AVERT2015 Recap Part 4

I'm happy to report that the three weeks of overtime with no days off are finally over with! **happy dance** I'm still recovering, and I plan to take a long weekend this coming weekend to do nothing but relax (so if you call and I don't answer- that is why). :)

I started this post on Sunday night, thinking I would post on Monday, maybe even Tuesday. Obviously, that didn't happened. I really hope to be a better blogger one day. Jodi and I are gonna skip What I'm Loving Wednesday this week. Please come back next week, we hope to get back on a regular schedule with our link up here soon!! :)

I'm also hoping to finish my road trip recap soon (which yes, is almost a month old). :) If you missed the last recap, click here.

That Monday was one of my favorite days of the trip since we were able to go to Mount Rushmore. I had waited my whole life to go there. I'll admit, I was kinda giddy when we saw the entrance sign. It was truly amazing. They showed a video about the drilling/carving of the monument. We learned some interesting facts, like how Thomas Jefferson was supposed to be on the other side of George Washington, but it didn't work out, so they "blew it up" and moved him to the other side. Yes, I could bore you with a lot of facts, but I won't, because you didn't come here for a history lesson. Lol. So I'll bore you with a ton of pictures instead. :) I think I took a picture with every possible view of Mount Rushmore behind me. :)

Don't you hate it when you are taking a selfie, and four old guys photobomb you? :)

Yes, I'm one of THOSE people. Lol. ;)

Yes, Mount Rushmore/Keystone had a baseball team!

Before we left, we stopped at the gift shop (because of course, we needed souvenirs, and I was on a mission to find Mount Rushmore salt and pepper shakers for my mom. In case you are wondering, I found them). They were selling a book by one of the original drillers, and it just so happened he was there that day signing copies of his book. I couldn't pass up that opportunity, so naturally, I bought a copy. He had just turned 94 the day before. He was super nice and told some interesting stories, I can't wait to find time to read his book and find out more about his time working on Mount Rushmore. And yes, he was nice enough to take a picture with me.

Me and Mr. Clifford. He was a member of the Mount Rushmore baseball team. He included his baseball card with the book purchase. :)

After Mount Rushmore we headed over to the Crazy Horse Memorial. I'll be honest- I didn't know much about it. This memorial started back in the 1940s after Henry Standing Bear, an Oglala Lakota Chief, asked a sculptor named Korczak Ziolkowski to carve a memorial honoring all Native American Indians. We learned that the first blast on the mountain took place in 1948 and five survivors of the Battle of Little Bighorn attended the ceremony. When you look at the memorial, it doesn't seem like much has been accomplished in the past 60 years (really you only have Crazy Horse's face). The Memorial does not accept state or federal funding, they rely on admissions and donations. I saw what the completed memorial is supposed to look like, maybe my grandchildren will live to see the day that it's completed. It is still a great place to visit- and they obviously need our support! Please check out their website for more information. It really is fascinating. If you ever go visit Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial is maybe 20 minutes away- it's totally worth a visit. Korczak passed away in 1982, but his children and grandchildren have continued to keep his dream alive and are still involved with the Memorial. His wife Ruth was actively involved in day to day operations at the Memorial until her death in May of 2014. 

In order to get this close, you have to take the bus tour. It only costs $4 and is totally worth it.

Our tour guide (top left) was awesome. He had a lot of information. He was funny too. He reminded me of Jerry Van Dyke (his voice even sounded like him). They had Crazy Horse's family tree hanging in the museum. I wouldn't mind my Indian Native American name being that (top right). They had a lot of Ruth's memorabilia throughout the museum. She collected sports autographs. Gee, sounds like someone else I know (who coincidentally has a middle name of Ruth). :) 

One of the few pictures Mel and I took together- this is us on the Crazy Horse tour bus!

