South Dakota Day 1

Ty and Seth spent a lot of time together in the motorhome!

The first day of our epic trip to Mount Rushmore was nothing more than a lot of driving. Not only that, we were split up in separate vehicles. Mom and Seth rode in the motorhome with Laurie, Glen, Tyler, and Jason. Meanwhile, Mark went to an early morning Scout Camp, and Dax and Dad went to Dax’s baseball game (Dax caught 3 pop flies!). At about 11:30 Nate picked us up in the truck and we made the 6 hour drive to Martin’s Cove. We arrived about an hour after the motorhome, and we still had enough day to see the museum.

Ty tried to convince Seth to wear his hat backward. It worked! 

We’d never been to Martin’s Cove before. It is a really cool Pioneer Museum that celebrates the rescue of the Willie-Martin Handcart Company. It was amazing how much stuff there was. There is a rather large museum, a replica of Fort Seminoe, and several other buildings like a blacksmith shop, cabin, and chapel. There are also around 60 missionaries that serve at Martin’s Cove full-time!

The motorhome arrived an hour before the truck, so Mom and Seth wandered around outside for a bit. 

The area around Martin's Cove is beautiful!

Seth and Mom walked toward Devil's Gate.

We had a great time walking through the buildings. The first thing that we did was pull handcarts through the yard. The boys thought this was a ton of fun, especially when they got to ride! The boys and Mom were given a horseshoe nail ring in the blacksmith shop. Then they got a special wooden medallion after they listened to the story in the museum. Mom and Dad had fun finding their relatives (Amos Maycock and Henry Goldsbrough) among the rescuers of the handcart companies. We also found the actual rifle of James Mellor, Dad’s great-great-granduncle, that he used along the trail.

Seth started out pulling a handcart with Dax. 

But soon he was riding! 

Dad found Henry Goldsbrough on the Rescue Company. Mom found Amos Maycock.

Mom also found Ann Humphries in the Martin Handcart Company who was rescued.

Dax was a great handcart puller. 

Apparently pulling a handcart with Jason and Nate is hilarious!

Here we are showing off our square nail rings. 

James Mellor's rifle

For dinner, we had barbecue beef sandwiches that had been stewing in the crockpot all day. Then we drove just a few miles to Independence Rock. We had a great time climbing the rock, finding pioneer names carved into the rock, and spotting rabbits and pronghorn. The boys liked jumping over the cracks in the rock, too.

Independence Rock doesn't look hard to climb...

... but we had to make base camp halfway up!

The views are beautiful on the top of Independence Rock.

Ty and Nate are good sports to tag along with us. It only gets worse! 

We all made it to the top, although it was questionable for Mom for a minute. 

This is the highest point on the rock.

Everyone enjoyed leaping over the cracks. 

Here goes Dax. 

Mark's turn.

Nate didn't want to get left out!

We saw a few little bunnies running around.

Seth wanted his own jumping picture.

When we finally rolled into Casper it was nearly 10 o’clock. We got the beds all laid out, and they are wall to wall! Mom said she’s never slept in a room with seven boys before. Luckily, nobody snored and we all slept pretty well!

Wall to wall boys.