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| Welcome to South Dakota! |
Mount Rushmore is the consummate national monument – paying tribute to 150 years of our nation’s leadership spanning from George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. The monument reflects the determination and struggle for our great nation’s liberty and freedom, past and present. Unfortunately, today there are many Americans who interpret these principles in term of a distorted self-interest (Glenn Beck, and the folks at Fox “News”).
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| Homage to Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln |
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90% of Mount Rushmore was crafted with dynamite
(you can see the rubble below the faces). |
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| Pure craftsmanship while dangling 100 feet in the air. |
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Let's not forget our fellow citizens...we live in a county founded on
opportunity for ALL Americans, not only the top 1%. |
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| A lovely tribute to those who have served. Thank you. |
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| The nightly lighting ceremony is a moving experience. |
The Crazy Horse Memorial, honoring North American Indians, namely the legendary Lakota leader, Crazy Horse is the world’s largest sculpture. The original artist and sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski was invited by Lakota leaders to begin the massive project, in 1947. Today, the site houses the granite carving, as well as a Welcome Center, a Native American Educational and Cultural Center and Museum, a restaurant, gift shops and access to Korczak’s studio. His wife and six of ten children carry on the mission to complete the sculpture (estimated completion is 2035).
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| You can get an appreciation of what the final sculpture will look like. |
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| The artist's rendering. |
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| The Mount Rushmore Presidents' heads can fit into the head/hair of Crazy Horse. |
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| You can see the stratum of where they blast dynamite every 7-10 days. |
Hopping on our scooter, we left Crazy Horse and headed for the loop road of the Black Hills. We saw diverse natural landscape from jutting granite pinnacles to grassy plains, to rolling hills, and clusters of forest areas. The temperature was perfect – 80 degrees and no humidity – a great day for seeing the sights that Mother Nature has to offer.
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| Welcome to the Black Hills. |
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| One lane. Nerve wracking when vehicles are approaching from the other direction! |
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| Tight squeeze! |
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| Driving through the tunnel is a trippy experience. |
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| The landscape shift dramatically as you drive around. |
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| A wild donkey?!!? |
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| Pretty. |
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| Happy campers on our scooter. |
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| Our ride comes to a close... |
Badlands National Park is a curiosity of nature – it looks like a moonscape or a sci-fi movie set. At first glance, it is lifeless and still, but there are wildlife that resides in this vast area of rock and prairie-grass. We saw antelope and prairie dogs, and thankfully, no rattlesnakes. Driving around, the energy is somber and somewhat uninviting, in terms of human habitation. We recommend the site, but it’s definitely a drive-thru visit.
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| Love of my life... |
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| Bizarre topography. |
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| This is one of my favorite photos of the area. |
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| Favorite. |
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| Beware of those rattlesnakes... |
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Seriously...I would LOVE to have a tee-pee as my home office.
I am not kidding. Really, I am not. |
Fifteen states (and four Canadian provinces) so far - heading home to the Jersey Shore, so who knows what's to come.
Stay tuned. Ciao’ for now : )
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