This is what the completed sculpture will look like

This was another day where it was supposed to rain ALL day. As you can tell from the pictures, it was overcast and cloudy (with the exception of about 30 minutes of sunshine at Mount Rushmore), but thankfully the rain held off until we were leaving Crazy Horse. Funny story as we were leaving the parking lot of Crazy Horse. When we got back to my car, we noticed the car that had parked next to us had a Texas license plate. Not TOO unusual, Texas is a big state, I'm sure lots of people travel to South Dakota. BUT, it had a bumper sticker from my high school in Austin. What are the odds? Lol. It made me laugh.

We were hoping to make it to North Dakota by the end of the day (because why visit South Dakota and not make a trip to North Dakota)? We noticed on the atlas (yes, a real paperback atlas) that the geographic center of the United States was in Belle Fourche, SD, which happened to be on our route, so, naturally, we stopped.

We were happy to make it to North Dakota well before dark. We stayed in a town called Bowman (just a ways past the ND border). We discovered the only place to eat in Bowman after 8pm was a Subway, but it was okay. We were able to have a relaxing evening after a very long, tiring day. 

North Dakota is legen...wait for it...dary (some of you will get that). :) And it was the 5th state of our trip! :)

Thanks again for humoring me and reading my recap. Maybe by next summer I'll have the whole recap on my blog. Lol. ;)

Hope y'all have a great day!

XOXO!!

What I'm Loving Wednesday!

WE ARE BACK! After a few weeks off, I'm happy to bring back the What I'm Loving Wednesday link up! :) Please link up below, we love reading your posts!! :)

I'm loving...

That I actually blogged on a day that WASN'T a Wednesday. Okay, it was yesterday. Lol. But still, that's progress. If you missed my post, it was the third installment of my road trip recap. Check it out here.

I'm loving...

This bracelet that my sweet coworker gave me as a late birthday present. I LOVE it. She made it especially for me. :)

I'm loving...

That I stepped out of my comfort zone and tried Korean BBQ a few weeks ago. I'm NOT a fan of spicy food, so I really only liked the rice and the teriyaki chicken. The other stuff would have been okay, if it didn't cause my mouth to feel like it was on fire. I drank about 10 glasses of water (no lie). BUT, I can add OMI Korean Grill and Bar to my 1001 in 101 list- #50: restaurants in Dallas I've never been to before.

I know, I don't look that excited...

I got concerned when the menu was only in Korean (they had another menu in English)

I'm loving...

That I got to hang out with my friend Glenn before he left me and moved far, far away (okay, like six hours away, but still...) We had a blast walking around Koreatown in North Dallas (I didn't know it existed until then). At one point I was convinced we were going to be abducted by the Korean Mafia (and either sold as slaves or for body parts), but alas, we made it out alive (and NOT legally married under Korean law-long story). :) I'm still convinced illegal things were going on in the karaoke/billiards room, but I don't have hard proof (again, long story). :)

I'm loving...

My friend's dog Dobby. Last Monday I was having a bad day until this little furball smothered me with kisses. Hey- glad someone wants to smother me in kisses. Lol. One day I'll get a better picture of him, he's so hyper and constantly moves around.

I'm loving...
That Netflix has the TV show Roswell on instant streaming. I used to watch this show when I was in college. Future Max is still my favorite episode (that is not the title of the episode, but if you watched the series, you'll know what episode I'm talking about). :)

I'm loving...
My new haircut. It was an impulse decision. My hair had been driving me crazy for a few weeks so after work Monday I went in and told the girl at the salon to chop it. She cut about 6 inches off. I wasn't sure what I thought about it at first, but since it doesn't take as long to dry and straighten now, I'm learning to like it. :)

What are you loving today?

XOXO!

AVERT2015 Recap Part 3

No, you aren't losing your mind, I'm actually posting on a day that isn't a Wednesday! I'm still swamped at work but I wanted to give you another installment of our Road Trip Recap (see part 2 here). Check back tomorrow because I'm going to actually try and get back to my What I'm Loving Wednesday link up! :)

We left North Platte early that Sunday (okay, it was 9am, but that was early for us). We had a few places in Nebraska we wanted to check out before heading on to South Dakota. The drive was beautiful, we saw MILES and MILES of farmland. We drove through the town of Oshkosh (NOT the home of OshKosh B'Gosh- that is in Wisconsin). But, it was still a cute little town. 

