that each side of the columns had flags on it, flags of all the 50 states. I even saw my state's flag, Georgia!

We came up to a very wide area, with a long, long stone railing, and there was an observation looker. When we looked down we could see a stage and audience chairs, and up farther was a great rocky slope and ditches of grass going through it. Still farther up the mountain was many many many little gravel rocks, and a little up further was the four heads. It was very cool to look at, and surprisingly, I saw people climbing the slopes, regular people, even a few kids. I asked Mom and Dad if I could go check it out.

Rebecca and I traveled down some stairs on that area, and went down the audience bleachers-that's the word! I had forgotten it before - and went down all the way to the bottom of the mountain. It was very exciting, and I was ready to climb and have an adventure. (I mean, you can't trap a twelve year old boy inside of a car for 30 minutes and allow him to just be standing idly by! It is just impossible!) Mom and Dad wanted to climb up on a large grey rock and so we did, carefully placing our feet on the right places. There was a path of rocks, and when we got on the big rock, we were very tired already. Still on that big area far away right above us, Mom and Dad waved and we waved back. We made a picture from that far away, and I do not doubt it was a terrible picture. No matter. On with the blog.

Rebecca kept persuading me to go up the easy walkable way, but partly accidental and partly deliberate I went a more steeper route. I went along slick steep long large rocks stuck to the ground, and a few tiny ditches helped me balance my footing. Of course, for much of the time I was on all fours, jumping and gaining ground. I remember the feeling well. I had to jump onto a very tall jump, and that is when I got to where Rebecca was. A few bruises and scrapes and scary moments emerged out of that jump.

We then went the more walkable way, but from time to time I did something which I felt was adventurous. It was a hard climb, and I was almost exhausted when we got to the top by all the little rocks right under those so famous faces. It was so crazy to think that we did that.

So much sweat, so much sores, but many adventures. One time I fell back and slammed Rebecca back, and she almost fell also. Another was when I was in a jeep and a tree pricked me in the foot, and when I stepped on it, it came up and hit me.

The scariest part came when I jumped on a big rock, and it happened to shake and make me lose my balance. I almost fell on a sharp rock, but thanks to my loving sister I was pulled up again.

Yeah, it was pretty rough, but the way back down the walkable way was a little more easy. Rebecca met an acquaintance named Elizabeth, and her father gave me a huge white rock of crystals and told me to lift it up and dash it strongly on the rock. I did so, and a hand size came into my reach. It was a most remarkable rock, and I enjoyed having it.

We went back up, then went down into the second level I didn't know about before, and saw exhibits about how they made the carving and about the men's lives. We saw a movie about it, and then went back to the car. Mount Rushmore was so amazing, and it was so cool for people to see and know our nation's leaders for so much longer because they were carved there. It was very interesting, very informational, and very fun. I had a lot of good times, and I wondered whether or not Abe winked at me...

Goodbye, for now (there is another blog about the second half of the day).

"A house divided against itself cannot stand"(Lincoln) "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness"(Jefferson) "Liberty, when it begins to take root, is a plant of rapid growth."(George Washington) A man who is good enough to shed his blood for his country is good enough to be given a square deal afterwards (Roosevelt),

Andrew.

Drive to South Dakota

We got off to a great start yesterday as we pulled out of Trapper's Inn. On the five hour drive, I learned about the american and french revolution (history), found out cool things about whales (science), like that their tales are called flukes, did some Math problems about estimated division (Math), named all the states we've been to and filled them in on a map (geography), read the national day of prayer and remembrance speech by George W. Bush in 2001(social studies), and read about when two men went into the yellowstone area and took pictures of what they saw. In that part, I learned about geysers and life science(more science). It was a fun and interesting school day.

On the ride though, we saw a lot of beautiful scenery, seeing more ash hills and rocks and such. It was a good ride.

We parked into a cool R.V. Park, that had a game room, a playground, and some other things. Although we wanted to look around, day quickly turned to night and we went to a Walgreens and tried to get a new prescription for me, but they could not give an antibiotic (the thing we wanted to get) because they needed a record from our Roswell Walgreens saying I really needed the antibiotic. So, we got two movies (Thor and Zookeeper) at the Red Box there, and we were going to come back tomorrow. We went to a grocery store, got groceries, and went back to the R.V. I watched Thor in the back bed room, while Rebecca watched Zookeeper on her computer and Mom and Dad watched The World Series. Thor was amazing! The special effects were so spectacular, and the story was great and well written (a little cheesy though) and the action was awesome! It was almost as good as Captain America!

I was gonna call my cousin Daniel who is also into Marvel Comics, but the time the movie finished it was 10:40 (we're in the Mountain Time Zone) and 12:40 (Eastern Time Zone) there. So, I waited until today to call him.

I don't know if Zookeeper was good or not.

I chased a white tailed bunny through the R.V. Park yesterday.

