My mom and I started our voyage to S. Dakota yesterday at 6:30 a.m. I had the unfortunate bad luck of being up since 2:00 a.m. since I did not feel good. My mom came over early to help me finish packing and looking at me, asked, “Do you still want to go?” For a second, I did not think she was serious. There would be nothing short of death to prevent me from traveling to the competition. We left at 7:58 a.m. and flew into Denver, Co and met two of the contestants while we waited to board our flight into Rapid City. We were fortunate enough to share our plane ride with Ms. Wheelchair Washington and Arkansas. We finally got to the hotel and settled in while we waited for dinner. We had dinner and orientation and got prepared for the next day.
Today was our “fun” day excursion through S. Dakota. We all traveled in accessible vans and even had a police escort through town! I think we all felt like royalty. We first laid eyes on Mt. Rushmore as we drove around the final of many bends in the road and the monument looked like it was almost not real. We gathered for our group picture which was fabulous yet chaotic. Seeing the monument close up was breathtaking. It truly is a treasure of the United States. As a politics junky, seeing such a great historical masterpiece was absolutely fantastic. We then had lunch and went to the gift shop. My favorite part of the day was when multiple Massachusetts-ites came up to me and wished me good luck. They all were happy to see their home state represented and I was proud to be their representative. We then were treated to a great show by a local Native American young woman who shared her extraordinary story with us. We also were given a brief history of Mount Rushmore. Did you know that the monument was originally supposed to be a carving of the Presidents’ body as well? I did not!
We packed back into the vans and were taken to “Meeting the Need” which is an all accessible old tin mine which has been turned into a campground. We had a big “cowboy” style meal with our meat and potatoes along with a delicious dessert. Our entertainment for the night was an all-female group called T.R.A.S.H. (Truly Rational and Sane Humans) who put on a great show and even sang an original song for us and did a roast of the current titleholder. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted and are getting prepared for tomorrow. The competition is officially going to start so I guess it’s time to put the game face on :)
Today was our “fun” day excursion through S. Dakota. We all traveled in accessible vans and even had a police escort through town! I think we all felt like royalty. We first laid eyes on Mt. Rushmore as we drove around the final of many bends in the road and the monument looked like it was almost not real. We gathered for our group picture which was fabulous yet chaotic. Seeing the monument close up was breathtaking. It truly is a treasure of the United States. As a politics junky, seeing such a great historical masterpiece was absolutely fantastic. We then had lunch and went to the gift shop. My favorite part of the day was when multiple Massachusetts-ites came up to me and wished me good luck. They all were happy to see their home state represented and I was proud to be their representative. We then were treated to a great show by a local Native American young woman who shared her extraordinary story with us. We also were given a brief history of Mount Rushmore. Did you know that the monument was originally supposed to be a carving of the Presidents’ body as well? I did not!
We packed back into the vans and were taken to “Meeting the Need” which is an all accessible old tin mine which has been turned into a campground. We had a big “cowboy” style meal with our meat and potatoes along with a delicious dessert. Our entertainment for the night was an all-female group called T.R.A.S.H. (Truly Rational and Sane Humans) who put on a great show and even sang an original song for us and did a roast of the current titleholder. By the end of the day, we were all exhausted and are getting prepared for tomorrow. The competition is officially going to start so I guess it’s time to put the game face on :)
