Monuments Drive Me Crazy

This summer, the main thing that I did was travel to my father's house in Las Vegas, Nevada. I do this every summer; it's a part of my regular life. But this summer, it was a little different. See, my dad recently retired from the U.S. Air Force as a fighter pilot, to become an airline pilot for the airline Allegiant. I know, big change right? But anyway, since he's an airline pilot, we get to fly around a lot on the planes and do a bunch of things with him all the time. It opens a lot of time for travel and mini-expeditions. So he decided randomly this summer that "Hey, Jazmin, I think it'd be fun. Let's go to South Dakota!"

I just stared at him at first. All I did after was say, "Is that where all the black bears went?"

So the next thing I knew, me and my little sister were going on a flight to South Dakota for one week. We touched down, and it was 50 degrees outside the plane. We rented a big truck (the exact same truck my mom has just bought for herself, how bout that?) and we found a room in the Nellsworth Air Force Base to live in for one week. The next day, all the real things started.

We went to Mount Rushmore, first thing. I took so many pictures with my phone! It was incredible! Jade insisted on reading every sign we passed, but that was okay, because it gave me a chance to practice my "presidential impressions" with funny faces and swinging arm motions as she read. The gift shop was blessed with beautiful crystal jewelry and I have now worn the same crystal necklace every day since, along with my choker and one left earring. Well, after that, we headed into all kinds of things. It's really all a blur now.

We took a train ride, toured the jewel caves, visited the Reptile Gardens (largest collection of reptiles in the WORLD) and went to the Crazy Horse monument. Not many people know about Crazy Horse. It isn't complete, but it's a huge monument to the Indian Chief Crazy Horse who fought against the white men and said: "My lands are where my dead lie buried." He was a cool dude. The monument is GIANT. When it's done, all of Mount Rushmore will fit in just Crazy Horse's hair! The place also had museums and tours and buffalo burgers (weird but tasty). By the time the day was over, I had had just about every bit of Native American culture I could handle. 8 HOURS OF NON-STOP TOURING. IT WAS BRUTAL, STILL COOL, BUT BRUTAL.

I had a lot of fun in South Dakota. The people were nice, and the history was incredible. I would definitely want to go back. See all the bison, prairie dogs, deer, wild donkeys, and many other animals. Just not in the winter when the whole place is a snowdrift and they have a mandatory second road to drive on since their main one always gets iced over.

And no. There are no black bears in South Dakota. :(

:D