Is It Me, Or Does George Washington Have a HUGE Nose?

Today, July 2, we slept in and took it pretty easy this morning. It was nice to have a bed and bathroom and all the comforts of home again. I got to watch a little bit of Wimbledon this morning which was nice. We waited for Uncle John’s daughter Carol and her husband to arrive then we headed out toward the Crazy Horse Monument. We ate lunch at a little diner in the town of Hill City, which is really just a tourist area to support the monuments in the area. Kate and I had buffalo burgers which were good.

The Crazy Horse Monument is a privately funded monument that honors the Native American cultures of North America. It was originally conceived by a Lakota Chief Standing Bear. It would be a monument to all the Native Americans of America to “show the white man that we have heroes, too.” It was modeled after Mount Rushmore and will be, when it’s finished, the largest sculpture in the world, 563 feet high and 641 long . It was started in 1949, and is still in progress. It’s pretty amazing to see the progression that has happened so far. They have a museum there in addition to the monument and we got to see an 18 year old member of the Lakota Nation do a traditional dance which was very cool. His name was Robbie Yellow Hawk, which is such a cool name. I’m thinking of changing my name to something better than Highsmith. I’d probably be named Andy Head Like the Sun or Wind Not in His Hair, so maybe I'd better stick with what I’ve got.


Here’s the monument as it is today.


Here’s a model of the monument as it will be when it’s finished.


This is us with Uncle John and his daughter and her husband.


Next we went to Mount Rushmore. The two monuments are both in the Black Hills of South Dakota and are very close to each other. Mount Rushmore is a huge complex that culminates with the monument. You see a lot of pictures of Rushmore, but they don’t really do it justice. It’s a magnificent structure, and it’s hard to imagine thinking of something on that scale. The park has fireworks on July 3rd, but we're not going to go. According to our local sources, in order to go you have to get there early in the morning and you won't get out until 3 or 4 in the morning. We're a little disappointed, but it's OK.
After some photos and ice cream, we headed back to Uncle John’s for the night. We found a coffee shop that has free wi-fi and did a little blogging. Rapid City has statues of different presidents on street corners in their downtown area. Kate had her picture made with everyone's favorite president...Martin van Buren! I had mine made with William H. Taft. President Taft was so fat, that he got stuck in the White House bath tub and they had to cut him out of it. I'm sure he did something way more important than that, but that's all I know about him.

~Andy