Finding Color in the Gray

I love to travel and explore new places, which was one thing that made living in Thunder Bay great. While living there, we ventured to Duluth several times, along with Minneapolis (Mall of America!), Chicago, Kentucky, and even a couple of trips to Niagara Falls. Within a year of us moving to Canada, Henry and I talked about taking a road trip west across the States and across Canada, perhaps going through one country for the first leg of the trip, and the other country on the way back.

When we realized we’d be moving to California, we had to make a choice between which country to explore. We went back and forth a few times. We weren’t sure we’d ever take a long drive through the Canadian prairies if not this time. Our friend Shara even told me about Al Capone’s Prohibition Days headquarters located in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. You can tour a bunch of underground tunnels that connect buildings. That sounded really fun to explore! However, in the end, we chose to go through US Customs in Grand Portage, Minnesota, only 35 minutes from Thunder Bay. We felt more comfortable doing it there in case of a problem. We’d rather go back to Thunder Bay to spend the night than try to do it in Medicine Hat, Alberta, and get stuck in the middle of nowhere!

The original plan was to visit both Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone, but we realized that if we stopped in Yellowstone, we’d want to stay a lot longer than we could. It added a few hours to our drive, but there’s no way we could pass up the opportunity to visit Mt. Rushmore.

I was always curious about Mt. Rushmore as a kid. It was an impressive monument, of course, but there was something else that confounded me about it, and I think it made me even more interested in seeing it. I thought God had formed those mountains that way! I was comfortable with the idea that God knew everything before it happened, and that fact that He knew who four of the presidents would be was cool. And He put their faces on a mountain. It made sense. What didn’t make sense was this: Why would we bother having elections then? When it was time to vote for the sixteenth president, they could’ve just looked up at Mt. Rushmore and predicted the outcome.

I don’t know how long it took me to figure out that someone actually carved it, but I was always still fascinated by the monument. A few years back while we were on a road trip, I used to make up stories for the kids about the “Kneeknocker” family. (“Kneeknockers” is another  blog post.) I thought I would tell the kids stories about various geographic locations in the States so they would have a little bit of US understanding. My first story took the family to Mt. Rushmore.

Visiting Mt. Rushmore in real life was amazing. The weather was really nice, perhaps a bit on the warm side, but the skies were clear and blue. We ate lunch in the cafeteria there first. After I finished my $6 hotdog, I turned around and noticed that the people sitting across from me (Henry, Maxson, and Anneliese) had a perfect view of the mountain! If I’d known, I would’ve switched seats with the littlest kids! They didn’t care!

We only had about 2 hours to explore. We took a few pics of the monument (okay, more than a few; probably twenty-five!) then we took the one-mile walk called the Presidents Trail. Stop one was an interactive display of how they made teepees. There were a few buffalo hides out, one in the process of being tanned. The ranger told us the tanning process and gave me a whole new appreciation for leather!

The trail then took us across the base of the Mountain where you had different views of the faces. At the end of the trail was the “sculptor’s studio” where we heard about the process. Elia got to be the “model” for one of the explanations! It was a very interesting story. Did you know that the monument isn’t even completed? The plan was to carve out more, but Gutzon Borglum (the guy who dreamed of the project) ran out of funding. While he was in Washington DC requesting more money, he got sick, ended up in the hospital, and died. Soon after, his son, Lincoln (yes, named after the 16th president) petitioned Congress to stop production. He said it was his father’s dream and his father’s art. If anyone else were to touch it, it wouldn’t be his father’s anymore. So Congress passed a law (or something) preventing anymore production. The workers cleaned up what had already been done, then walked away.

If I get to homeschool the kids next year, we’re definitely spending some time learning a little more about Mt Rushmore. I suppose a few hours would be enough! Jeremiah is very fascinated with history, wars, the presidents, etc. so I know he would enjoy learning more about this. (As a side note, he’s also very curious about National Parks all of a sudden!)

We finally left Mt. Rushmore around 4:00; we still had to go back to the hotel to pick up the U-haul, transfer stuff back to the mini-van, then drive six hours to Rawlins, WY.

What a beautiful drive that was! The rock formations in the Black Hills were astounding. The Badlands were calling to us to come explore them. And the plains of Wyoming – everything grassy and green… What a beautiful part of our country.

It’s been really good to drive through the US to get to California. It’s been kind of like our “homeland” has rolled out the red carpet to welcome us home – a really loooooong red carpet!