Wrong Way Through Construction & Missiles, Memorials, And Many Stories.

Crazy Horse Memorial! 🙂 We didn’t know what to expect. At the entrance gate we paid the entrance fee. We thought it was a little costly to see a mountain but we had no idea all there would be to see and do. We followed the road up and over to the parking lot. You can see the Crazy Horse Memorial from there. The details of the carving are outstanding. We saw a large complex of buildings including a huge visitor center. Might as well go in, and we are glad we did. The information movie in the theater had closed captions and they were turned on – we didn’t even have to ask! Yay. We learned that Chief Standing Bear and Lakota asked Korczak Ziolkowski to carve Crazy Horse. It is a fascinating history. It was 75 years ago and even though Korczak has passed away, his children and their children and families continue to work on the mountain.

The museum had a lot of pictures of Native Americans and life, which I like to see. Outside an older military man was on stage reading about Native Americans who served in US military. Then a neat thing happened: he played a recording of what Kevin told me was a lady singing acapella the National Anthem but in a Native American language. Oh, my soul hurt for being deaf and not being able to hear what must have been such beauty.

Crazy Horse Monument has a laser show at dark. We decided to watch from the truck. We had great view of the site and rolled down the windows so Kevin could hear the speakers. The laser light show was really fun to see and at the end, they outlined what Crazy Horse monument will look like when finished. Great job.

We headed home (footnote 1) and it was dark. At one point, there was construction and a sign with an arrow marked this way. It was at an intersection of two highways. We followed the marked way but quickly saw it had us on the inside lane of the opposite flow of traffic. Oh my gosh – so glad there wasn’t anyone coming towards us. It took a second to figure out what was going on and then crossed over to the lane we needed. This got all turned around and we were actually going the opposite direction from where we wanted to go. Garmin and Siri GPS both looked they ended at the town we just got in to, Keystone, but then we saw we had to turn around completely and go the other direction entirely. Crazy! And in the dark we couldn’t tell which direction we were going. Made it home safe. Whew!

Woke up at 7:00am with the alarm, added ice to the cooler and set out for the day. Headed on east for about an hour and stopped at Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Visitor Center. (That is a mouthful!) What a neat place. I was glad to see a lot of people there -this isn’t something we should forget. These missile bases were always ready to respond to a nuclear attack from Russia. When we asked about captions on the movie, the ranger said, “Oh yes”. One of the rangers actually worked here during Cold War and was a commander over some of the missiles. He gave a talk and then explained the silo with virtual video of the command center underground at the silos. Kevin interpreted for me and I learned so much. So neat to hear “first hand” from someone that had worked there during the Cold War. 

We headed straight south to Badlands National Park. Stopped at the visitor center and it was busy. The information about Badlands was pretty small and the movie wasn’t working. At the gift shop you couldn’t even move because people were all around you. After getting Kevin’s smashed penny souvenir and passport stamped, we asked a ranger about easy hikes, drives and boondocking. She was very helpful. When Kevin commented about how busy it was, she said, oh, this isn’t busy! What? That is crazy. We can’t imagine it being any busier but apparently this was a slow day. HAHA Drove along the road and enjoyed what we saw. The dirt/rocks/mounds have a red stripe through it but not the gray and blue strip that Painted Desert near Petrified Forest in AZ has. We wondered if the rock/dirt felt like Cathedral Gorge, in NV and got out to feel it. Nope, not the same. Cathedral Gorge feels like cement and it straight up and down. Here it is like hard packed and dry dirt and the mounds flow down at an angle. Towards the very end, west side we did see some yellow patches. It looked like a flower had blown over and spread its dust. At the west/north entrance of the park we pulled over, got out, and watched a bison. The closest one we had seen. He was just taking his time, eating, then he would walk a few steps, then eat more. So fun to watch. There were a few more off in the distance. We saw a place that overlooks the back side of the Wall where people can boondock. We had planned to boondock there for a few days but had some things that prevented us for doing it this time. Next time.

