Mt. Rushmore & Crazy Horse

We were in Chicago on the 18th and on the 19th we had a long drive.....

oh man was this a long day...we started just outside of Chicago and we ended the day/next very early morning in Livingston, MT.... we drove 16ish hours with 3 stops, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse & Wall Drug, gained an hour on our drive and still made it to our appointment in Livingston the next day for the bus on the 20th at 9am :) GO US

Mt. Rushmore
        Who would of thought that face on a Mountain could impress you so much.  It was a sight to see for sure, the heads looked perfect, like they just finished with them....

 i think pictures do enough ... no words can describe it more than these pictures .... it was off to Crazy Horse (which is only 20minutes away)



Crazy Horse - its a must do, just make sure you go to Mt. Rushmore first.... after looking at Mt. Rushmore and then going to Crazy Horse, which isn't even a tenth done, the difference is amazing.  The size difference is huge... the head alone of Crazy horse can fit all 4 heads of Mt. Rushmore... Crazy...  a worker their said they hope to have just the head of the Horse done in about 10years, but no one really knows when it will be done... this project was started in the 40's and its only this far... its a must see if your in the area...

we did stop by a little place called Wall Drug, Sd ... it was started by a pharmacist and later turned out to be a free amusement stop for people.... it was a nice little break for us and a well need leg stretch...

 

Kings Island - April 17th

What a fun park.... its not a Six Flags park but its a true old fashion theme park.... they only had a few big roller coasters but their main one is awesome... BEAST ... its about 4 minutes long and it takes you out in the woods and through tunnels and everything... very cool wooden coaster... its one of the top wooden coasters... we pretty much did all the rides they had big to small... chris was really bummed because "son of beast" wasnt running... its a wooden coaster that had a single loop, but later to find out was taken out because it caused injuries... they had it open last year but closed it again because of more injuries... this coaster looked off the chain... it was really tall and looked like it went fast, too bad its coast the theme back around 30million just in fixing it ... maybe next time we make it to Cincinnati it will be up and running.... after a very long day we ended it with a great fireworks show right at the front gate...

After a long day at the theme park we jumped back into good old Nancy and started our drive to Chicago... we ended up about an hour outside of Chicago and pulled in to our home away from home Wal-Mart for the night... im not starting to get picky at the ones we stay out... i always look for the ones that are open 24hours so that way i can always have a bathroom and i dont have to wait til morning  :) .... its the little things in life that are very important to always be aware of ....  alright so back to Chicago... what a great city... we stopped and ate at a little pizzeria and watched the white Sox's and Cubs play on tv... we did some more exploring of the city and found our self's outside of the cubs field ... Chris wanted to get a picture with Nancy and the famous Wrigley Field Chicago CUBS sign... it was pretty crazy with the game going on and people walking everywhere but i jumped out of the bus and walked across the street and waited for chris to go around the block and make his way back to the stadium ... i quickly snapped the picture and ran to catch up with him ...... it was the best picture because 3 seconds before he went through the light a big bus blocked the view and he had to slow down and then 3 seconds after i took the picture another bus ran right in front of me and would have blocked the view...

all in all Chicago was pretty fun and i would love to spend more time there...        NEXT STOP is ................

Washington, DC

Well me made it to DC on Wednesday the 14th and spent the night in a wal-mart just outside of downtown... We ran late getting out of NYC and we weren't able to see Eric (my cousin) play in Maryland so that was kind of a bummer, but we were great full to see him on Easter and hopefully someday we will be able to see him play in a Minor or Major league game :) ... Thursday morning we checked into our hotel right in downtown DC, took a shower that was needed and was on our way to our tour of the White House and Capital.... We only realized that it was April 15th "Tax Day" and got to witness the Tea party rally on our walk to the White House... Once we made it passed the 3 security check points and seeing the hundreds of secret service standing EVERYWHERE we finally made it into the White House... We were able to see the East wing, Green, Red & Blue Rooms and the Great room.... All the rooms were amazing and were decorated with great style... There is just so much history in the white house that both chris and i didn't know what to expect... the pictures on the walls with all the past presidents were amazing to see and to be able to be in the same room as JFK or any other president is awesome... During our 30minutes in the White house we were able to see Marine One land right on the grounds right in front of us in the Blue room, we try to see whos coming or going but only can see a marine walk down the steps and then 5 minutes later we the secret service guy points out to us that President Obama is on his way to Marine One... We then made it to the Green room and sure enough we were able to see President Obama walk into Marine One turn around and wave to "US" (probably not us but hey we can think it was to us) ....   It was the coolest thing to see, because if we were ten minutes earlier or later we would have missed the whole thing... so luck was on our side.... after walking through all the sites we made our way to the front doors of the white house and wished we had a camera with us to take our pictures because not every one gets to stand on the white house steps :) .... chris and i both left everything in our hotels inculding our phones so i went up to a lady who was taking a picture with her camera phone and asked if she would mind taking a picture and text messaging it to us... she was awesome and took a picture and it came out great.....

After a great first part of our trip so far we then headed to the US Capital ... SOOOOO much history .....  we met at our  congressman office and in the mix of waiting for another couple to show up we were able to met and shake hands with Doris Matsui ... which later to find out is very rear and not a lot of regular people get to met her because of her busy schedule so that was way very cool.... we then started our tour and went underground and used all the back ways to the white house with our tour guide...there was so much we were able to see and do ... we then finally felt the effects of 7 days straight of nonstop walking on our bodies... on our walk back to our hotel it felt like we were never going to make it... it was finally kicking in and our bodies were telling us that it cant walked anymore... we had a little pit stop to rest our feet mostly and headed back to the Washington, Jefferson & Lincoln Memorial ... not knowing that the monuments were soooooo far away we only had time for Washington and Jefferson because the sun was setting, our feet were killing us and our camera battery was dead and our video camera was on its last 2 minutes of life as well.... so we made the walked back to our hotel and called it an early night.... our our 2nd day of DC we made it out to Arlington Cemetery, which is mind blowing... i couldn't let myself realize how many tum stones there are and how many soldiers have lost there lives for us... the internal flame of President John F. Kennedy was a sight to see... it was so piece full and you really had a feel that he was resting in peace... i do have a question for anyone out there... Why isnt JFK jr. buried with his dad JFK, mom Jacklyn, and there two children who died very young ????  but anyways it was a sad but memoriable time we had on the grounds... we were able to witness the changing of the guards at the Tum of the unknown Solider... AMAZING ... we then crossed over the bridge and made it to the Lincoln Memorial... i still ask chris "why couldnt we have taken the car".... it was a very far walk but had lost of cool things to look at.... the Lincoln Memorial is way bigger than i thought... it was cool and very overwhelming.... but loved it all  .....we Concord DC in two days and it was time to head back on the road to make it to opening day at Kings Island in Cincinatii, OH 

Amanda