8/26/11 Dianne Does..George, Tom,Teddy and Abe

She’s gonna kill me when sees this but I just couldn’t resist.

Longtime readers may remember that when Dianne visited us in ‘09, when we were in Alaska for the summer, that I titled the day we went to Denali National Park….Dianne Does Denali. As you can probably guess we went to see Mount Rushmore today. Get it? George (Washington) Tom (Thomas Jefferson) Teddy (Theodore Roosevelt) and Abe (Lincoln).

This was a girls day since Bob wasn’t feeling too good. He hasn’t been sleeping well lately and is simply very tired.

So we hopped in the truck, cameras in hand, off on our sightseeing jaunt.

On the way I saw the signs for Cosmo’s Mystery Area. Bob and I have passed this area several times and each and every time I say something to the effect that I would like to check that out and each and every he just keeps on driving. Well I’m in the driver’s seat today and we are stopping!

We drove down this wooded dirt road…..which seemed like forever! (Go ahead LaVon, feel free to capture this one)

So what is the Cosmos you are wondering? Simply put, it’s the strangest location in the Black Hills where everything is topsey turvy and absolutely nothing is in a normal position including us. The laws of nature seem to have gone totally berserk in this area and you can actually feel it!

This area was discovered in 1952 by two college buddies who were looking for a piece of land on which to build a summer cabin. When they arrived in this area they experienced a slight unbalance which intensified when they entered an old abandoned house already on the property. (Note: I researched whether to use unbalance or imbalance because the signage in the area used unbalance and it just didn’t sound right although it is correct)

The young men camped in the area as they were drawn to this phenomena. They decided this was something that the public would be interested in and repaired the house to make it safe and then developed the demonstrations that we were shown.

Of course today there is a rather large gift shop on the property and the tours run nine bucks a piece.

We didn’t have to wait long for our tour to take place and the first demonstration was practically outside the door of the gift shop.

Our tour guide, Emily, first showed us how the level was reading properly and that the bubble was centered on level surfaces.

She showed us that two rectangular cement slabs were in fact level by placing the level on each one and then placing one end of the level on the one slab and other end of the level on the other slab which was about two feet away. Yep, bubble was in the center all around.

Dianne and I stood on the cement slabs and outstretched our arms and put a hand on each others shoulders. Take note that Dianne is taller than me in the picture below.

We switched places and now see who is taller! This shouldn’t happen! Yet it did, time after time, when different sets took their places on the slabs.

As we walked to the old building on the property we couldn’t help but notice how crooked it was, how much it leaned.

Yes, the building leans this much!

In this demonstration Emily was showing us how the ball rolled UPHILL. Each and every time, the ball rolled in the direction that it shouldn’t have!

We moved inside the building and Emily stood in the corner on top of two boards nailed to the walls so that she could be better seen. She is leaning very far from the wall but gravity keeps her in place!

Of course we had to try it!

There were a few other demonstrations in this building but we couldn’t stay inside and watch. Us and a few others had to stand outside because we felt woozy and nauseous which is quite common among the visitors.

Take notice of the trees that are bent. Gravity is pulling them down.

We watched a few more demonstrations done with little kids, made a quick run through the gift shop and headed to our next stop, Mount Rushmore.

Did you know that entry into Mount Rushmore National Memorial is free? Yes, it is, but they get you on parking! “Eleven dollars please” you hear, but to their credit you only pay it once. Its good for the calendar year, if we were to come back we wouldn’t have to pay parking again. Of course tourists in this area usually only go to Mount Rushmore once I would imagine. Bob has seen it from the road but hasn’t actually been inside this year.

Of course we had to have our picture taken in front the guys.

I never get tired of seeing this!

It was especially fun to watch Dianne when she first saw it. If I’m not mistaken I think I even saw a tear in her eye. It just does that to you.

She brought her hometown newspaper with her so I took pictures of her holding it while standing in front of the monument. She’ll submit it and it will be featured in the newspaper with news of her trip.

We went inside the museum on the grounds and Dianne enjoyed the interaction exhibits. Here she is preparing to blow up part of the mountain that will be Mount Rushmore.

There it goes, the plunger was pushed and the explosive was activated.

I saw this water fountain and just felt the urge to photograph water!

Next stop was the ice cream store in the gift shop/cafeteria area. Oh. My. Gosh. I don’t know what brand it was but this store has the best ice cream I have ever eaten. Truly, to die for!

Our last look at Mount Rushmore.

This was a fun day! We both needed this girlfriend time.

When we got back to the FamCamp we hung out with Joy and Valerie for awhile and played a game of Mexican Train.