Thursday, June 12

As you can tell, I'm having fun with this blog. So I wanted to share a few experiences that I had driving out to Montana (I'm also killing time as it is still SNOWING for the 3rd day -- should have brought skis).

I spent a couple of days in South Dakota. One of the strange things I have noticed about this state is that all the billboards are for some type of tourist attraction. I never really thought of SD as a big tourist state, but apparently it is. And I mean every kind of strange thing you can think of. There is “Reptile Country” with live (and active) rattlesnakes (NOT going there!!), alligators, komoto dragon, etc. There is the 1800 Old Western Town which features movie props from “Dancing with Wolves”, plus numerous other things -- so the billboards tell me. And they also say “as shown on NBC”, “as written about in TIME” – no kidding. And there isn’t just several billboards for these things – but it seems like 100’s (again, not kidding). When I finally pass 1800 town, I looked and said, “You must be kidding”. Really not much.

But the real reason I was excited about South Dakota were the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monument. I'd been to Mt. Rushmore, but wanted to see the evening lighting. And I'd never seen Crazy Horse.

This was absolutely amazing. The mountain they are carving is huge. The artist, Korczak Ziolkowski (a American born polish descendant and an orphan) was asked by the Lakota tribal elders and Sitting Bear to carve Crazy Horse, back in the 1940’s. Korczak found a mountain, and the Lakota’s bargained to get ownership of the mountain (they didn’t believe in just purchasing anything). So he started back in the 40’s, and today in 2008, they have a face and a flat area where his outstretched arm will be. They have blasted millions of tons of rock off the mountain to start the area of the horse.

I think one of the most amazing things is that Korczak did not get paid anything to do this – no commission, no salary, no money whatsoever for the materials and labor needed to do this sculpture. He just devoted his life to making it a reality. His wife, Ruth, was right there with him. They had 10 children, because they needed workers on the mountain and on the homestead. Korczak started a saw mill on the property and South Dakota’s largest dairy farm to raise money to provide for his family. He believed that this monument should be for the people and not the government, so twice turned down $10M in funding for the project.

It is HUGE and has a lot of detail. When I went to Mt. Rushmore, it almost made it seem "amateurish", which of course, it is not. Both worth the time to see.

One other place I visited -- SURGIS, SD. The home of the huge Harley Davidson Rally in August. That town is nothing but one big bar after another -- really. One bar after another. I know they get over 100,000 bikers there in August, but what do they do the rest of the year?