It was early in the morning and the sounds of people waking up echoed through out the open roofed, medium sized home. 5 Minutes later everyone was packing up and getting ready for a big family vacation drive to the big sky Montana In mid-summer. I sat there being the first one ready twiddling my fingers anxiously ready to go with my ipod right on my side. 30 Minutes later of waiting and chatting with my friends on facebook about how jelous they were going to be we finally headed out the door.
We all put our stuff in the trunk opened up the 4 door compact car and were on our way to pick up one more person. Since it was the morning everything was silent but I was so excited I could almost hear everyones heart pounding with excitement. We sat around a big table for breakfest and two more people joined us in the early morning waiting for the adventures that await us later in the day. We then left shortly after and when we got outside it got brighter which meant it was going to be a clear sunny day, and the road trip officially started.

The  beggining was very boring because we were still in our home state but eventually we passed the border of minnesota over a huge river that had a green welcome sign and into what seemed like an abyss of mountains that when entered It had a big pond buried deep in the ground. Later on we ended up on the highway for what seemed like forever, although i’m not entirley sure what happened the rest of the way because I was in the back with a fortress of milky bar and kit kat minnies surrounding me as I was looking at the ceiling and all the other mountainous land scapes filled with nothing but dark green grass and pine trees I could see through the window.
Next thing I know we’re stopped at a place in the middle of nowhere with fields surrounding us. On the other side there was a long line of resturants to eat at and as far as I could see out to the horizon there was nothing but endless rolling hills and grass besides a tiny train export and import station. The evening was rolling in and not much else had happened so we had stopped at a hotel standing big and tall up on a hill with the glow of light surrounding it giving it a luminescent feel. It was a yellowish hotel with a small lobby and an doorway to an erie looking pool and on the other side was the entrance to the hotel which turned out with many twists and turns and a very empty and cartoonish feeling. When we walked into our hotel room it had a tv, radio, a service cellphone, and a window which you could see nothing but a jagged wall of rocks with sharp edges and bumps... not much of a view but the hotel was right above a local town that had looked like it came from an old cowboy movie but it had streets and lights and resturants so it made for good pictures. We were walking through the small town looking at the western dressed people which made us feel out of place and everyone seemed to be eyeballing us. We stopped at a two story resturant and were walked up by a waitress with white hair and a black work outfit on who was very kind. We sat down ordered our food, ate and then left. This time everyone in the empty dark town was gone and were left there with nothing but forest surrounding us and streetlights behind us. Sadly though my Uncle and my Dad had decided to stay at the hotel and nap after a long day of driving. We eventually got back after running away from an antique shop that had a rocking chair... that was rocking by itself. The next day I already knew we were going to be rushing out the hotel fussing about being late. We woke up and like I said we were hustling out the door within a matter of seconds so everyone was in a crabby mood except me because I couldn’t wait to see Mt. Rushmore. We got to a cabin styled breakfest eatery across the street sitting in a clearing. We got in and got seated like last night, took pictures and headed off to mt rushmore.
We finally got there but everyone got split up from eachother because My parents, Half- Cousin, Sister and I were going to fast. We walk up to Mt. Rushmore through a musuem that had an original guy that worked on it. It was a narrow curved hall with red carpet, a book store, and 2 movie theaters. When we got out there was a big outdoor autitorium facing a stage and the heads themselves that seemed to be looming over everything else. On the side was a path going downhill and on the other side was where you exited. It was so full of tourists and people from all over the world which was unique to me. We took a picture on a ledge hanging over the auditorim but I was the only one that wasn’t standing on the ledge because I felt I was going to fall down. We moved on down the path and went on to a wooden walk way that cut through a forest. The sculptures were so big it made us feel small like the Earth being compared to the Sun. After spending our morning at Mt. Rushmore we headed to Devils tower which is a large redish rock that has a flat top thats really tall and loomed over miles of land. Although it has nothing to do with the devil the indians used to worship the rock because they believed it had powers. On our way there it started getting really cloudy and clouds rolled over the land giving it an empty and mysterious feeling. On our way there we also saw a shiny white striped muscle car on it’s way to the tower too. Once we got closer I saw that it had a burned down forest and in front of us was a sidewalk winding around the big flatop rock that had boulders on the side of it. Halfway through we spotting climbers climbing it but they had started to go down because it had started raining. We started to walk back from what used to be a forest but it was burned down in a wildfire. It’s not often you get to stand over miles of land above a burned down forest and think about how indians used to roam the land which was one of the most breathtaking views I’d ever seen. A little ways down the road we saw the muscle car laying in the ditch with crinkles and dents in the hood, and the glass was also scattered every where. And we had only been there for a short while.
