- Why were we there? Why had I dragged my family — my wife and our Snapchatting 12-year-old daughter and our longhaired, talkative 9-year-old son — away from work and school to see, of all places, Mount Rushmore?
I couldn’t say, exactly. All I knew was that I seemed to be suffering a crisis of scale. America was taking up a larger part of my mind than it ever had before. It was dominating my internal landscape, crowding out other thoughts, blocking my view of regular life. I couldn’t tell if it was reaching its proper size, growing the way a problem tends to grow just before a solution is found, or if it was swelling the way an organ does before it fails and bursts.
I felt drawn to Mount Rushmore, instinctively, like a spawning fish to the head of a river. I wanted to look American bigness squarely in the face.
This was offputting. It drips with disdain. I understand that he's trying to make a political point, but way to do that by being an arrogant tool to the entire state of South Dakota. The best compliment he can come up with in the whole thing is "It was as beautiful as any land I’ve ever seen". That's the compliment equivalent of "meh" while looking down your nose. I've been to South Dakota, and yeah, Mt. Rushmore is kind of strange. "The hubris of man" and all. But? Custer's a great little town, and it's an excellent base of operations to see the state. There's more than a freakin' Pizza Hut there. Try out Wall Drug. Custer SP is quite beautiful. There's Pipestone. There's Badlands. There's Teddy Roosevelt NP. South Dakota is a treasure trove of nature's wonders. Instead of appreciating any of this, our narrator tosses his backhanded compliment out and spills more words talking about the local fauna come begging to lick the salt off his car. Does he ever mention another human being outside of his family unit? Is he that self-absorbed? If I was to give Mr. Anderson some polite advice, I'd say: - Go on your trip in season, because things will be open. - If you want to actually see things, do some research and take some time to get out of your car and take a hike. - Put down your electronics, and please make your kids do the same. If they're unshackled from their screens for a while, they might actually look around them, and appreciate it. They should understand how fortunate they are to be able to go on such a trip to such a beautiful area of the country. If all they do is Snapchat, you've wasted all your money getting them there. - Check your preconceptions at the door and talk to people.
I took a car trip out west when I was about twelve years old. The beauty of the badlands is breathtaking. The fossils and the natural formations fired my young imagination. It's austere majesty at sunset is unforgettable. Devils Tower is so fucking improbable. I mean really how can it be? Mt. Rushmore... We stayed about five minutes. If we had been honest with each other we would have stayed half that long. It was totally underwhelming. Banal things during that trip that I enjoyed more than Mt. Rushmore. 1. Seeing a deer really close up at Devils Tower. 2. Getting a chipmunk to eat from my hand. 3. Seeing and hearing a rattle snake. 4. Reading my first "edgy" comic book (not Archie but Conan). 5. The night sky almost everywhere we stayed. 6. Almost every meal. Your right about the beauty of South Dakota and while the authors work is mostly worthless, Mount Rushmore is one of the least interesting famous things I've ever seen.
Fucking Wall Drug and it's hundreds of miles of billboard advertising. It's kind of amazing, but at the same time, fuck that place. The Badlands and a ton of other places around there are amazing and I was pretty entranced by Crazy Horse and the entire story behind that, maybe moreso than Mount Rushmore. What I will say about Mount Rushmore, which I believe to be much more of a compliment than the author was able to give, is that it is a place that brings people together from all walks of life.
I think the best way to describe Wall Drug is that it's an experience. Love it or loathe it, it's completely unique. From the free water to the godawful animatronics. And you've got a point about Mt. Rushmore. One of the more interesting things to me is how much they love Custer out there. For a lot of people, he's just known for the last stand bearing his name, and is seen as a dumbass at best. In South Dakota he's basically a folk hero.
I have never been to Wall Drug but I have been to South of the Border when I was a kid. I remember all the signs to see South of the Border all throughout the highway. For some odd reason, I remember them having really good pizza. But maybe it was my kid tastebuds that thought that way. I do also think I played mini golf there as well. It was probably the best tourist trap I ever went to.
Never been to SotB but I have seen some signs for it in passing. Definitely a Wall Drug kind of vibe. Another one of my favorites is Santa's Land Office.