Next we headed to…Wall Drug. A complete tourist trap but was fun to see again as we both remember being here as youngsters. He said it is much smaller now, and they added walls to divide out the stores. I think it is the same size, he was just a little kid. HAHA

The next day we got our drinks (Diet Coke) and breakfast burritos and headed on yet another new-to-us road. This time we took 44 to 385. Along this route there are quite a few communities. Sure enjoyed the drive. Got to Deadwood and finally found a parking lot. It was only $1.00 an hour, which was great. We walked to what we thought was the visitor center; an old train depot. It was well preserved and Kevin said he could hear the creaking of the floor boards when we walked. (I am deaf.) They had a lot of information about the area. I grabbed a pamphlet for a walking tour downtown. It said it takes 30 minutes and is less than a mile. Us, oh you know, it took us over 1-1/2 hours. HAHA We like to read everything and plus fun to see the architecture of the old buildings. 

Kevin mentioned that a couple he had visited with earlier had mentioned the canyon at Spearfish was so beautiful. We thought we would drive there. We headed out through Deadwood and then to I-90 just east of Spearfish. Pretty canyons but nothing different to see. Hum, maybe that was the first area they had driven in Black Hills. Then I saw Autio (footnote 2) pop up about Spearfish. As we listened and read, oh, when he said that Frank Lloyd Wright wondered why people got all excited about Grand Canyon but not here, well, we knew we hadn’t been on it. Looked it up and found Spearfish Canyon, just west of us. We drove it and wow, this canyon is wider, no meadows, but with steep rocks/cliffs that drop off. There is a creek that flows through and we saw Bridal Veil Falls. It was so different from the other areas of Black Hills. When we were almost back to Lead we turned right around and drove through the canyon again. About 16 miles. It was about 5:30pm now so we headed east on I-90 to Rapid City. I wanted some home town pizza. Looked up Trip Advisor and the number one star was Blaze Pizza. We got there and saw the line was out the door. We just waited….a total of 45 minutes from getting there until our pizza was done. Took it home and it wasn’t that good. Rated: Not Again. Oh well, a memory. 🙂

Mt Rushmore National Memorial. This was the 2nd time for both of us, as we went as kids. The carvings are mind blowing to us, and that they did it in just 14 years. One inch on the scale model is one foot on the mountain. It took 14 years and stopped when WW2 started; they then said it was complete. 90% of the carving was done with dynamite.

I like the reasons why Gutzon Borglum picked those four: Washington – birth (birth of US & most prominent figure on mtn), Jefferson – growth (Louisiana purchase which doubled the country), Theodore Roosevelt – development (ended large corporate monopolies and ensured rights of common working man), and Lincoln -preservation. All four presidents definitely had their wrongs, as we all do, but they did great things. For the evening program, I had an American Sign Language interpreter (I requested through the National Park). She added so much for me as I was able to know the words spoken at the program. The light on the monument at night was enhanced by a distance thunderstorm, the lightning lighting the monument in a special way. For us, we came away continuing to feel proud of our country. Kevin said our country needs “Less Criticism and More Patriotism.” I thought that encompassed it well.

Kevin found a route through the Black Hills up to Hill City, our first time through there, and then down to Wind Cave National Park. This was a neat find for us. We hadn’t planned to go into the caves, thinking it was like so many others. Good thing we didn’t have our hearts set on touring them because the tours were canceled that day due to elevator not working. Yikes! We just had about 45 minutes before they closed so we watched the film. Before hand we asked the ranger if it was captioned. She checked, did something with a remote and yes, caption. I literally clapped with joy. We learned this is a very unique set of caves – they actually look like the layers where mining has occurred deep down in the earth. There is currently 165 miles discovered so far. They are in layers in the earth. They have unique looking formations: looking like popcorn, crystals, and open boxes. We will have to take a tour when we come back to this area – if the elevator is working. 🙂

Back home we both sat outside for a long time. Kevin did his sewing of his first leather craft. It turned out very nice. A covered for his field notes notebook.

1. “Home” is where we park it. Home is our 2022 Alliance Avenue, 36 ft, 5th wheel. 

2. Autio is an iPhone app that tells all sorts of history and stories about places all over the country. It is narrated and with my iPhone on accessibility, it shows captions of the words being said. So thankful!