September 7, 2008

Hi Everyone,

It's the end of our second week in Rapid City, SD. There is so much to see -- we are trying to take it all in little by little. Even though we went to Mount Rushmore during the day time, we will be going back to see the evening show and movie. We'll write about it all next time.

I'm dying to tell you about the Crazy Horse mountain carving because I actually had the pleasure of speaking with the sculpturer 40 years ago. Back then, Bob (the father of my children) and I were traveling through the Black Hills and decided to spend a few days there. We heard that this guy was going to carve a replica of an Indian in the mountain and we went to see him. As I recall, we climbed up old wooden stairs to a workshop that felt like it was in a tree house. The sculpturer, Korczak Ziolkowski, was a man in his late 50s with a mustache, beard and long hair. When we got to the top of the stairs, he stopped working and greeted us warmly. He pointed to the mountain that he was carving and showed us a model of what it would look like when it was done. We looked at the mountain -- and all we could see was a mountain with a piece of granite dynamited out. He said that he has been working on it for 20 years already. He loved talking about his "project" and we listened. From my recall, he was a nice man. But when we left, we both said, "he'll never finish that in his lifetime."

This week I was taken back when I saw the current carving of Crazy Horse in the mountain some 40 years later. Even though it is still far from finished, at least you could see the Indian. Not only that, there are thousands of square feet of historical items and rare artifacts, an Indian Museum, and even the workshop (redone) where Bob and I first met Korczak. He died in 1982, but his wife and 6 of his 10 kids are carrying on the project without any help from the Federal or State governments; instead, only public donations are supporting its completion.

Jerry and I were blessed to be here last night (Sept. 6) for a very special celebration. It seems that Crazy Horse died on Sept. 6, 1877, and Korczak was born on Sept. 6 exactly 100 years ago. We saw the laser show and the night-time dynamite blasting that they do for the public only 2 or 3 times a year. It was spectacular! There were more than 5,000 people present and a dignitary from Japan.

To give you some idea of the size of the Crazy Horse carving, the head is over 87 feet high, the eye is 16 feet wide, and the overall structure is 563 feet high. See picture below taken 1 mile away.

We also visited the Cosmos Mystery Area where objects seem to defy gravity. Balls and water run uphill. And, depending on where people stand, they may appear to be taller or shorter than they actually are. See picture of me trying to fall forward and gravity is holding me back. What is more amazing is the feeling of lightheadedness, dizzyness and even nausea that I felt as I moved to various parts of the site. Apparently, there are certain vortexes like this in other parts of the world, and many in California.

And then there were the buffalo we saw as we toured through Custer State Park. These are big creatures! Even Chanti couldn't figure out what kind of "dogs" these were.

Rapid City has bronze-cast figures of many of the former United States Presidents, one on each corner in the down town area. Jerry was attracted to Franklin D. Roosevelt because he was standing before a lecturn (you know Jerry and lecterns -- they go together). He pretended he was interviewing FDR. See picture.

We loved the city of Deadwood, scene of Wild Bill Hickock's death. But, at this time of year, the town and streets lived up to their name -- it was dead.

Next time we'll discuss Mount Rushmore. That's it for your history lesson for today. Let us just say, that if you ever are traveling the country, you need to see Rapid City and surrounding areas.

Have a good week. Miss you all. Jerry and Mary