Adventure #5 – Mount Rushmore
The start of the year started out rough with the passing of my mother in December. 
With Christmas and all of the holiday events we held her Celebration of life at the end of January. Since I was planning to find time to travel to South Dakota to become a resident my sister decided that we should do a trip together where I could get my driver’s license and have some adventures. This was especially meaningful since we found a picture of our parents at Mount Rushmore from one of their trips.
When out on my adventures in the RV, my goal is to visit all of the National Parks. My first stop was Mount Rushmore to recreate this picture. It’s just so amazing how this has been carved out of the stone in the hills. Definitely, a place that everyone should visit. We learned a lot as we walked through the museum. We did pay the extra fee to have the audio 
tour. Each of us had our own device and we stopped at each numbered spot to hear some details about the process, the people involved, and the time it took to complete this massive project. Gutzon Borglum truly brought to life much of our history – his vision has left us with a magnificent tribute to our country.
It was not very crowded since we were there in the off season. We initially thought the day we chose was not going to allow us to see the monument as it was very cloudy, and foggy which made it difficult to see the roads as we drove out of Box Elder for the day. However, as we arrived at the park the skies had cleared and we had a beautiful view.
We ended up seeing several National Parks on this trip. My son and daughter-in-law even 
gave me a book for Christmas to help plan my future trips called Where Should We camp Next? National Parks. So there aremore adventures coming. I even purchased a National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Annual Pass to help save money. It costs $80 for the year. You can get a lifetime pass after you turn 62 years old.
I also wanted a way to document all of the parks that I visited. I purchased the National Park Passport book from the gift shop. I now purchase the sticker for 
each location and add to my book. Each Park gift shop also has a stamp that you can use and date the time of your visit. I’m looking forward to adding more to my book. The book is divided into different regions and provides additional information about each site.
