sufficient

our founding fathers

So, Mount Rushmore... It was a beautiful drive through the Black Hills to Mount Rushmore. I don't think that words will adequately express our visit. It certainly was ineffable...

Sometime this spring, I read an article in National Geographic Traveler about the state of some National Parks. Many of the National Parks listed as in danger were because of their gateway cities- like Gatlinburg and Great Smoky Mountain- Gatlinburg is dreadful.

We came out of the Black Hills into Keystone, South Dakota. Worse than Gatlinburg. A "cowboy" walked out of a "saloon" into the middle of the road and fired his pistol as we crept through town. Om, OK. We rounded a bend in the road and saw the faces carved into the mountain. Effable. Then we had to pay $8 to park, in spite of the fact that Kate has a National Parks pass. The pass is valid for the year, so if you own a black four door and would like to visit Mount Rushmore, you can borrow the pass.

Having obtained the literature, we walked through the columns of state flags, stopping to marvel over the fact that we did not know what Georgia's flag looked like, given the number of times it has changed in the last 5 years. Kate began reading the literature to me. Keep in mind that we had spent the last week in National Parks, constantly amazed by the beauty of God's creation and were now surrounded by hundreds of people who were similarly astounded by this man-made rock carving. Kate read Gutzom Borglum's philosophy for Mount Rushmore, "A monument's dimensions should be determined by the importance to civilization of the events commemorated... Let us place there, carved high, as close to heaven as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what matter of men they were." As she read, I lay eyes upon a mist tent and my image of Six Flags was complete. I burst into a hysterical fit of laughter, unstemmed for five minutes, exacerbated by Kate's comments about the number of people staring at me and her own wonderings whether this time I had truly lost it.

After regaining my composure, I was seriously underwhelmed by the monument itself. Before visiting the Louvre, I had been warned that the Mona Lisa was not a large painting, but no one warned me that Rushmore would not be as large as anticipated. It is maybe a quarter of the size I expected. Trying to fit our faces onto the monument was the most entertainment we got out of the place. That, and laughing at the warning signs about the incline and number of steps visitors would have to be wary of in order to circle the base of the monument.

Labels: travel

posted by CP @ 5:41 PM 4 thoughts