planetpayne

We visited the monument early this morning. I admit I wasn’t that excited about seeing Mount Rushmore but actually it was very interesting, and moving. The monument itself is very impressive, and there’s a museum with lots of photos of the building of the monument, and about the presidents represented on it. I learned that 90% of the sculpture was carved using dynamite! It took more than 400 workers, over a period of 14 years. It should have taken 6, but they had to stop often for lack of funds. Nobody plunged to their death. I got to meet one of the drillers on the project, in the gift shop. He told me he was 17 when he helped build Mount Rushmore, 70 years ago! Ingrid got her moment of excitement on the short drive to the monument when we spotted a white mountain goat grazing at the side of the road.

This KOA we’re at is something else. Two pools, hot tub, splash park, playground, horse stables, mini golf course, pancake corral, giant waterslide, ice cream parlor, fudge shop, movie room, arcade, and jumping pillow! Ingrid met a little friend named Sam and they played happily together all afternoon. Sam was talkative and he told me his whole life story, including his religion and favorite movies, and that he is home schooled. I thought it was unusual that he wanted to play with Ingrid, given that there were so many other kids closer to his own age (9). Then I remembered something my sister had told me, that home schooled kids are used to socializing with all different ages of people, not just their peers. I like to see Ingrid socializing with older children. They role model to Ingrid some of the things I’m trying to verbally teach her, like how to safely climb the playground structures. This particular boy was very well behaved with his mother, and that was a nice bonus.