Crazy Horse Monument

WOW....

It is magnificent. They are carving Crazy Horse on a horse into the mountain. It is a work in progress. So far they have done the head. Korczak Ziolkowski was the sculpture that started the project, 7 of his 10 children and his wife are still working on the project. They have a great museum. This monument represents all Native American people.

When we were there they had a dance performance, Dean went on stage to dance with the young children. I loved how they included everyone.

I told Joe we should go back at our 25th anniversary to see how far they have progressed.

This entire project is funded by private investors and donations. I told Joe I want to go back for our 25th anniversary to see how much more they will have completed.

Check it our www.crazyhoursememorial.net

Custer State Park Photos

Custer State Park

After talking to some locals we decided to see Cuter State Park. We drove down this little road call needles parkway with the top down in the jeep. One of the tunnels was 8 feet by 8 feet (tight). With incredible rock formations.

The road lead past Sylvan Lake to open plains. We saw mountain goats, mule deer, mules and toward the end we say a heard of buffalo crossing the road some were only about 20 feet away.

A day in Rapid City

We found the coolest I mean coolest hobby shop ever.

Now just some background. We have a 20 something year old gas remote controlled truck with us that does not work. You may wonder why we are keeping it but Joe is sure we will find the part we will need ..... eventually.

No they did not have the part but we did get one remote controlled truck, a super cub remote controlled plane, a pre-made rocket (remember building them as a kid) and a crystal growing kit.

We had lunch in this cool old fire house as we watched a storm roll in. It started to rain just as we were getting back to the RV. We had to run the last 200 yards. Wait that wasn't rain it was HAIL. Really big quarter size hailstones. We almost got blown away in the Badlands and now hail.
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Things calmed down we made our way to Keystone to get a camp site. To our surprise it's the weekend and everyone is full. It took some maneuvering but Joe found us a nice place outside of Hill City called Horse Thief Campground. After we left we found out we were the biggest rig they ever had in there overflow spot.

We arrived in Rapid City

We hung out till about 7pm and headed up to Mt Rushmore. They have an evening program at 9pm where they talk about the four presidents, about how Gutzon Borglum sculpted the project, then playing America the Beautiful they lit up the mountain. And Finished with the national anthem.

Man it was patriotic.

To top it off they invited all Veterans in the audience to get up on stage while a boy scout troop from Missouri retired the colors.

Whew! I was touched and emotional especially after meeting the Korean War veterans earlier that day.

traveling to Rapid City SD

Today was ware traveling to our next spot. As you know SD is know for its highway signs. We were pulled off the road by the air & space museum sign in Box Elder, SD. As we pulled into the parking lot we saw everything from a B-52 to and Minuteman II rocket.

We had stop at the National Site for the Cold War right outside of Badlands National park, after talking with the ranger we drove over to the missile silo where the minuteman II is still in the ground (disarmed of course). It was to put it lightly, overwhelming to stand next to one at the museum.

Inside they were honoring 60 year veterans for the Korean War. Maybe 6 -8 tables were set us with books, articles, and information about the Veterans. I met one an named Marvin. He showed us around and thing he thought were especially important.

It was an honor to meet them and be part of the day.

The Badlands of SD

We arrived pretty late but found our camp site in the National Park. We decided to go for a ride in the jeep. The butte's and plains were spectacular. Luckily we had a park map with us... We were on this dirt road and saw our first wild animal a prong horn antelope. We stopped the car to look and take pictures. Now this probably wasn't such a good idea since we had been having problems with the battery in the jeep and we have no cell service. Don't worry the car started again and we were off...it was weird the antelope seemed to be racing with the jeep. We sped up so did it we slowed down so did it.



Maybe I should have mentioned this earlier but there were ominous storm clouds off in the sky. As we drove back the storm was getting closer.... We got back to the RV shall I say just in time WHAM the storm hit hard. I was thankful the motor home was pointed tail into the wind. We rocked and shook for a good 15 minutes. After the worst had passed Joe went out to help the tent campers. Joe had found a pillow blowing by and threw it in the jeep right before it started. He returned it to its rightful owner who was very pleased it was saved and dry. The next morning almost all of the tents were down, some were shredded, and even the top blew off a pop up camper. Yikes. No one got hurt.



We spend another 3 days in the Badlands but didn't see another storm. We did a bunch of ranger programs, geology walk, fossil talk, a prairie walk and the kids did a Jr Ranger program that was awesome. They were involved in finding different things in the park and no we still have not seen any rattle snakes but talk about it daily.