Captain’s Log --- Star Dates 08192009 through 08212009
Location: Star Cluster of Heroes
(Translation: Mount Rushmore National Memorial and surroundings, South Dakota)
Trip Miles – 7300.0
Diesel Price -- $2.68 per gallon; 27.5 gallons
Engineer’s Report – Pesky fresh water leak, otherwise we’re good. Clear for transit to galaxy of Wyoming.
Weather – Brilliant! Daytime temperatures ranged from 49F to 81F.

How does the son of Danish immigrants contain enough genius and love to carve a granite mountain into exquisite 60-foot-high likenesses of great and good men? Of course, Gutzon Borglum was aided by a team of courageous and skilled drillers over a fourteen-year period. Ninety percent of the carving work was done with dynamite! What skill! Barbara was lost in photography here, as befits the artist that she is. Trust us… the sight of Mount Rushmore National Memorial WILL arrest you!


The Crazy Horse Memorial, some twenty miles from Mount Rushmore, will stop you in your tracks as well! This is a huge work-in-progress…a work initiated by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear and Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski back in 1948. Stupendous in scope, it will take generations, perhaps centuries, to complete. Whatever time is required, this memorial to a great Lakota chief and to all American Indians will be a Wonder of the World in design and in size. No government funding was accepted by the sculptor for this project, which is now directed by the late Korczak’s widow and family. When complete, the statue will be 641-feet long by 563-feet high…the most immense memorial ever created…by white people…to honor the American Indian and his heroes. Rightly so! Workers are now blocking out the 22-story horse head and have painted an outline of its 45-foot ear and 16-foot-wide eye, located 260 feet below Crazy Horse’s face.


Down in Custer State Park, Commodore Barbara sighed as she wistfully scanned the horizon, hoping for a glimpse of a distant bison. Suddenly, she heard the Captain shout, “HOLY S---!”, and jam on the brakes of our truck. About a hundred feet from us was a herd of bison casually ambling down the center of the road! I never--- not EVER---imagined I’d be cutting a path through a herd of wild buffalo. However, seeing as I was driving our well-armored F-250, I did exactly that in order to help a group of bikers who lined up behind us. The critters nonchalantly moved to the side at the last second. We didn’t want to upset them, especially the big bulls. Experts say they can get real mean!

Here are a few of the things we did NOT do while visiting the Black Hills…we did NOT “do” the Presidential Wax Museum, Old McDonald’s Farm, Reptile Gardens, Bear Country, the Black Hills Maze or the Sitting Bull Crystal Cave! We did not do paintball at “Splat!” nor did we check out the Mangy Moose Bar & Grill! Sorry, we didn’t want to part with the required cash to share in these overwhelming experiences! What we DID do is take an engaging FREE tour of the Mount Rushmore Black Hills Gold Jewelry Factory and spend a couple of hours in Rapid City’s arty downtown district. We did some geocaching in this district amid life-size bronze statues of U.S. presidents on each street corner. All our presidents were represented thusly except for Bill Clinton, Dubya and Barack. We’re sure they’ll show up in due course!

In addition to Barbara’s high school reunion, our visit to South Dakota’s Black Hills was a main objective of our journey. There is so much to see and do in the Black Hills – hiking miles of forest trails, enjoying lovely lakes and seeing an abundance of wildlife and unique historic sites! We are delighted we came here and wish we had the time to experience more of the Black Hills’ many attractions!

We are now rolling west on I-90…Wyoming is 17 miles away.

Affectionately,
Captain Baldy