I haven’t written in a couple days but the trip has been unbelievable. We were in South Dakota yesterday after 932 miles of driving over 2 days from Chicago. One of the things I have learned on this trip is that no matter your opinion of our government or anything else about this country, we are privileged to live in a very beautiful place. You truly can see the difference as you travel across from state to state there is such a variety of land and beauty. I hope my posts inspire you to see it for yourself because I am sure I can’t do it justice. You really should see it for yourself.
We left Chicago a couple days ago right after the keynote speaker at the conference I attended and drove about 6 hours to Onalaska Wisconsin for the night. We passed through Minnesota on our way there and the part we saw reminded me a lot of home with the beautiful farmland, minus the mountains of course.
The next day was a grueling 10 hours of driving across South Dakota with the craziest wind I have ever experienced outside of a major storm. I had to roll up my window because I couldn’t take the wind in my face anymore. It felt like riding a motorcycle at 100 miles per hour and not being able to breathe without turning my head. I used to want to be a truck driver when I grew up but that gave me a newfound appreciation of what it is like to drive for hours and never reach the point you see in the distance.
After about 9 hours we finally started seeing mountains and the only thing I could say was WOW! The area around MT. Rushmore is one of the most unbelievably beautiful places I have ever seen. It was difficult to drive and not keep gawking at the scenery.
We managed to get to the Crazy Horse Memorial for about an hour or so before it closed. I don’t want to give it all away because I want you to see it for yourself but they have a really well-done museum about the history of the project. It was actually started back in 1948 at the request of Henry Standing Bear an Oglala Lakota chief who commissioned Korczak Ziolkowski, who also happened to be an assistant to Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor of MT. Rushmore. Korczak worked tirelessly on the project almost until his death in 1982. He and his wife had 10 children, of which 7, still work on the project to this day and it is still owned by the family foundation with no government funding. They will only take donations and admission fees to fund the project for fear of the government ruining the vision of what was started. After all, it is the government that took their land in the first place why would they want to get involved with them.
It worked out great that MT. Rushmore doesn’t close until 11 pm so we went from the Crazy Horse Memorial right to MT. Rushmore. It truly is an impressive monument. We took a 360 video of the entire thing but that will have to wait until I get to California because the internet in hotels is horrible. There is a museum at the monument that is a must see if you are into history. I didn’t know that the faces on the mountain were chosen for specific reasons but you will have to check it out for yourself to find out.
All across this land, I keep thinking everyone should take a trip like this to truly understand this country. Forget what you hear on the news and in politics just see it for yourself. It really is an impressive country with such varying beauty that is hard to describe in words or even pictures. I can’t count the times I have said WOW or check that out along this journey. I am so glad I had this opportunity.
Posted by Enock Glidden on Saturday, June 25, 2016
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