Having fun out west!

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Well, the Dunns have been busy travelers since our last blog. We drove fourteen hours yesterday which was approximately 842 miles. Our entire travel distance thus far has totaled 1,291.8 miles. Our average driving speed has been 61.2 miles per hour. (Tony is giving me these stats off of Garmin while he drives. You all know - he’s the numbers guy.) The girls were incredible travelers all day yesterday despite the grueling travel conditions. Overall, it was a great day to drive cross country, but the weather posed some challenges. The wind was pretty mighty at times. I told the girls that it felt as if our little orange lunch box, that’s what I’ve nicknamed the Westy, was going to get blown right off of the highway. Yesterday, most of the drive was green fields and farmland. Tony pointed out the first bison to the girls. From that point on, Julia thought that every black cow was a bison! We kept seeing these advertisements for a tourist stop called Wall Drug (population 840) along a five hundred mile stretch of highway. With much anticipation, we stopped in the town for some western souvenirs and dinner. The girls bought their own cowgirl hats and begged for pink cowgirl boots (we passed on the boots). Even though the town wasn’t very exciting or authentic, it was a nice reprieve from the Westy for an hour or two. When we pulled into our campsite for the night, Kemps Kamp, we were greeted by a rainbow overhead. We felt that we had received a good omen from the camping gods. Since were only staying five miles away from Mt. Rushmore, we were hoping to visit at night to see it in lights. The problem was that we were all too exhausted to get back into the Westy to drive anywhere else! After doing a load of laundry and playing a shortened version of Scrabble, the Dunns drifted off to sleep. We awoke this morning to Tony making us a delicious breakfast of oatmeal, fruit, coffee and Tang (our version of camping OJ). Once we showered and packed up, we drove off to Mt. Rushmore. It has been a beautiful day: mid 60s, blue skies and puffy white clouds. We were amazed by the magnitude of the national memorial. Being an educator, I thought that it would be best to share some facts with you: Washington’s head is as tall as a six story building. The sculptor, Borglum, worked for 14 years on the sculpture, and died before the completion of the memorial. His son had to supervise the completion of the heads. After seeing Mt. Rushmmore, we drove down the road a ways to the still in progress Crazy Horse monument. What’s so impressive about this monument is that when completed, it will stand taller than the Washington Monument, the Statue of Liberty and any Egyptian pyramid. The sculpture will stand 563 feet tall when completed. The monument has been funded by private donations only - no government funding. The Polish born sculptor - Korczak passed away in 1982 after working on the Crazy Horse monument for 33 years. Seven of his ten children are committed to continue working on the construction of the monument until its completion. We are now on our way to Lead, South Dakota where we will stop for lunch and pan for gold. Tonight, we plan on camping at the base of Devil’s Tower. Tomorrow, we plan on hiking around Devils’ Tower and then visiting some friends in Powell, Wyoming. Sorry that I was a little wordy on this blog! We’ve had a busy 24 hours. We’re having a great family-bonding time so far and have so much more to look forward to in the days ahead. We’ll keep you posted! Hope you enjoy the photos! Most recent gas expense update: $228.51

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