US, Part 2.5.1: Mount Rushmore

When we left Cheyenne, we were in for one of the longest travel days on tour. When I found out that South Dakota was going to be one of the states on our tour, I instantly thought how awesome it would be to see Mount Rushmore, since it is probably the most easily recognizable American symbol, next to the Statue of Liberty, and I could not imagine that Up with People would pass up the opportunity to take us there. And I wasn't disappointed. Earlier in Cheyenne, it was announced that we would be going on the buses early in the morning and driving to see Mount Rushmore, and then spending the night at a camp in the middle of the Black Hills.

On the morning of departure, everybody on the bus that was not from this region of the United States was really excited about what they were going to be seeing, and speculating how big it was going to be. From the pictures, I thought that the monument itself could be huge, but after seeing the Mormon Temple in Salt Lake City, it became clear to me that photographs could be deceiving. So, I had no clue what to expect.

We were all on the bus, doing typical Up with People bus activities, (i.e. sleeping, listening to our iPods, giving our bus driver Marv a hard time by asking him if he knew where we were going, etc.) when all of a sudden I hear a big, "Oh, my god!!" coming from the back of the bus. I look out the window and see a bigger-than-life carving of George Washington's head, and I knew that we had arrived. Within minutes of that first sighting, Mount Rushmore was laid out before us, with all its splendor and majesty.

All of us raced off the bus to see how close we could get to the monument. But by the time I had gotten there, I found out that I was late for our cast picture, no doubt destined for Up with People brochures for years to come. After taking the picture, it was time to take a walking tour of the site, where we learned some fascinating stuff. We learned all about the Danish artist that had designed the sculptures, and we also learned how Mt. Rushmore got its name. We learned that throughout the construction of the monument that there were no work-related deaths, which is a rare thing when working on a project of that magnitude. The tour guide even showed us the staircase that Harney Keitell and Nicholas Cage fight over in National Treasure: Book of Secrets. I've decided that I am going to get a bunch of friends over to watch movies that feature locations that I have been on my tour. That might be fun.

Once the last pictures were taken, and the last Mount Rushmore hoodie was sold, it was time for Cast B to pile onto the buses and head to our camping spot that would be the site of one of three host family-free overnights of the tour. I do have to say that just like the Mormon Temple, Mount Rushmore seemed a lot smaller than I imagined it to be. When I went to the Eiffel Tower years ago, it was actually larger than I thought it would be. That's why I think it's interesting that with our reputation for big things, all of the American monuments or historical sites we visited were smaller than I expected.

Anyway, after a bus ride of a couple hours, we finally arrived at our destination. Outlaw Ranch is a summer camp nestled in the Black Hills of South Dakota, and I think it is pretty safe for me to say that this is the first time the staff of the camp had ever seen the likes of us. We are a rowdy bunch. After we all piled into the main lodge of the cabin, we did a little activity called "Thumper," which is a memory/concentration game. Everyone stands in a circle, and comes up with a funny noise with an accompanying gesture. The game is played by doing your gesture/noise combination, and then choosing the next person to go by doing their noise/gesture combo. That person has to do their combination, and then choose the next player and so on until someone makes a mistake. The last person standing, wins the game. It's a delightful game that could easily be played at your next cocktail party.

But... things could turn ugly if you are a member of Up with People's Cast B '08 and there is a Thumper tournament staged. Everyone was split up into their hometeams and a game of Thumper was played. All of the hometeam winners would then battle to see who would be the ultimate champion. It all started out innocently when we all were playing our respective hometeam match-ups, but once we got into the final round, things got extremely intense. People were chanting their representative's name: "VERONIKA! VERONIKA! VERONIKA!" It was an interesting sound that was produced when 107 people are chanting 7 different names all at once. As with all competitive events, the tournament was marred with teams accusing other teams of cheating, and then we'd inevitably have to go to the instant replay for an official ruling. When all was said and done, it was Molly Robertson, our logistics coordinator that took home the grand prize of... the satisfaction of winning the tournament. (Although, representing Hometeam 3, and all of the other hometeams whose representative didn't win, Molly is the person that actually introduced the game to the group, so I think all the rest of us were at an extreme, nay, unfair disadvantage.) Anyway... (Love ya, Molls)

After the craziness that was the Thumper tournament, and after supper, we had an introduction for what was going to happen for the week that we were going to be in Aberdeen. The theme for Aberdeen was immigration, so they introduced a week-long activity called Up with People Land, but that's something for the Aberdeen post, so I'll save it for then. Stay tuned for that! :) Hey, I've got to keep my readership hooked somehow...

