July 6, 2009 | Cross Country,South Dakota,United States
Like most parents, we would do (almost) anything for our kids. We want them to have a happy childhood so we don’t have to spend all that money on their therapy after college when they are living at home because they can’t find a job. I know, it’s really because we love them but don’t underestimate the opportunity to relive our childhoods through their eyes. There are few things in the world that make a child’s eyes light up quite like fireworks on the Fourth of July. So how does an over-achieving parent take that up a notch? By going Mount Rushmore for the country’s most spectacular display.
Open roads of Iowa
Since we were a couple days behind schedule, our options were few – drive, sleep and drive again and run the risk of missing the fireworks or drive, drive and drive some more to get to Keystone South Dakota by the morning of July 3. I’m not sure which side of crazy we fall but we decided to drive straight through. So after a sad goodbye to our friends, we headed out for a long couple days of driving.
Driving an RV certainly worked to our advantage. The plan was for Dennis and I to take turns behind the wheel while the other one caught a couple hours of sleep in the back. Sounds easy, right? Being the gentleman that he is, Dennis insisted that he stay behind the wheel while I took the first nap. After being tossed around like a lightweight, my head was racing wondering what time it was and is he okay. I rested for about an hour which, in the end, was about 30 minutes longer than Dennis.
The End
The Beginning
- The Middle
It wasn’t all bad. We almost felt young and energetic again…almost. We saw a beautiful sunset somewhere west of Dubuque Iowa and the sun rise in Sioux Falls Nebraska. I’m not sure what we missed along the way in terms of scenery but the roads were straight and littered with 18 wheelers delivering their goods. By noon the next day, we arrived in Keystone South Dakota in time for the fireworks and ready to begin our vacation for a second time.
Sunset in Iowa