Amber waves of grain...

We made it to our first stop of the day, which was Chimney Rock National Historic Site (yes, we are all about history). The first thing we saw when we got out of the car was this sign....

Now, my first thought was...do the snakes know how to read and know to stay OFF the sidewalk. Needless to say, I was on high alert. Every noise I heard, I was certain it was a rattlesnake. Sad to say (no wait, I'm HAPPY to say), we didn't see a snake.

I didn't know much about Chimney Rock, but it was still a neat place to visit. It is considered the most famous landmark on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails. If you are ever in the area of Bayard, NE, check it out. We didn't stay too long (honestly, after going through the museum, all you can do is look at the rock from the station, you can't actually get to it), but it was still a neat piece of history. 

I took this picture just because my birthday is May 23. :) This happened 126 years before I was born.

Our next stop was about an hour down the road from Chimney Rock at Scotts Bluff National Monument. I consider this a "must see" if you are in Nebraska- it was beautiful! I have to say, the forecast kept saying it was going to rain all day that Sunday. It didn't start raining until AFTER we had spent several hours at Scotts Bluff- thank you Lord. I'm so glad the rain held off. We were able to get some great pictures. We did some hiking as well (nothing major, maybe a total of two miles). They also had signs to watch out for rattlesnakes. Again, I was on high alert, but we didn't see (or hear) any. Whew.

It was kind of cool driving through tunnels cut into the rock/mountain

Like I said, the rain thankfully held off until we were actually leaving Scotts Bluff. We stopped for supper before hitting the road. We were trying to get to South Dakota before it was too late. Mel took over driving at one point. I rarely use SnapChat (I'm a terrible Snapper, wait, is that what you call people who use it? Oh well, whatever). I'm not that great on it, but feel free to add me, my handle is Averyfan (are you THAT surprised?) Lol. ANYWAYS, I sent this snap out (it somehow saved to my phone, so I'm adding that picture here. :) 

We were driving along when all of the sudden the car in front of us slammed on their brakes and veered off the road. We were about to yell at them for their crazy driving, when we realized that they saw the South Dakota state sign and that is why they stopped so fast. Lol. Of course, we also stopped for a quick picture (and actually silently thanked them for stopping so suddenly, we totally would have missed it). It was SO WINDY, and still raining some, but we got our pictures! :) 

The fourth state of our trip

We made it to Keystone, South Dakota well before dark (weehoo). Our motel was actually the closest motel to the Mount Rushmore entrance (it was a Super 8 motel, nothing fancy). But it was clean and the staff was super nice. More on our visit to Mount Rushmore next time! :)

XOXO!!

AVERT2015 Recap Part 2

So, for the past week (and for the next two weeks), I'm working an insane amount of overtime at work. Because of that, I totally forgot it was Wednesday, so I don't have a What I'm Loving Wednesday post ready. :( I had started the second part of my road trip recap last week (and never got around to posting it, again, because of working so much), so I'm just going to use that for a post today. Come back next week for the What I'm Loving Wednesday link up! In the meantime, enjoy part two of AVERT 2015 (A Very Epic Road Trip)! :)

If you missed the first part of my recap, click here.

The third day of our trip we were in Abilene, Kansas. Funny side story: this whole road trip started because I asked Mel if she would like to go to Abilene to see the Dwight Eisenhower presidential library (most of you know I'm trying to eventually see all of the presidential libraries. And right now #5 on my 101 in 1001 list is visit three presidential libraries that I've never been to, so I can mark that one totally off). A long weekend trip to Kansas grew into a 10-day road trip. Lol. We can't help that we are over-planners. :) Anyways, we got to the library early that morning. I really enjoyed it. I'll be honest, I didn't know much about Eisenhower (I should be so ashamed) but after going through the library, I am interested in doing some reading on him.

