Big, Big Heads

It’s really weird to go from cities with downtowns that have hundreds of buildings to cities where there are barely hundreds of people. Finding things to write about the last 2 days has been, needless to say, a little more difficult. New York City, Chicago, or D.C…there’s something to write about around every corner. Therefore Fairmont, Minnesota, Rapid City, South Dakota and Dillon, Montana will be grouped as one blog. (Sorry, but I’m not going to spend 40 minutes writing a blog about a city whose local entertainment is a Perkins restaurant – it just doesn’t make for a good blog). However, we found ourselves at said Perkins and after our meal we asked our young waitress what Fairmont, Minnesota was like.
We didn’t get much of a response.
Not that our waitress wasn’t helpful, but there was literally not much to say about the city. On the plus side, it was no Van Horn which we were thankful for. Although, the hotel was minus an elevator which made for a difficult trek up the stairs to our room while lugging all of our junk. We left fairly early the next morning and the next evening at about 5:00 P.M. we found ourselves coming around a bend and looking at four, very enormous, white stone presidents right in the face. It’s really odd to see a mountain with faces in the side of it. Rapid City was a place on the map we had not originally planned on seeing but we were both glad to have experienced it. The Mount Rushmore National Monument area is vibrant like I didn’t know. Shops and mini-golf and waterparks and reptile exhibits and 2,000-foot slides all are apart of this very exciting, bursting-with-tourists area. If you tend to get car sick, make sure you take a motion-pill before you go because wow, it’s nothing but twists and turns all down in a large valley. On the way to the Rushmore monument, we passed a mini-golf course that was called Holy Terror Mini-Golf. The name alone meant we had to try it, but when we passed the actual course and saw what it entailed, we knew we’d have to take a 30 minute detour and try this adventurous course. About the monument…we had no idea it was that huge! If you’ve seen it you know what I mean but if you haven’t, then just imagine Bogus Basin with four, 60 foot sculptures carved into the bunny hill. I mean these faces are just enormous, and amazing to see up close. We wanted to stay around for the 9:00 P.M. light show that they put on for tourists, but it had been a semi-long day and we were both hungry and ready to laze around in our hotel room. Plus, we knew we had a 10+ hour day ahead of us so, sleep was a must. But if anyone wants to go back with us someday, let me know because we are so going back – there was just SO much to do there, I had no idea! Someone *cough* Mom *cough* Katie J. *cough* forgot to tell us how many touristy things there were!
After Rapid City, we were on our way to the world famous Dillon, Montana! Okay, so maybe it’s not world famous, but I bet the people who live here think it’s world famous so don’t knock this little college town (home to Montana Western). We passed through some not-so-sweet thunder/lightning/rain storms today, and a gust of wind that nearly took us off the road. Rachel was sleeping so she didn’t notice all that much but, she woke up just in time for the rain storm. It may have been better had she stayed asleep because with her awake, there was 2 of us freaking out. We passed through Wyoming today, and I never forget how absolutely barren that state is, sheesh. I don’t know of a reason to go there really, do you? If so let me know because I’d almost be willing to try it out for the sake of knowing there’s a reason for Wyoming to be on the map! Other than that, we are on our last night of the big trip, and tomorrow, we will be back home. These blogs have been a great outlet. We look back at them and realize we have developed a lifetime of stories that we will be able to tell our family for years to come. We now have a trip under our belt that is such a rare thing, and we are so glad we did it. Tomorrow, we’ll be back home, and reality will be a fact. So will no more living out of a suit case, no more wondering what the next shower head will be like and no more wondering what smell we’ll be walking in to.
But we’ll miss it.
Because that has all been part of the fun.
There’s one more blog to go, and I really hope you all find the time to read it tomorrow. Thanks so much to everyone for the support, reads, comments, prayers and thoughts. Talk to you soon!

From the Road Less Traveled,
Josh and Rachel

Highlights: whirlpools in your hotel room!, Mount Rushmore, not getting blown off the road, windshield wipers, tv’s in our hotel rooms to keep us updated on the most current news in the World, Chipper (who is still running great!), each other to enjoy the trip with!!!