After learning about UwP Land, we basically could do whatever we wanted for the rest of the night, which is certainly a rarity while traveling with Up with People. We could veg out in our cabins, we could go into the lodge and play Truth or Dare (from which I heard some very interesting stories that are not Blogger-appropriate,) or we could sit by the bonfire and roast marshmallows, eat S'mores, and talk about life, home, or the UwP Land game that we were all suddenly thrust into. I thought it would be really relaxing and mind-clearing to just sit by the fire and listen to the conversations around me. Then our music coordinator, the inimitable Kady Brown, brought out her guitar, and Ellen Enebo, our education coordinator, printed off some song lyrics, and we spent quite awhile contemplating the fire, and singing old Beatles and Joe Cocker tunes. It was quite lovely. Then after that kind of died down, another batch of people came in and started telling ghost stories. That was one of the best nights I probably spent during the whole tour.

The next morning, we all piled our stuff into the buses, and Marv and The Other Guy That Particular Week drove us due Northeast, toward Aberdeen, South Dakota, where the world of make-believe reigned supreme.

US, Part 2.5: Cheyenne, WY

After Salt Lake City, it was off to Cheyenne, WY, the land of Cowboys and rodeos. When driving through the Wyoming countryside, you instantly realize that there is a whole lot of countryside and not much else. Up until that point, I had never seen so much unspoiled land. For miles and miles, there is nothing but hills, hills, and more hills, and right in the middle of this expanse of nothingness lies Cheyenne, a veritable metropolitan oasis. Our first day we were there, we got a taste of the mighty Wyoming winds. Everyone was making a mad dash inside so that they wouldn't get blown over.

As soon as we entered, we found out that the theme for this week was going to be gender roles, and that for the education workshop, we had to dress as the opposite sex. Not only that, but our gender roles committee (which, incidentally, was composed of five women) gave each one of us an egg and told us that we had to take care of it the entire week. It was like being in Biology class all over again. I totally thought I outgrew that.

After we got the lowdown on the week, it was time to go home to our respective families. This week I was hosted with Laura Lynn from Nebraska, and Neele from Germany, and our host family only consisted of one member. Bob Farr is many things: an entrepreneur, a veterinarian, a collector, a father, a humanitarian, and a really, REALLY good cook. When we arrived, we saw this charming 100-year-old country house laid out before us. The house made such an impression on Neele that she declared it to be "her dream house," and proceeded to take thousands of pictures.

But one of the best things about being placed with Bob was that he is Cheyenne's unofficial Up with People historian. Every time a cast came through town, he would host somebody, and save every article and piece of memorabilia from every show ever performed in Cheyenne. It was great to see all of that history laid out before me, and thumb through some of the old cast photos of the people who had soldiered forth before us. Even though I love answering UwP-related questions, it was so nice to be able to talk to someone who had a really good knowledge base of the program, and its philosophy.

The Regional Learning section for this city centered around the rodeo culture that pervades the Southern and Midwestern United States. The whole cast packed into the rodeo stadium of the Laramie County Community College and were instantly transported into a world of lassos, goat roping, and bucking broncos. First, we had an introduction and explanation of each of the events that are in the modern rodeo. Then it was our turn to try everything. The first station I went to was the steer roping. It was a good thing that they used plastic dummies, because I was horrible. Those people make it look so easy! I tried about 7 times, and then gave up. Cheryssa, on the other hand, got her technique down in two tries. Nobody would have even guessed that one of her natural talents included steer roping.

One of the other stations let us see what it was like to tie a goat. But with this station, they used a real live goat that the cast later named "Pedro." The basic technique of goat roping is to get up behind the goat, throw it to the ground, grab thee of the four legs, and tie them together. After the first demonstration of this, our goat-roping expert told us that this is in no way stressful or taxing to the goat. I looked around to the people in my group, and I think we all had the same thought at the same time: "I wonder if anyone asked Pedro his opinion." The expert told us that after he was done with us, he'd be off playing with his friends again, and eating his favorite diet of oats and grass. I wonder if there is any money in Goat Psychology... I bet I'd make a killing! By the end of all the demonstrations, Pedro looked physically exhausted and despondent, and I really felt bad for the poor guy...

