We're very happy that we are able to write about our travels and it is nice to know that people are following our journey.
Mary Livingston, could you please save the entries that you print off. That will be a nice record for our scrapbook. Thank you!
Woke up at 6 am to thunder and lightening and we ended our day with thunder and lightening of a different sort. The blasting from the mountain. Left Mitchell, SD and drove to Wall, SD with extremely high winds. There are no barriers out there on the plains so the wind was fierce. The speed limit along the highway is 75 mph but to keep the vehicle under control we were going 60-62 mph. It felt we were going uphill for 200 miles because of the wind. We were going to camp tonight by didn't want to fight the winds to so we stayed in Keystone at a Super 8. We are in mountain time now – which means we are two hours behind you. Drove out of the dark clouds and rain, but the wind stayed with us for a while – temp probably in the 50's. Got to Wall and went through Wall Drug. What an enormous place! Whatever you are looking for – I'm sure they have it. They have a life size T-Rex just off the highway. Decided to take the Badlands driving tour. What an amazing place. You wonder how people could live out in that environment. The landscape was spectacular and some of the rock formations reminded me of humongus sand castles. The coloring of the strata of the rocks were like no rainbows you ever saw. There were reds, purples, and grays. It was more like looking at a coral reef rather than mountains.
Dave heard on the TV this morning that at Crazy Horse Memorial in the Black Hills they were going to do some blasting tonight, which they only do 2 times a year. We drove the Keystone and got a hotel room. Tonight was going to be the first night we were going to camp but with the high winds decided against it. Went to Crazy Horse and we were prepared for winter. Hats and mittens, wind pants and jackets. We took our camp chairs along and it was convenient – we didn't have to stand. There were a lots of people in attendance. We watched a video about how the Crazy Horse statue idea came to be. The sculptors wife spoke in the video and after the laser light show and blasting was over they had cake for everyone. From the visitor's center the mountain is 1 mile away. Ruth, Korczak's wife, was there and I got a photo with her. They have 10 kids and most of them work with the Crazy Horse project.
Decided we had enough time to get to Keystone and head up to Crazy Horse. Quite an amazing site. The story is that sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski (pronounced Korzack zewlcuffski) was asked by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear to carve Crazy Horse. He said “my fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know the red mad has great heroes also.” Korczak started work on Crazy Horse in 1948, he was almost 40 years old and had only $174 left to his name. He was a strong believer in the free enterprise system and felt Crazy Horse should be built by the interested public and not the tax payer. Twice he turned down offers of federal funding. He knew the project was larger than any one person's lifetime and left detailed plans to be used with the scale models to continue the project. Since his death in 1982, his wife Ruth, has directed the work which continues to see exciting progress being made with each passing year. There are no projected timelines for completion. The face of Crazy Horse took 30 years to complete and there is the whole arm of his and the body of his horse left to go. Maybe another 130 years. It will be 563 feet high. What a sight!
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