Andrew.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

At the turn of the century, our nation's 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, hunted buffalo and bison in the bad lands of North Dakota. The bad lands is a desert, with hills looking of an ash and beige color, with rocks, trees, and some even huge and of a flat at the top and hilly downward style. Yesterday on the 19th of October we got in the jeep and rode for about 20 minutes to the bad lands. We stopped in a tiny little old town with old buildings below a mountain, and went into a small little building and looked around. We went into a one room museum and learned about Roosevelt's time at the bad lands, the bad conditions, extreme cold, and constant troubles. We learned about ranches he bought, and that the time in the bad lands made him to love wild life and want it to be protected. It was very interesting.

We then saw a 13 minute presentation, and I'm glad we watched it. At the gift shop, we got a book on Roosevelt's time in the North Dakota badlands, wanting to dig deeper and know more about it. We then went to the restroom, and prepared to go on the park's 37 mile (hour and a half) scenic drive.

We drove out of the town, followed signs in, and prepared to see the most scenic. And it was. We saw bright dusty beige hills and deserts, and there were some cotton wood trees on those too. We saw no towns, no trees, just bad lands. It was desert looking, but cold at the same time, sunny, but I felt no warmth. It was amazing, seeing just flat desert hills for miles, and seeing huge mountain looking hills with a black or beige color. Dad said the land is good for nothing really, with it's unexpectant weather and poor soil. They have found oil in parts, he said, but it is generally bad lands. It may be bad, but it is beautiful! Amazing! Spectacular! Wonderful! And, in parts it looks like you are in Mars. As we went through the hills and down and up 'em, we just took in these crazy sights. Grass was covering the giants, and interesting and ever changing shapes captured the horizon! The foreground and background was cool.

While traveling, we were very lucky to see buffaloes moving on a bluff overlooking us. The huge beasts with their small horns and four chunky feet were breathtaking to see. As we passed by, I thought myself very lucky. Throughout the trip, I would be a little more luckier...

We were on a straight road looking around, and we found ourselves by a field cut across by the road. We saw many holes with dirt piled up by it. They were mysterious, and I found myself intrigued. What were they? Why were they here? What animal were they home too?

A small creature like that of a hamster but thinner and taller whizzed across the road! The car screeched to a stop and the smell of burnt tire filled the air. I saw little brown things in the little field, quickly scampering on four feet and diving in the holes. Not one, two, or three, but 20 at a time. I was so confused to what they were, and then a thought from my past popped up in my mind. In Arizona on a trip with my grandparents we saw those animals in a wildlife museum in a small glass container. What did the museum people say it was? A prairie dog! That's what it was! And now we were seeing the little creatures in their natural habitat, right before us! How strange were the little things!

Then some of them stood up on their two feet and started making a noise, a little squeal of a high sound, sort of like a cat's meow as it is abused by it's rival species (the dogs). They all got in their holes, running, crawling, screaming. When people say, "They ran for the hills!", they should say they ran for the holes! And run they did, or rather scamper. We got out of the car, taking videos and pictures of the more braver ones closer to the road, but still nervous and ready to go. Over the course of that day, we saw some by trees, some by rivers, some down ditches, and overall, a lot. We saw like 3,000, and when I say that I am NOT exaggerating. I know modern man is a skeptical creature, doubting whether my credibility is the truth, but I can promise you we saw close to that number.

Anyway, you would think how lucky we thought we were now, but more delights were still to arrive. Down the hillside, right by the road, we saw a tall white and black spotted wild horse, just minding it's own business, chewing the cud (grass). By it and below it were solid brown horses, and one chestnut mare. It was so cool!

We went up a hill, and I could see something looming farther up. More than one. Two...no three! Or was it four? Five? I'm sure it's no more than six... well, there's another on the hill... what is that? Wait... Is that...No, it can't be... Wait, it is! These thoughts were in my mind as I sat in the jeep in sheer disbelief as I looked on at least seven buffalo blocking the tiny road up the hill. I blinked, and then blinked again. I slapped myself in the face, and then pinched myself. Am I dreaming? I did feel a little drowsy earlier... "Look at that! That's amazing!" Dad exclaimed. I was thinking that too. The buffalo had brown fur from the neck down to the back, and then most had a bare hide from that way down, of a brownish-black color, and all had small horns, a fat face, big eyes, and four stocky feet. We got almost halfway up the hill when one turned to us and moved one of his feet back in the dirt many times, as if to say, "Don't mess with me." Then that one put his head back down. Eventually, we opened the top off our soft roofed jeep, and we stood up on our seats, taking pictures and video taping. It was so cool, but they were still blocking the way. Good thing there was another path around them.

Now, we were the luckiest people that day, but when we passed a huge field the Irish gave us a blessing once more. We saw about 20 buffalo eating the grass in the field, sleeping on their sides, or just sitting down. Young, old, male, female, big, little; they were all there! It was so funny, and we were SO close. Some were right by the road. I was so delighted!

We saw other prairie dogs and horses and buffalo on the trip, but in smaller amounts. We rode back to that town, went to the restroom in the national park again, and ate lunch at a small diner. We then went back to the R.V., went to the Trapper's restaurant, and ate a hamburger. Incidentally enough, we got the same waitress we got the last night, and I learned her name to be Deirdra. We saw a lot of hunters and truckers in that place.

I had a good sleep.

I think I might grow a mustache like Theodore,

Andrew.