Who is Jon Black

Behold! Mt. Rushmore in all it’s… uh…. Glory?

So, Mt. Rushmore is cool but there’s not too much to it. I wouldn’t drive there just to see it but if you’re going through this part of the country you can take 20 minutes to see it… seriously, 20 minutes but it is worth it. If you time it properly they have a presentation in the auditorium there. Unfortunately we couldn’t see this presentation because they were setting up for a church service and I thought about that situation for a few minutes. The auditorium is at the base of Mt. Rushmore and they were about to have a church service there… I don’t think irony is the proper term but let’s just call that interesting. I’m pretty big on separation of Church and State.

I thought about this for a while. Have some (and I really do mean some) churches become more about presentation and “cool” locations than about helping and caring for people? Something to think about on the 8 hour drive to Livingston, Montana.

After our quick journey to Rushmore we toyed with the idea of going to see the new stone carved monument of Crazy Horse. It was too expensive to see something that’s not finished. When they finish the Crazy Horse monument the word on the street is that Rushmore will fit in his armpit. I’d like to see it when it’s finished though but only if I’m driving through… like I said, they’re cool and all but you look at them, watch the presentation, and then you’re pretty much finished.

From there we pretty much headed straight to Livingston, Montana. It was a nice drive and peaceful. When we were in Wyoming we passed a mini-van pulling a “trailer” and by “trailer” I mean the bed of a truck. I’ve seen these before but basically it’s the back half of a truck ghetto-rigged to be a trailer. We passed it and saw this bumper sticker on the “trailer”.

We passed and laughed at the dirty old man and his WIFE(!) driving across Wyoming and I said to my brother, “Dude, I should have flashed him.” We laughed but kept on our journey to deliver the new car to Stephen’s wife.

We scrolled through the iPod finding our soundtrack to the road trip and continued driving across the Wyoming. We finally passed into Montana and we pounded fists… we’d driving through ten states (Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming) to reach Montana. Our finish line was in sight but first we needed lunch. Subway was good. When we finished our meal I took over driving for the rest of the trip and Stephen slipped into the back seat to watch a movie. Watching movies in a vehicle has its place but I really hope that 1) I can hopefully afford to take a family road trip one day and, 2) My kids won’t be attached to the screen so they can see the beauty of the country we live in.

After Stephen’s movie we noticed a vehicle pulling onto the highway about 100 yards in front of us. It was the breast inspector. Not missing our chance to laugh at how stupid we are I sped up beside him and Stephen (mind you, my 32 year old brother) lifted his shirt up only to be seen by the dirty old man’s wife. I punched the gas pedal and moved past him only to see the wife looking at her husband laughing at him and explaining what she just saw. That memory will never leave me for the rest of my life. It’s good to have brothers.

Finally, we made it to Livingston, Montana and washed the car. Here’s the bug casualties on the front of the vehicle.

We drove almost 2000 miles in three days, saw parts of weird america (Superman, Wall Drug), saw Mount Rushmore, showed our breasts to a dirty old man’s wife, and laughed harder than we’ve laughed in a while.

Don’t think my trip is over. I’m staying here in Montana for a few days to see what people call “The best rodeo in Montana” and a rodeo parade with a, I’m not making this up, Star Wars and Star Trek theme. Did they know I was coming? I believe I was predestined to be here for this.

Expect pictures of this later in the week.

soundtrack for day 3:
Steve Earle & The Del McCoury Band
Shooter Jennings
Crosby, Stills, and Nash
Wilco*
Beastie Boys
Run DMC
Public Enemy

*Wilco’s Sky Blue Sky wins the award for best driving record on this road trip. CSN Greatest Hits wins second place for this.

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