Day 6: Mt. Rushmore & Custer State Park

Today was our first "Stationary" day, but even those we weren't traveling from state to state we still spent a great amount of time in the car sight seeing. The main attraction today was Mount Rushmore. Britt didn't seem to understand what this big deal was about some faces in a rock. Our first trip was during the day and it was amazing, but not really much to do. Later that night we went back for the lighting ceremony and that was a totally different story. There was a very interesting and informative video then they lit up the faces and called all service men and women up to the stage. It was so moving to see all those(mostly) men stand so proud for their country in a place with such historical importance.

We also visited Custer State Park. Custer state park was a long loop of winding roads with beautiful scenery and a few wild animals. The part I liked the most was feeding the chipmunks! I had never seen chipmunks before much less fed them. There were tons of them and they were all over the rocks and another man showed me how to feed them. At first I was really nervous but when the first one crawled on my hand and took the peanut I wasn't scared anymore. A little later Mom read a pamphlet that said not to feed the Chipmunks, some carry diseases. Oh well... too late now! We also saw a few Buffalo roaming while we were at the park. They were huge and so chill but i'm sure they can be dangerous. I didn't want to feed them!

However... at dinner they fed me! We went to downtown Keystone for dinner. It was an old western setting with shops and restaurants down the strip. There were even true cowboys in the middle of the road crackin whips and spinning their guns around. But most importantly, at dinner I ate my first buffalo burger. It was pretty good and supposedly pretty good for you. They have like a tenth of the fat and calories of a normal cheeseburger. If I can eat it more than cheeseburgers and not gain as much weight, that sounds like the burger for me!

Being that we didn't travel today we got to go and quickly see two other attractions. We drove down to see the Crazy Horse memorial which is going to be the biggest memorial. Three times larger than Mt Rushmore and dedicated to the Native Americans. This was something that took a lot of time, and a lot of time we did not have, but we did see the memorial as we drove up. Also, we went to Rushmore cave. It was the closest cave to Mt Rushmore but instead of going into the cave, Britt wanted to ride their zipline down the mountain... so we did! Brittany and I strapped ourselves in and flew down the side of a mountain. It really was a lot of fun.

Last but definitely not least, today was so amazing because we actually took a few hour and laid down at the camp and took a nap. It was so nice out that Austin and I laid out a sheet and slept outside on the grass. It was so peaceful and so relaxing. I wish Florida could be cool enough that you could lay out on the grass and take a comfortable nap! Today has been great but we are moving on tomorrow! That's all for now.

Funny Comments:

Situation: Austin dying laughing uncontrolably while trying to be quiet during a respectful patriotic ceremony.

Dad: "Look at all these rocks, So that's why they call it the rocky mountains!"