Pictures from Day 4

We spent the afternoon at Mt. Rushmore after a leisurely morning at camp. When we first got there, the sky was sunny, but while watching a movie documentary about the creation of the monument, clouds rolled in and we came outside to a completely different view.


Hi-tech camp - the kids compose their blog posts in Word so that they can quickly be pasted into Blogger when we have internet access again.
Below: the narrow, winding Norbeck Highway over Iron Mountain, which connects Custer St. Park to the Rushmore Monument, is laced with narrow tunnels, each framing a view of Rushmore. The sculptor actually helped plan the road!

Before heading out to the next excursion, the kids update the maps in their trip notebooks to highlight our route as we go and add to their journal entries.

from Ms. Littlejohn

To make our experience at Mt. Rushmore even more exciting today, we met one of the original workers who worked from 1938 until 1940. He has written a book in an attempt to answer the most asked questions about the work done over a 17 year period. He signed a book for our school library and was willing to have his picture taken with several of our students. His name was Nick Clifford and he is 88 years old.

In our travel to Mt. Rushmore, we passed several herd of buffalo on the road. They stroll very leisurely and we are convinced that they know they are protected and can do anything they want. They snort and walk right in front of your vehicle. The mothers were very protective of the young and actually pushed and prodded them to move.

Yesterday, I got a great surprise. We had stopped for gas and were getting ready to drive off when a car approached from the side and I actually thought was going to hit us. I looked up to say to the vehicle, “What do you think you are doing?” My daughter-in-law, Mary, waved! I couldn’t believe it! My son and his wife had decided to surprise me and that they did. They also brought my 3 year old grandson, Brant.

We are having a great time! I wish all of you could share this experience with your children.
Patty Littlejohn

Buffalo - from Scott

Today I started out with a rude awakening. I woke up to find Will W. sleeping on my legs. It was awful. When we got up, all the boys climbed this big mountain. At the top we saw a herd of buffalo. Then we ate breakfast. After breakfast we all went back up the mountain. Me and the Wills’ were a little more adventurous then the others. We packed a lunch and started to drive. On the way to our destination we were stalled by buffalo standing in the road. Everyone took many pictures. We also saw some wild horses. We got to a mountain place to eat our lunch. We headed to Mount Rushmore after that. It was really awesome. We then started to drive back to the camp. We saw some more buffalo. It rained. Dinner. That’s it.

-Scott

a few pictures from day 3

Blogging from the parking lot of Norbeck overlook, viewing Mt. Rushmore as we are driving there - others are picnicing - racing to post a blog while we have the precious cell phone signal! There is NO signal in Custer St. Park, where we are staying. Night before last, in Beresford, SD, we went to bed when it got dark at 10 pm to the glow of security lights, flickering lights on the huge agricultural facility in the field adjacent to the campground, and the lull of interstate 90 traffic just a few hundred yards away, bugs biting. Last night, we went to bed near midnight in sweatshirts and long sleeves, lit only by a million stars, a half moon, and hearing only the wind in the trees. Beautiful!

Photos above - not in the order intended, but as is to save time, from top: the grasslands leading up to the Badlands; our party clammoring like billy goats up a small bit of the Badlands behind the visitor center there; a view in the Badlands as we drove along the 40 mile loop around the park - we followed a thunderstorm through which made quite different light and vistas from what we would see on a sunny day; our bunch at the first overlook entering Badlands; a close up of the facade of Corn Palace. More coming...

Corn and Rocks

above - climbing at Badlands

Corn Palace

On the 29th we started out driving to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD from Beresford, SD. When we got to the Corn Palace we saw a lot of amazing pictures on the outside of the palace made out of corn like pictures of Mt. Rushmore, Washington D.C., and the St. Louis Arch. Next we traveled down the street to Cabela’s one of the biggest outdoor stores in the United States. We shopped around there for a while and then left for Badlands National Park. When we got there we got to climb up some of the rocks in the park. We watched a video about the history of the park and got some amazing pictures. Then we left for Wall Drug in Wall, SD, one of the biggest stores in South Dakota. They had everything there, they had fudge, a restaurant, and many stores. Then we drove to our campsite at Custer State Park, set up camp, and made nachos for dinner. So far we have had a great trip, lets hope the rest of the trip is that great.

-Eric
June 30, 2009
Custer State Park

Emily and Rachel...

It started off driving in the car…long, dreadful hours. But after two days, the adventure started! We drove out to the Badlands and climbed up tall, steep, muddy rocks…and fell back down them. We went out to the corn palace, which to our surprise, was not COMPLETELY made of corn. But we saw a normal building covered with some amazing pictures made with different colored corn. WALL DRUG: a series of stores that reminded us of Tennessee. Every time we turned around there was some one wearing a cowboy hat, or a stand of cowboy hats. They had the best homemade ice cream of ALL time. We got to our campsite around…9:30ish. We were exhausted from our first day of actually doing something. Setting up a tent in the dark is NOT EASY, but luckily it was not a complete failure. We finally ate dinner at 10:30, chatted a little, and crashed at 11:15. We got to “sleep in”, which here means, until around 7:30-8:00, because the sun, unfortunately, escaped into our tents, and the guys are not the quietest people. We took a little hike and before we knew it, we were writing our first blog!

Love and miss you all,
Emily and Rachel
June 30, 2009
Custer State Park, South Dakota

photo: the girls and Doug at an overlook at The Badlands National Park

Day two - some observations

1. A carload of 12, 13, and 14 year boys can giggle just like a carload of girls.

2. Having a quiet carload of boys on the trip last year guaranteed not getting same this year.

3. The only way for me to find a flat spot for the tent is to just lay down on the ground.

4. So far, I have witnessed our students doing for the first time: pumping gas at the gas station, slicing tomatoes, peeling garlic, using a manual can opener, setting up a tent (with no adult help,) load a cargo van with logic...there will be more.

5. It is a good thing I brought clothing for a wide variety of weather. Last night, it was hot, humid, and unbearable in the tent (and even worse in the car at 11pm, waiting out the lightning.) Tonight it is quite cool at 10 pm and we'll be down inside those sleeping bags!

6. Other middle schools must not get to do cool trips like this - everywhere we stop, we draw attention with our U-Hauls and painted van windows. People always ask about our group and the trip underway. Invariably, the comment is something to the effect of "wow, my kids' school sure never did/does anything like that...."

photos: the lunch routine at an Iowa rest area; our caravan in the parking lot; the Freedom bear stands watch everywhere we unload, here beside an Iowa cornfield; Daniel working hard to peel a persnickety garlic clove.

6 states in 2 days

Wow this is amazing. We have driven for hours on end. Every time we stop for the night we set up camp and make delicious food. Tonight I personally cooked chicken. The rest of my group cooked mashed potatoes, corn, and salad. It was really good!

So far it has been really fun, and I hope the trip continues like this.

-Ben

Pictures from Day 1

Here are all the kids before getting in the vans on Saturday.












They all successfully got their tents up!

101° in Missouri

We are on our way to Yellowstone. We are going to have our students post some of their experiences. The number of posts will depend on what kind of connectivity we have on our travels. Today we went from TN, through KY and IL, and finally arrived in Arrow Rock , MO.

The temperature when we arrived was 101°F. The humidity makes TN feel comfortable. We don't have to take a shower--we're soaking wet!

Ms. Littlejohn's van cooked hamburgers and french fries for dinner. My van cleaned up, and we're now waiting in the vans for a storm to pass before getting ready for bed.

Tomorrow we go through IA on our way to SD.