We went on with our buisness and soon after I was asleep. After crawling through mountainous roads with big cliffs on the side in the night while it was raining which is definitley one of the scariest moments of my lives we finally got to our rental home sitting right in the middle of a small neighboorhood. It had a sliding door going out to a hot tub with the view of ride open range of grass. On the inside it had a open roof and a kitchen with a dinner and a marble counter sitting in the middle of it. Sitting behind the kitchen behind the kitchen a couch was facing a big tv that had a medium sized room on the side of it.We spent our night eating bbq chicken and snacking on other things while in the hot tub.The weather was really nice and breezy that night but when we went to bed a long, big storm had happened but eventually it was morning and we woke up. I was going to spend the day with my Uncle Walt in the town after visiting my grandparents which was really exciting because me and him always have a good time together and we get along so well. Me and him headed off in his big truck while everyone else went to go do some errands. First we stopped at a very large pawn shop that had all kinds of neat things all over the place like vintage guns, skateboards, guitars, and video games and a couple other of intresting things like a mini bike. We actually bought the mini bike and did a test run on it which we later regreted because it was very uncomftorable but it was ok because it was all in good fun. Later we went to a place that sold motorcycles because we thought about getting a dirt bike to ride around on. It seemed very empty but there was one man working in a garage there who showed us some of their cheapest bikes. My Uncle tried one out and the engine was really loud and the dirt bike looked to big for me so I got alittle nervous sadly though we never got one. We went back to the house to wait for everyone and they all eventually got to the house. My Grandpa, Uncle Walt, and 2 of my Granpas friends/ family, my Dad and I went in the backyard to shoot rifles, pistols and bb guns. It was very fun learning how to reload and aim at targets although the pistol was scary because of it’s recoil and power and it was very loud, I thought I was gonna shoot my eye out so I set it down. After that we went inside and my Grandma was cooking ( she is one of the best cookers I have ever seen even when she’s cooking basic grilling food ), everyone was laughing and talking about old memories while My Grandpa, Uncle Walt, and I were talking about the pawn store and the bullet prices for a small box of about 50 bullets which was intriging to us because at the time there was big talk of gun control and prices were rising. We all ate and said our goodbyes for the night and left. To make it short let’s say I was suppose to zipline on one of Americas best ziplining course but I was too afraid. It made my Mom very upset and even still to this day I really regret not going on it and i’ll probably never get the chance to do that again. Even as i’m typing this I get an empty feeling and think about what a big experience I had missed. Although I had missed that we were headed to Yellowstone the next day so I was super excited.
That day we all headed to Yellowstone and saw my first  Canyon, Waterfall and I also saw a Deer that walked 5 feet away from me and was an experience i’ll never forget. I also saw Bears and Buffalo up close. At the end of the day we all headed to Old Faithful got ice cream and visited the hotel they hadand then we watched the water blow out as everyone was cheering and taking pictures while I sat there thinking these were my last hours with my sister who was moving to a college out in Montana. We all finally got back and said our goodbyes real quick before my Mom started crying and with that we left. It seems so long ago I was 7 years old walking to the gas station with my sister in blazing hot heat to get some snacks and a drink while my parents were at work but now I am in highschool and she has her own house which is a daily reminder to make the best out of my life and not regret anything I didn’t do.