Today we spent the day resting in the Mt. Rushmore area. It is mid drive and a rest was called for. We woke up bright and early and noticed the somewhat overcast day. Weather forecasters here apparently are not much more accurate then the ones in Chicago because the report was for partial cloud and a nice day. By the time we got the Jeep in motion (about 30 minutes later) the drizzle had started and the overcast had moved to about 200 feet above the ground. I think back home we call that fog, but what do I know. We headed for Chief Crazy Horse monument. I have been there before and while they swear they are continuing to work on it, you can't prove it by my observations. We will come back to Crazy Horse later during the observation/rant portion of our program.
So we arrived at Crazy Horse. I know this because the sign on the side of the road said so. Of the mountain there is no evidence. The overcast and fog is so heavy that nothing can be seen. I approach the woman taking payments for parking and ask her if the fog usually burns off on days like today. She says yes, it always does. I ask her about what time it usually burns off. She replies - I don't know! What am I, a weatherman? As part of my new being nice to people initiative I don't inform her that given the lack of accurate information she has available she might as well be. See I can be nice. Instead I just turn the jeep around and decide to go visit a winery first. Maybe that will help me retain my good humor.
We get the the winery only to find it does not open until 12:00. Ok - so time for plan C. We will go visit Custer State Park instead. I am fairly sure the Buffalo there will be closer to the ground and may be visible. And I am pretty sure the park is open all the time. So Off to see the Wizard, or at least the Buffalo.
Custer State Park is known for a few things. First the buffalo herd, second the begging burros and last the prairie dog town. This upcoming weekend is the GREAT BUFFALO ROUNDUP. Apparently you need to say it with all capital letters. Because of this the buffalo were not in their normal spots, but instead had been allowed into new pastures near to the corals where they will be herded. Might have been nice if someone mentioned that when we asked where the Buffalo hang out, but hey we eventually found them and that is fine. Suffice to say we accomplished seeing all of them as well as deer, elk and a huge number of birds.
Now back to the winery. The winery was called Naked Winery. That should have been my first clue as to the quality, but alas I was not alerted. The wines they serve for their tasting all come from Washington and Oregon. For those of you who are geographically challenged, Custer is in South Dakota. Now this was both good and bad. Good because I had yet to see a grape vine in South Dakota and could not imagine how they would grow and bad because I was at a winery to taste wines from another winery. Confused yet - wait it gets worse. The wines are actually from two different wineries and one of them they private label the other they do not. The wines have names like Fantasy Cherry, Naked Merlot, Hanky Panky Zinfandel and, well enough. You get the idea. One of them they said is great with a splash of lemonade. Let us just say we are not coming back with cases of wine to age. If for no other reason then by the time we get back next week they would be past their drink dates.
It was now time to go to crazy horse. Yes the fog had lifted and yes the sun was out. Maybe she should have been a weatherman after all. For those of you who know all about it you can skip to the next paragraph. For those who care here we go. A Lakota chief by the name of Henry Standing Bear decided to ask a Polish American sculpture who was orphaned and then raised by an Irish prizefighter in Boston, to create a memorial for the American Indian. Somehow he convinced this very successful sculpture to leave his thriving studio in Boston to go to South Dakota and live in a tent for a year while he built a log cabin in the middle of nowhere to live in. After that he spent the next several years alone starting to carve the mountain. He built a staircase of 714 steps to get to the top of the mountain and climbed it sometimes as many as 10 times a day in order to restart the cranky generator at the bottom of the stairs. He married a woman, Ruth Ziolowski and then, deciding that the work needed more help had 10 children so they could help carve the mountain. They continue to do so and plan for the next generation to do so as well. This carving is some 600 feet tall from horse to man and so far in the last 65 years they have gotten about 81 feet of the face done and part of the arm. Now it is time for the rant portion of our program:
Nowhere in any history of the Crazy Horse monument, in the day to day operations, in the sculptures, the gift shop workers, the people who run the whole thing, nowhere do you see any Lakota. The only place the Lakota seem to come into this whole thing is in the School that is run for them and the scholarships they get. Not once did it seem to occur to either Korczak (the sculpture) or the Henry Standing Bear that if they could spare a person, a child, a arthritic wheezing old man, pretty much anyone to stand by the generator and start it when it died, that Korczak would not have had to walk down the 714 steps, restart the generator and walk back up to continue his work. In fact maybe one of those tribe members could have carried some of the equipment up the stairs and save time that way. Maybe one or two of them could have used an ax to help cut the logs for the log house so he could get started on the project sooner. Maybe..... I don't know - Maybe a memorial for the Lakota should have some involvement from the Lakota other than asking for help and taking handouts. Just Maybe?
After we left Crazy Horse we headed for Mount Rushmore. There we saw the monument and then continued on to Rapid City, where we found the Dinosaur park. This park has 5 life size concrete sculptures of Dinos. Why, I don't know but it does and so we went to see the turquoise painted concrete dinosaurs before meeting a friend for dinner.
Tomorrow is a drive day and then the day after Seattle.
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