After considering a PETA membership, it was off to talk to some of the cowboys that ride the bulls. One of the biggest things that I learned while talking to the cowboys was that when in the ring, the bull and the rider are a team. The bull earns points, and the rider earns points, and they combine those two scores to get the total score... I always thought that you were in direct competition with the bull. Further conversation with the cowboys revealed what a brutal sport bull riding is. One of the riders we talked to told us about getting knocked out in the ring and spending the rest of that day and the next day in a coma. They told us that it wasn't uncommon to lose a thumb if you don't hold on to the saddle properly. What was really great about this part of the day was that a lot of the cast got a chance to ride a mechanical bull. I was very impressed to see that most of my castmates had succeeded in staying on the "bull." After the whole session had turned into the cowpeople roping the members of Cast B, it was time to call it a day.

What made this week special was that this was the week that my mother and sister came to visit me and hang out with me a little bit. I was really excited to introduce Mom and Kate to my friends in the cast. Here is the conversation that kept repeating itself:

Me: Hey, [insert Cast B friend's name here]! This is my mother and my sister.
Cast B friend: Oh... nice to meet you.
Me: No... my REAL mother, and my REAL sister...
Cast B friend: OOHHH!!! NICE TO MEET YOU!

It was extremely good to see my family during the course of the trip, and have them see the show that had really started looking like a professional show. But it was slightly weird for me with them meeting the friends that I considered family for the past 4.5 months. Two worlds and two chapters of my life were colliding. It's kind of like watching an episode of Frasier where a Cheers character guest stars. It's really fun and interesting, but it hurts the brain a little bit.

After the day, we went out to Red Lobster, because, believe it or not, there are no Red Lobster franchises within the state of Maine. Go figure. It was so cool catching up with the news back at home. It's amazing how much I hadn't thought about home and was so much out of the loop. I was on a personal odyssey, and meanwhile the lives of my family and friends were continuing without me there. That kind of put everything in perspective. I also enjoyed showing them how much I had changed in a very short period of time.

During host family day, I spent a lot of the day going back and forth from spending time with my host dad to spending time with my own family. The day started with a tour of my host dad's animal clinic. He showed us some hawks that he had rescued and explained a little bit about them. Then he took us on a tour of the whole clinic, the layout of which he designed himself to be as efficient as possible. He was so successful with his design in fact that his clinic was featured in a prominent magazine, and other clinics across the country patterned their layout after his. What really came out of the clinic tour was his love and respect for all animal kind, and how he has made it his life's work to protect them and make sure they're happy and healthy.

It so happens that Laura Lynn's parents were in town that week to visit her, so we all thought it would be wonderful if her family, my family and our host family all had dinner together. As always, the meal that Bob cooked would have gained five stars in any Zagat's guide. And it was so good to be sitting around the table and enjoying each other's company.

On the last night, Bob helped me upstairs to give me a tour of his massive collection of Hopalong Cassidy products... It turns out that it was Hopaling Cassidy that was the first public figure to make money off of putting his face on every kind of product imaginable. One of the most interesting pieces in Bob's collection was an actual Wheaties box with Hopalong's picture on it. "Hopalong was the first person to have his likeness on a Wheaties box," he told me as he passed it to me, "and this is the only box of its kind known to exist in the world." As soon as he told me that, I took a glance at it, and then quickly passed it back to him, not wanting anything to happen to it.

Then he passed me a coffee cup with a foil seal on it, and a dark substance inside. "In this cup," he said, "there is peanut butter from the 1950s." Hopalong Cassidy had his face on peanut butter in a coffee cup with the concept that when you finish the peanut butter inside the cup, you don't have to throw away the cup; you can reuse it. It turns out that Cassidy sold the rights to the peanut butter, which, upon changing hands, went from Hopalong Cassidy peanut butter to Jif, the brand that choosy mom's choose. After the tour of his house, and more information about Hopalong Cassidy than I had ever dreamed of learning, I started packing for the 12th time.

In the morning while having breakfast, Bob put on his copy of the first album Up with People ever produced. Hearing that music really made me realize how far this organization had gone. It started out with people going into high schools with nothing more than acoustic guitars, and exploded into a global phenomenon. And I was a part of its history. After piling all our stuff into the van, Neele and I went to the bus drop off place, said, "See you later," and, "Keep in touch," to Bob, and I hugged my mother and sister one more time, and we rode off through endless hills on our way to South Dakota, for the next adventure to start.