I love the way travel changes you! The things you see, the places, the people, it all has a way of shifting your outlook and making you see things from a new perspective. The shared experiences bring you closer.
Hail to the Chiefs
Some of the most special memories are created when we visit famous sites. That’s partially because these places are famous for a reason and they are almost always awesome!
The other neat (and unexpected) side effect is that big landmarks come up in real life all the time. Scenes of places like Niagra Falls, Stonehenge, or Mount Rushmore come up all the time in movies and tv shows. When they do, the whole family (almost in unison, as if choreographed) says “We’ve been there!”. We love that!
When that happens, the stories start to flow and the whole day can be re-lived. Usually that’s a good thing! Take Mount Rushmore for example. We’ll never forget that place and as soon as we see it in pictures or on a screen, everybody says “remember that Hail?”. Take a look:
That is hail covering the ground. In our neck of the woods, hail is pretty rare. Hail like this is something we had never seen before, nor since!
We drove up to Mount Rushmore (check out the awesome motorhome parking!) and hopped out. We made it just up to see the monument when the skies opened up and started pelleting everyone with this big marble sized hail. It was crazy as hundreds of people ran for cover!
We huddled under a cover for a few minutes. It wasn’t long before we realized that the end was not in sight! So we scurried back to the relative safety of the motorhome, where we were greeted by two very concerned looking Chinese Shar-Pei’s.
I thought the motorhome would be damaged for sure, but it all worked out fine. We goofed around and the kids ran out and grabbed hail to play with!
The Black Hills
The whole area surrounding Mount Rushmore is very beautiful! The opportunities for camping and hiking are endless. If you prefer to stay on the pavement, there are few areas that offer better driving roads. I wish we could have stayed longer!
The amount of time we did spend, which was just enough to let the hail stop falling, was sufficient for the place to clear out completely! After the hail, we were able to explore the Mount Rushmore area with no crowds at all!
Motorhome travel with kids rocks! Here are a couple more pictures:
I hope you’ve enjoyed our little trip down memory lane! Stop by Planet M Files for more Memories!
Remember, if you do go…take the road less traveled!
I would love to go there too.
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How fun! I really want to go to Niagra Falls. How cool that you’ve been there.
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We love Mount Rushmore! ( or Mount Mushroom as one of our kids called it when they were little
My husband grew up in South Dakota. The Black Hills are beautiful with so many fun family things to do and see. Well worth the trip!
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I know what you mean about travel. My husband and I used to love to take my nieces with us when we traveled. We wanted to give them some experiences they wouldn’t otherwise have. They would get so excited when they would see places they’d been with us and would also say “remember when”. I hope you continue to post about your travels. I’m really enjoying it.
Oh, how I would love to see Mt. Rushmore. I haven’t been to very many monumental historical places, but from the ones that I have visited, there is just no way to describe the feeling of basically staring history in the face.
Although, I didn’t care much for history class in school, I am intrigued with seeing almost anything that has to do with our history now. It almost makes me want to travel back in time just to see how people lived, worked and played.
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Yes, you are living the dream home school life. What a wonderful opportunity you are giving your guys. The next time you swing through NC to see the Nester, you’ll have to go thru Greensboro to visit her sister and me.
And yea for cleaning the kitchen cabinets. I “look” organized but am so far from it. That was my baby steps.
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Love this! The boys look so joyous with their hail in the motorhome! Also, it makes me really look forward to our very first road trip this summer. Thank you so much for joining my first Monday Memories!
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Great pictures! I can’t believe that hail!! When I visited Mt. Rushmore, it felt 100 degrees outside, and so I think I spent most of my time in the big gift store! The Black Hills were AMAZING! I’ve never seen anything else like them. They are breathtaking, and I would love to go back one day with my husband!
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one day we want to take our kid(s) to mt. rushmore – all over the US, really. thanks for sharing your memories and photos.
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That sounds like so much fun! Great post!
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We have always wanted to go to Mount Rushmore, how exciting for you all! My husband and I went to Yellowstone right after we got married..it was one of the most amazing vacations we ever had. I’d love to take our kids back there. Thanks for sharing your great vacation memories!
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Fun memories. Thank you for sharing that with us. And I want you to know I just followed you on Twitter
what a wonder pictorial adventure !ELK
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This is a place on the list to visit. Sounds like you had a wonderful time!
whenever we see the eiffel tower, big ben, london eye, we say the same thing “We’ve been there!”
Our family plan to visit Mt Rushmore around June 6th of 2011. Any advice what not to forget to see. We are leaving from Lafayette LA. I agree with you ….travel with motor home is the way to go….awesome memories. We have twin 16 year old and start motor home travel since they 2 years old………it have been so so great. Grand Cannon and Niagra Falls is place MUST visit. AWESOME.