(44) Mount Rushmore

Tuesday, February 24^th: Eric and I left in the truck around 8am before most people were even out of their rooms. We had to stop at a weigh station a couple hours into the drive. The State Trooper looked at our log books and had us pull onto a portable scale that weighs each axle. They were very nice and let us go without any further questions. We drove all the way to Wall, South Dakota, which is where Wall Drug is, and stopped for gas. We then drove about an hour further to Rapid City, South Dakota and got off the high way so the vans could catch up with us. Caroline had planned ahead and figured out we could go to Mount Rushmore National Monument, which is about 25 miles off the high way. Some of the company traveled away to go to auditions so there were only 8 of us who piled into the Red van. Dave had gone shopping for us and had a nice deli lunch that we ate when we got to Mount Rushmore. It’s a very interesting monument because it’s not one that people know that much about. We had trouble remembering who’s face was carved in the rock(George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln!) It took 14 years to carve and was complete in 1941 when Gutson Bulgrom, the artist and sculpture, died. It was a very nice trip and everyone learned quite a bit about this National Monument. Eric and I got back on the road and drove into Wyoming. We had to stop at another weigh station and this time had to take our log books into the building. When we got in, she asked us for our registration so Eric had to run back out and get it. She asked me what we were hauling. I said “It’s a set for a theater show.” She said “Oh that’s so nice!” She looked at our registration and sent us on our way. We finished off our 505 mile(10,968 total miles) drive to Gillette without any problems.

Wednesday, February 25^th: DAY OFF! Just in case anyone was planning to vacation to Gillette, Wyoming… there is NOT HING here! I spent the day making phone calls to venues and dealing with all of that fun stuff. It was an entire day of work, from sun up to sun down. I did go out to dinner with Dave, Eric, Jeffrey, and Jonny to a place called Humphrey’s. It was a bar and grill place with a camel as it’s mascot. We had some good food and it was really good to get out of the hotel. Later that night, Dave, Eric, Rudy and I played poker. We were waiting for Dave and watching “Tropic Thunder” when all the lights went out in the hotel and the parking lot. We looked out to the Applebee’s that was near by and realized that their sign had turned off as well. The power came back on, went back off and came back on again! Finally we started poker, while watching “Tropic Thunder” and “Hamlet 2”, and I ended up breaking even on the night.