Been there, Done that – Dakota Vacation blog post #14

If you’ve been to the Black Hills of South Dakota, you’ve surely driven along the Needles Highway. 

 It’s cool, but another one of those once and done deals. How many times have I ridden this windy road? 

The tunnels scare me to death, 

even the one where a Storm Trooper was standing guard.

And way out there, past this tunnel, what is that in the distance.

Oh, but first we stopped at Norbeck Overlook, named for Peter Norbeck. He was a governor and US senator of South Dakota, who lived from 1870 to 1936. He was instrumental in development of Needles Highway, Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore, and more.

I guess that gives it away.

Yet another – “been there, done that”. 

Never Give Up, Never Quit – Dakota Vacation blog post #13

Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. (2 Corinthians 8:11, New Living Translation)

1969 was the first year I traveled through South Dakota. My sister Pat and I were camping with our parents, heading to Yellowstone, but they took the time to drive through the Black Hills.

I can’t remember much – I was seven years old for heaven sakes! But I have some of the black and white photos and the home movies from the 8mm camera. The most prized possession, though, is Dad’s Camping Log.

Anyway, that was the first time I saw Crazy Horse, and it didn’t look much different than the picture above, which I took further down the road on the Needles highway this June. And they’d started work on it in 1947!

The huge mountain carving still has a way to go. I don’t think it will be finished in my lifetime.

But it is still a reminder to finish what we start, no matter how long it takes. Whatever you do, put your trust in the Lord and never give up.

So we do not give up. Our physical body is becoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. (2 Corinthians 4:16, New Century Version)

 

A Couple of Herds and Some Kind Strangers - Dakota Vacation blog post #12

Yes, I’m still writing about our vacation out west in June. Seems we did way more than I thought we did at the time. Today, I’ll tell you about two wildlife encounters which happened thanks to kind strangers.

First, we were driving along the paved road of Custer State Park when a car came off of the dirt road to the right and the driver was waving at us like crazy.

We stopped to listen and he said that there were thousands of buffalo back up the road they had just came down.

We thanked them and hung a sharp right.

          After driving about ten minutes, we came over a ridge and saw maybe twenty buffalo off to the left.  

          Okay, nice to see them, but it wasn’t close to thousands.     

          After a few dozen pictures, we continued and drove over the next hill.      

          Ah ha. This was where the herd of thousands was grazing. Well, still maybe not thousands, but certainly hundreds. 

       And lots and lots of adorable calves. 

          And this guy. Not sure where he came from; he’s just trying to fit in. 

      We finally got through the herd and drove another 10 or 15 minutes to where the road narrowed with hills on both sides, sparse trees sprinkled about. An SUV with Michigan plates was stopped in front of us, looking at something. We couldn’t tell what, but we stopped behind them and just kept looking too.

          I took random pictures up the hillside, hoping my camera would catch what I could not. 

          Eventually, another vehicle came from the other direction and the first folks flagged them down. Hubby crawled out of our Honda at that point and asked what they were looking at. 

            A herd of elk were on the top of the ridge. Knowing now what I was looking for and where, I was able to zoom in on them with my camera and catch them, while hanging out the sunroof. 

          Scrolling back through my previous pictures, yes, I captured them then as well, but pretty out of focus. And does it count if I can’t see what I’m taking pictures of?

Dinosaur Hill - Dakota Vacation blog post #11

Dinosaur Park is a quirky attraction in Rapid City. And even though it was free, I might have passed on visiting it, except it was less than a mile from the Airbnb where we were staying for four days in June.  

The seven dinosaurs were built in 1936, after fossils of real dinosaurs were found in the surrounding area. 

The dinosaurs look cartoonish to us now, but that didn’t keep kids from crawling all over them. Or perhaps that’s why they felt safe doing so. Like any of these creatures would hurt anyone? 

There also have been renovations in the last few years. The dinosaurs have had new paint jobs, and the trails to get to all of them will be handicap accessible, once they are finished. 

But the views from the top, next to the brontosaurus, make the hike worth the visit.    

Do Good – Dakota Vacation blog post #10

“Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. You have six days each week for your ordinary work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God.” (Exodus 20:8-10, New Living Translation).

The Saturday night we spent in Rapid City, South Dakota, we visited the Chapel in the Hills late in the day, planning to attend the 7:30 pm service.

The chapel is built in the style of an original stave church (in Norwegian, "stavkirke") and is an exact replica of the famous Borgund stavkirke, of Laerdal, Norway.

I already shared the two prayer trails that I walked through. Also on the grounds was a log cabin built by a Norwegian immigrant Edward Nielsen in 1876. 

Inside were many items which would have been found in a Scandinavian home at the time.  

Lena and Ole were standing watch outside, of course.

                     

Also on the grounds is an authentic grass roofed store house, called a stabbur. It was built in Norway and shipped to Rapid City where it was reassembled. It now serves as a gift shop of Scandinavian merchandise and crafts. 

 

But the beautiful stave church is still the showpiece.

 

And for us that night, it was also about the service we attended. Though it was Saturday night, the pastor spoke on the meaning of the third commandment. 

Then Jesus went over to their synagogue, where he noticed a man with a deformed hand. The Pharisees asked Jesus, “Does the law permit a person to work by healing on the Sabbath?” (They were hoping he would say yes, so they could bring charges against him.)

And he answered, “If you had a sheep that fell into a well on the Sabbath, wouldn’t you work to pull it out? Of course you would. And how much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Yes, the law permits a person to do good on the Sabbath.”

Then he said to the man, “Hold out your hand.” So the man held out his hand, and it was restored, just like the other one! (Matthew 12:9-13, New Living Translation) 

So, don’t get bogged down in technicalities. Yes, always remember the Day of the Lord, but also always do good. 

City of Presidents – Dakota Vacation blog post #9

 

For four days of our trip to the Dakotas in June, we stayed at an Airbnb in Rapid City. We were only about four blocks from downtown, so the morning of our first full day in town, we walked there to see why Rapid City is called the City of Presidents. 

Along a 10-block loop of downtown sidewalks, life-sized bronze statues of past US presidents stand and sit. 

In 1999, local businessman Don Perdue was inspired by a temporarily relocated statue of Abraham Lincoln outside one of the downtown hotels. Random people were taking notice of the statue, talking to Lincoln as if he were a real person. Perdue wondered if all the presidents would get such a reaction. 

With a lot of convincing, a lot of fundraising, and hours of research, the project got off the ground later that year.

The first four statues of George Washington, John Adams, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush were unveiled in 2000. 

Over the next ten years, local artists worked to create and place all 40 of the remaining statues.

And, yes, more presidents will be added as they finish their terms in office. 

I’m sorry that I couldn’t post pictures of all of them here. You’ll have to go see them for yourself.

Can you name all the ones I've shared here?