O'er the Ramparts We Watched

People really are incredible.

One woman asked me today, "Are you allowed to take pictures of Mt. Rushmore?"

Another man was raving about his grandson, who just graduated from UCLA.
"My grandson is an Arab interpreter."
...an Arab interpreter? Does that mean he tries to understand Arabs?

Then, another couple left the information center without their child.  This boy is looking incredibly lost and comes up to the desk and goes, "I can't find my parents."  We had the boy wait at the desk with us for 25 minutes, assuming his parents would obviously come frantically looking for him. Wrong. After 25 minutes, one of the rangers took the boy and they went off into the park... They found the parents, who hadn't even realized that their only child wasn't with them....

In other news, the staff was alerted today that the chances of having a major forest fire in the areas surrounding Mt. Rushmore are extremely likely this summer. There's this mountain pine beetle that has been slowly killing all the trees in the Dakotas and nearby Canada, and they dry out the trees, making a forest fire risk high... they say that if there is a forest fire around the Rushmore property, we have an hour to evacuate everyone from the park... (a typical summer day at Mt. Rushmore has anywhere from 23,000 to 48,000 visitors).

Lastly, the seasoned park rangers all have to do these evening programs every night at 9pm.  Each ranger is assigned a night, and gives a 10 minute presentation to approximately 1,000 to 3,000 visitors before the mountain is illuminated at night.  One of the rangers, Scott, asked me to sing the Star Spangled Banner at the end of his presentation... WIN. He wants me to sing the melody and he wants to harmonize. DOUBLE WIN.  We practiced in front of some tourists in the information center today, angering my boss; it was definitely worth it though. I hope Scott will make it happen!

Jacob