My lands are where my dead lie buried
Wednesday - 6/25
The kids got up this morning and went with Wendy to survey the campground. While they were doing this, I worked on figuring out how to post pictures to my blog. As you will see if you look at previous days, I am now doing some posting.
With a strong internet connection, this would not be an issue, but I had to find some workarounds since my pictures are so large. I had hoped to post more pictures, but don’t want to spend hours uploading rather than out of the RV exploring (or just relaxing reading a book).
When they got back, they wanted to go to the pool. I spent the rest of the morning looking into what we would do over the 3 days we are here. Then they got home and said they wanted a “down day”. Wendy and I had talked about this before the trip and agreed that there should be some down time. We could easily fill each waking moment with sightseeing or other activities, but that would drive the kids crazy for sure.
Well, we spent the next 3 hours listening to the kids complain about being bored and not knowing what to do. None of the 3 could agree on a game to play or where to go or what to do.
I spent a couple hours fixing a stuck vent on the roof, putting up the awning, stringing some lights we had bought around the awning and reading.
Wendy finally got the kids into a game of Apples To Apples. When that was done, we decided to make a run into town to see if we could get cell phone reception so that we could book our activity for Friday. I had made some phone calls using Skype from here at the campground, but a large storm had gone through last night and knocked out some phone systems at some of the places we were contacting. As such, they were taking messages and calling back.
Since we were heading out, we decided to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial. It was $27 for us to get in at the gate. I thought that was a bit steep for a Memorial that is just starting to take form. Once in and having saw the movie, I now know why they are charging this much. The carving will depict Crazy Horse sitting on his horse pointing out over his lands.
In defeat, when asked by a white man, "Where are your lands now?" Crazy Horse responded "My lands are where my dead lie buried." To honor this quote, the monument has the famed warrior pointing to the land where his men died in battle. Crazy Horse was the Lakota leader at the Battle of Little Bighorn. He died as a result of being stabbed in the back while offering a truce on September 5, 1877.
http://www.crazyhorse.org
To put this memorial in perspective, it was started in the 1940’s by one man. Once done, the carvings from Mount Rushmore will fit in the space of Crazy Horse’s head. This is a massive effort, the largest carving ever done.
All work is being done without any Federal assistance. The government offered 4 million in funds, but sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski turned it down. He and his wife felt strongly that the government should not be involved in these types of things. As such, they collect money by charging admissions and accepting donations from private individuals. This means that the work will take much longer, but can be done without any strings attached. His wife still runs the foundation, and 7 of his 10 children work on the mountain.
There was a wonderful Native American museum with many artifacts representing the Native American culture. Jackson and I saw how arrows and other hunting instruments were made.
Each night they do a laser light show. On Thursday, they are doing a blast at the end of the light show. They only do these blasts a couple times a year, and this is going to be one of the largest they have done. I would like to get over to see it, but not sure it is going to work as you have to arrive around 5:00. Last year the blast drew over 6,000 visitors and they were parked miles away to get in. It would be a long evening for the kids waiting for the show.
When we got home, we ordered dinner to-go from the restaurant and I had a couple beers at the bar while waiting for the food. Talked to others at the bar about where they had visited and RV’ing in general. I always enjoy talking to other people while on the road and hearing about their travels.
Food took almost an hour (they had said 30 minutes), and when I was on the way back a big storm rolled in. The awning had started flapping, and I saw that a lot of other campers were rolling theirs down. Now I had read the instructions on how to set it up, but hadn’t gotten to the ones on how to fold it back.
Our neighbor across the road (who also has a Winnebego Minnie) saw me working it, and came over to lend a hand. We had it rolled up and secured in 30 seconds. Almost everyone in these campgrounds is willing to offer a hand or some friendly advise.
We started a movie, but Jackson was tired and we all decided to call it an early evening.
The kids got up this morning and went with Wendy to survey the campground. While they were doing this, I worked on figuring out how to post pictures to my blog. As you will see if you look at previous days, I am now doing some posting.
With a strong internet connection, this would not be an issue, but I had to find some workarounds since my pictures are so large. I had hoped to post more pictures, but don’t want to spend hours uploading rather than out of the RV exploring (or just relaxing reading a book).
When they got back, they wanted to go to the pool. I spent the rest of the morning looking into what we would do over the 3 days we are here. Then they got home and said they wanted a “down day”. Wendy and I had talked about this before the trip and agreed that there should be some down time. We could easily fill each waking moment with sightseeing or other activities, but that would drive the kids crazy for sure.
Well, we spent the next 3 hours listening to the kids complain about being bored and not knowing what to do. None of the 3 could agree on a game to play or where to go or what to do.
I spent a couple hours fixing a stuck vent on the roof, putting up the awning, stringing some lights we had bought around the awning and reading.
Wendy finally got the kids into a game of Apples To Apples. When that was done, we decided to make a run into town to see if we could get cell phone reception so that we could book our activity for Friday. I had made some phone calls using Skype from here at the campground, but a large storm had gone through last night and knocked out some phone systems at some of the places we were contacting. As such, they were taking messages and calling back.
Since we were heading out, we decided to visit the Crazy Horse Memorial. It was $27 for us to get in at the gate. I thought that was a bit steep for a Memorial that is just starting to take form. Once in and having saw the movie, I now know why they are charging this much. The carving will depict Crazy Horse sitting on his horse pointing out over his lands.
In defeat, when asked by a white man, "Where are your lands now?" Crazy Horse responded "My lands are where my dead lie buried." To honor this quote, the monument has the famed warrior pointing to the land where his men died in battle. Crazy Horse was the Lakota leader at the Battle of Little Bighorn. He died as a result of being stabbed in the back while offering a truce on September 5, 1877.
http://www.crazyhorse.org
To put this memorial in perspective, it was started in the 1940’s by one man. Once done, the carvings from Mount Rushmore will fit in the space of Crazy Horse’s head. This is a massive effort, the largest carving ever done.
All work is being done without any Federal assistance. The government offered 4 million in funds, but sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski turned it down. He and his wife felt strongly that the government should not be involved in these types of things. As such, they collect money by charging admissions and accepting donations from private individuals. This means that the work will take much longer, but can be done without any strings attached. His wife still runs the foundation, and 7 of his 10 children work on the mountain.
There was a wonderful Native American museum with many artifacts representing the Native American culture. Jackson and I saw how arrows and other hunting instruments were made.
Each night they do a laser light show. On Thursday, they are doing a blast at the end of the light show. They only do these blasts a couple times a year, and this is going to be one of the largest they have done. I would like to get over to see it, but not sure it is going to work as you have to arrive around 5:00. Last year the blast drew over 6,000 visitors and they were parked miles away to get in. It would be a long evening for the kids waiting for the show.
When we got home, we ordered dinner to-go from the restaurant and I had a couple beers at the bar while waiting for the food. Talked to others at the bar about where they had visited and RV’ing in general. I always enjoy talking to other people while on the road and hearing about their travels.
Food took almost an hour (they had said 30 minutes), and when I was on the way back a big storm rolled in. The awning had started flapping, and I saw that a lot of other campers were rolling theirs down. Now I had read the instructions on how to set it up, but hadn’t gotten to the ones on how to fold it back.
Our neighbor across the road (who also has a Winnebego Minnie) saw me working it, and came over to lend a hand. We had it rolled up and secured in 30 seconds. Almost everyone in these campgrounds is willing to offer a hand or some friendly advise.
We started a movie, but Jackson was tired and we all decided to call it an early evening.