stone faces.

It was raining. The wind was blowing. The lady where we were loading the trailer told us her firefighter husband had been on tornado watch, and they were "keeping an eye on some funnels." 

Cus really all funnels are is some rowdy kids that need someone to keep an eye on them.

But I had been praying all day that we would have time and the weather would allow us to visit Mt. Rushmore. We were picking up our load in Hill City, South Dakota, a mere 10  miles from the park, and there was no way I was going to miss it.

I think I would have braved a funnel to get there, quite honestly.

From the lumberyard, we were supposed to be able to see the back of the mountain, but it was too foggy. 

Still, I insisted. I was confident that God would clear the sky.

Jesse unhooked the trailer in the rain, sweet man that he is.

He may have questioned my sanity for venturing out in a funnel swirling foggy rain storm to take a hike in the mountains, but he sweetly and with minimal complaining fulfilled my requests.

We were halfway to the monument when the fog disappeared, and the sun came out. It was still raining, but the monument was visible, and I'm not afraid of melting.

I wrapped my camera up in a crock pot baggie, and we were off.

Honest Abe may have been crying, but then again so was I. The rain'll do that to ya.

The lighting was good enough for me. The rain didn't affect my pictures. The fog lifted so the faces were visible. 

My prayers were answered!

All you need is a little faith.

We didn't risk it with Crazy Horse though. We got out of there before the funnel could do that for us.

We did agree that there would be a "next time" and we would visit Crazy Horse then, because apparently he is pretty amazing too.

FYI: if any of you happen to be driving through South Dakota in a semi and decide to stop at Mt. Rushmore, please know that there's a hefty fine for even trying to get a trailer into the park. And there's no way around it. If you don't know beforehand that trailers are not allowed, you don't find out until you pull up to the gate to pay to enter, and at that point, the only way out is to go through to gate and out the exit. For a whopping fine of $250, we were very thankful that we called ahead!