Thursday, October 27, 2011

Monumental fun.

Alright, if I thought the scenery was exciting on Tuesday, yesterday it was fascinating! What started as an average morning of waking up, going out to get some breakfast (Arnold's Diner in Rapid City does a perfect greasy spoon breakfast!), and hitting the road, turned out to be one of the coolest, prettiest days of my life! Everything was so beautiful, especially the sky.

I'm the type of person who is totally in love with the sky. Really.  Taking pictures of the sky has been a favorite pastime of me since I had my first camera.  Especially clouds.  Love me some clouds!  And there's nothing but sky and clouds out here!  I don't know if I'll ever be able to live in the city again...

In the Black Hills National Forest, there aren't only tons of trees and sky, but there are also national monuments (go figure!)  Now, I haven't really seen many national monuments, aside from a day trip to Washington DC about 7 years ago, nor am I insanely interested in seeing many.  Or at least I didn't think I was until we went to visit Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse yesterday:  how astonishing! Even the journey through the Black Hills to get to these places was super duper.

Mount Rushmore was exciting: it's like we turned a corner, then boom, I caught a glimpse of George Washington's giant mug over the tree line, and I shouted out like a little kid "Dad, ahhhh, we're here!!!!" Until I saw it in person, I thought it was kind of dorky, but damn, call me a dork, because I loved it!  It was super early in the morning, and pretty cold, so there weren't many people there.  It was so quiet and peaceful as well, so it was a good time to reflect and restore some additional patriotism in my heart..  I know it sounds cheesy, but it's totally true!  I'm proud to be an American and all, and I support the troops overseas (love you PK!), but the past decade hasn't really done anything to ignite the patriotic spirit we're raised to have in grade school, that feeling of being so happy to be an American because of the freedom and liberties afforded here, and the fact that everyone looks great in red, white and blue :) 

Anyway, it was totes awesome and I loved it!  Also, to contemplate the fact that someone built it there; presidents' faces didn't just grow into a rock.  At the base of the monument there's an exhibit that tells you how long it took to build (14 years!), who designed it (Gutzon Borglum), how many workers there were, and many photos of the progress they made. I definitely have a new appreciation for artists, sculptors and monument builders!

After seeing all there was to see, we headed the 11 windy miles down the road to check out the Crazy Horse Memorial Monument, which turned out to be just as cool. There was an informational video you watch when you first get there, that tells you all about how the Crazy Horse monument came to be.  It's actually fascinating that one guy (an incredibly talented sculptor by the name of Korczak Ziolkowski) worked on it for many many years, and now his family has taken over (he had 10 children and 7 of them continue work on the monument).  Apparently, after Mount Rushmore was constructed, the Ogalala Lakota people wanted to show that they live here too and have also had great leaders, so Korczak Ziolkowski was approached by Henry Standing Bear to take on this "monumental" task (hardy har harrr), which he made his life's work. 

The monument is still many, many years from being completed, as it is privately funded (no government sponsorship like at Rushmore) and the work crew is much smaller.  Still, the unfinished product as of now is still absolutely breathtaking!  There's a small Ogalala Lakota museum at the site, among other things, where you can talk Ogalala people and ask about there art and handmade goods that are sold there, which we did. I definitely felt a connection to my ancestors while we were there (despite the fact that we're descendants of Cherokee, not Lakota people).  And this all took place before lunch!

Once we left Crazy Horse, we took a long, winding road through the Black Hills to Deadwood, an authentic old west town (not a fake one, duh).  There we stopped in a cute little cafe and had mochas (now he's hooked, he'd never had one, and he's a chocolate lover!), a chai cupcake (yum!) and a chat with the sweet lil woman running the show there.  She's a Chicago native (what's up!?!) so we connected on that point, and she really hooked us up an an alternate route to get out of South Dakota into Wyoming, up to Devil's Tower without taking the freeway.  I think she was sweet on Dad, but he can never tell with that kind of stuff :)

Deadwood was kind of magical.  A snow squall started while we were sitting cozily inside, sipping on our hot, chocolaty, espresso delights.  Once we left, tiny snow showers continued while we were driving.  At times, you could look out over the landscape and actually see the snow line, which I found to be AMAZING!  Though I felt at times the roads were a bit more dangerous, and Dad's cruise control was getting some.  It would want to fly uphill around a corner at 60 mph, kickin' it up to 5000 rpm's, lol.  Had to slow her down a few times, as well as hold onto the OS bars, lol. We were saying "Get up and go? Silverado got up and WENT!" We also saw some signs that advertised a curve up ahead, and to drop speed down to 50mph, which still seemed pretty fast, lol.  I thought for sure the Silverado was gonna take us for an unanticipated off-road, off-mountain adventure!

Once we got out of the Black Hills, we finally made it out of South Dakota (we were there 2.5 days, whew!) and into Wyoming, which I'm totally loving so far.  We managed to find our way to Devil's Tower, which proved to be quite the sight, before we found a hotel for the evening.  At one point, on the way there, we stopped for gas.  I ran in to use the bathroom and fill my water bottle, and when I went in, Ben Kweller was playing on the radio!  I never hear him, anywhere, and Wyoming is the last place I would have expected it.

So, I was super excited to run outside and tell Dad all about it, where he was pumping gas.  I'm like "Dad, there are bathrooms and Ben ---- ahhhhhh!" Gas was pouring out of the gas tank onto the ground and I didn't even have the words to tell him, I just screamed and pointed, lol.  Then I burst out laughing, but Poppa Bear didn't think it was so funny. Oops.  I guess I distracted him, because he's always going on about how he plays by the rules and doesn't ever leave the pump out of eye-shot when he is using a fuel pump.  I think he thinks it's funny now, though :)

We arrived at a little town called Buffalo, WY around 6pm, and we were starvin' Marvins!  We were recommended to go to a local Mexican food joint, which I'm usually wary of out in the middle of nowhere, but I was hungry and looking for some vegetables and a cold one.  This place was called Sol de Vallarta, and it was pretty effin' good (Mom, it would give Don Juan's a run for it's money, seriously!).  The chips were fresh, the salsa was good, the vegetables fajitas were made with TONS of veggies, and the margaritas were perfect.  I haven't eaten Mexican food that good in a looooong time; I'm kind of even a Mexican food snob, which makes me all the more surprised to find it that good all the way out here.

Today, our stomachs will take us to Bozeman, MT, which will (hopefully) have plenty of  good food, good beer, and great sights to see along the way.  I'll be sure to let you know all about it :)




 Just me and the boys.
 Dead Presidents.

 Clouds.
 It's getting there...




 Downtown Deadwood.
 <3'd this place!
 FOR-EV-ER!
 Snow falling on the prairie.

 Sell it, you tino dino!
 Devil's Tower, WY.
And some more sky...


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