My 6th presidential library (there are 15 total)

The library/museum is actually at the exact location where Eisenhower grew up. We had stopped at his birthplace in Denison on our way out of Texas (as mentioned in the first recap). He only lived there a brief time, he spent his childhood and youth in Kansas. We got to tour the actual house he grew up in (we only got to spend like five minutes in there, they kind of rushed us through). I love looking at old houses that are restored to the way they looked when people lived there. It seemed so tiny though, he came from a pretty big family. 

On the steps of Eisenhower's childhood home

Inside Eisenhower's childhood home

There is currently a World War II exhibit at the library. For those not familiar with Eisenhower, he was a five-star general in WWII (I did at least know THAT about him before going to the library). It was very interesting. I'm always fascinated with anything regarding WWII.

We were at the beginning of the WWII exhibit, and what's the first thing I notice? Something about Audrey Hepburn. It's like they knew I would be there. :)

I enjoyed reading the exhibits about Eisenhower's life and his marriage to his wife Mamie. She seemed like a funny lady, I definitely want to read more about her. They had some of her outfits in the museum, and also a short video of an interview with her.

Eisenhower is the only president to win an Emmy in recognition of his extensive use of television 

The final resting place of Eisenhower, his wife Mamie, and their son Doud Dwight, who died when he was only three

I see a statue, I pose. I can't help it. Lol

After we got to Kansas the day before, I was wondering if they had some sort of Wizard of Oz museum (it would make sense to have one in Kansas, right?) It turns out there was one, and it was only about an hour out of our way, SO, we decided to make a side trip to check it out after we left Abilene. If you are ever near Wamego, Kansas, it's worth your time to check out the Oz Museum. :) Wamego is a cute little town. We were there on July 4th and they had a carnival in the middle of town. They were also setting up for a parade that would take place later in the evening (we saw a lot of floats and decorated cars). 

The Oz Museum has a lot of information about the actual Wizard of Oz books and the author L. Frank Baum (I had no clue there were about 40 books in the series. I personally own 10 of them). Also, before the famous musical was filmed, another movie version and stage version were produced (obviously they were not that good since we only talk about the 1939 movie version). They had collectibles, some artifacts from the movie, and autographed memorabilia from original cast members. They also had exhibits that talked about Return to Oz (anyone else remember that movie from the 1980s) and The Wiz. 

There's no place like home...there's no place like home...

Follow the yellow brick road...I was kinda sad the WHOLE floor wasn't yellow, but oh well...

Mel snapped a picture of me watching some sort of documentary on L. Frank Baum

After a slight detour getting out of Wamego (thanks to streets being closed down for the parade), we were on our way and made it to Nebraska well before dark. We obviously were wanting to take pictures at each state sign, and we knew we were close to the Nebraska border, so we were on a look out for it. Mel saw an old looking church she wanted to take a picture of, so we took a side road to get to it. Instead of turning back around, I noticed another street that looped back to the highway. It just so happened that street met the highway at the exact location of the Nebraska state sign. We thought that was cool! No need to slam on the brakes in order to get a picture (yes, we did that more than once on our trip). Lol.

The third state of our road trip!

After stopping at a mom and pop restaurant for supper, we were determined to make it to North Platte to stay the night. If you ever plan to stay in North Platte and think, hey, I won't need hotel reservations, who else would want to stay in North Platte, Nebraska- seriously, think again. There was only one hotel with an available room (sadly it wasn't a cheap hotel), but at least we had a place to stay and weren't forced to sleep in my car (the next town was at least 60 miles away). Granted, this was also on the Fourth of July, so maybe North Platte is the Fourth of July Capital of Nebraska or something.

Sorry for the overload of pictures today (sadly this isn't even a dent in the pictures we took), but I hope you enjoyed them! :) I will try my best to get another recap up before NEXT Wednesday. I'm working overtime until August 2, so we shall see. Have a great day!!

XOXO!