Mt Rushmore, South Dakota: Resolve Carved In Stone

Our great nephew, Chance is 4 years old and is studying the Badlands, the Rocky Mountains and Yellowstone in school. Mary Lynn sent him some material yesterday that we had picked up in Rocky Mountain National Park and he has been following our travels via the blog.

Just like MLA, his favorite great aunt, he especially enjoys pictures of the wildlife we are seeing as we travel. So we are including some of the wildlife photo's taken during today's travels through Mt Rushmore and the Black Hills area of South Dakota.

I wish you could see how excited MLA gets whenever we spot some animal that we have not seen before. Heck, that's not entirely true. She still gets excited whenever we see a wild animal, even if we've seen it before.

Well, today we were able to cross a few additional species from our wildlife target list, including the much anticipated and much desired Bison. Not a Buffalo. A Bison. Buffalo are in Africa. Bison are in North America.

Early travellers referred to the huge herds of Bison as Buffalo and the name stuck however, if you want to be correct (and who doesn't), they are Bison. Bison are generally much bigger, with a huge head and a large hump on their back. Bison are magnificent animals; Buffalo are poor substitutes for Bison.

We also saw Prong Horn Antelope, Bison, Mountain Goats, Bison, Bison, wild Donkeys, Bison, Deer, Bison, Chipmunks, Bison, & Turkeys. And oh, did I mention we saw Bison?

Mt Rushmore is a special place and you cannot help but feel a sense of pride about America and some of her most memorable leaders. Not super humans as we sometimes think of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abe Lincoln. All humans with tremendous courage, vision, perseverance and resolve.Humans, just like you or I, who when faced with huge obstacles and challenges, resolved to see it through until the vision they had for our country was made to happen.

Washington, who overcame tremendous birthing issues for our nation, a prime example being the difficulties at Valley Forge when many another man would have given up and gone home.

Jefferson who had a vision of this country spanning ocean to ocean, and he made it happen with the Louisiana Purchase (good thing he did, my French sucks) and the explorations he funded such as Lewis & Clark. Not the only exploration, simply the most well known and famous.

Roosevelt, who first had to overcome tremendous physical challenges and poor health, especially asthma. He also had to overcome tremendous wealth. Just kidding although many a rich person failed to live up to their full potential because everything was given to them.

And Lincoln, a man who had failed more times at business, at politics, at education than you could count, and yet he persevered to become one of our most treasured and respected Presidents.

Talk about resolve. How about the resolve of Gutzon Borglum, the man who made Mt Rushmore happen? He kept at it when no one else thought it possible. Against all odds: against local & Federal governments, against monetary challenges, against political battles, and against nature itself. He persevered. Wow! Is this country great or what?

Makes you ask yourself a tough question or two:

Have I given up on my vision just because the going got tough? Have I persevered when I knew it was the right thing to do?

Well, I leave you to think about that. It's an open book test and the answers are completely private. Only you will know the answer for sure.... I'll never ask. I have a hard enough time answering those questions for myself.

Chance, enjoy the wildlife pictures.
We love you all!

See Ya!