July 17, 2012 Deadwood & Lead, South Dakota

These two towns are gold mining towns deep in the Black Hills of South Dakota. It was a rainy, thundery kind of day so we went to a mine museum and there Bubba finally got a chance to pan for gold!











The Homestake Gold Mine operated for 125 years before it had to close because the cost of getting out the gold was higher than the price of gold - back when it was $300 an ounce. They sold the mine to the State of South Dakota with the provisio that it would never be mined for gold again. I bet there are some regrets about that now, since there is still quite a bit of gold down there.....











The last photo is one small end of what's dalled the Homestake Open Cut Mine. The underground portion of the mine goes 8000 ft. deep. Over 40 million ounces of gold were produced between 1877 and 2001.











The last stop for this day was Mt. Moriah Cemetery, located on a mountainside and the final resting place of Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. This place had a lot of old-old graves, and an abundance of chipmunks!

July 16, 2012 Crazy Horse Memorial

This afternoon we visited the Crazy Horse Memorial, which is under construction. The sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski (born in Boston), began the project in 1948 and died in 1982. His refusal of all governmental financing, along with other setbacks, caused the work to go very slowly. After his death, his wife and 7 of his 10 children have continued work on the rock sculpture. There is a huge Indian Culture museum on site full of fascinating objects and photographs. We watched a short film about the whole project and it included Mr. Ziolkowski, speaking about his early years and a particular air compressor he bought second-hand, made by Buda. He would crank it up, and laboriously climb 741 steps up to the top of the mountain, and halfway up he would hear the old Buda say "kaput..kaput.....kaput" and die. He then had to climb back down and crank it again. Fascinating interview! It would be easy to spend a whole day there, and we thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon.











Mountain being sculpted; recognition from JFK; scale model of the sculpture.











Outline of finished sculpture superimposed on mountain; Native American Barbi Dolls in the museum; and the old Buda compressor, saying "kaput"!

July 16, 2012 Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota

This morning we visited Mt. Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Interesting! And crowded! There is no admittance fee, but if you wish to park, it's $11.00..... The sculptor is Gutzon Borglum, something I never knew until today. The photos are self-explanatory, except the last one. It shows that the pine beetle is not killed by cold winters, and it's devastating the piney woods here in the Black Hills.

July 14, 2012 Escape from the heat?

"But it's a DRY heat" just means it's more like an oven and less like a steam room.....

July 14, 2012 Minuteman Missile tour near Wall, SD

What a fascinating trip into the past! This launch center was active from 1963 to 1993, and in includes "state of the art" computer equipment. Our iphones today have more capabilities than this! The actual control center was underground in a capsule made of cement and suspended on shock absorbers in the event of an earthquake... Every system had at least 2 fail-safe plans in place. The launch centers were miles away from the actual silos housing the missiles. This is the reality of what we've seen in the movies. From the outside, it appears to be an innocuous, fenced building. Apologies if some of these pictures are blurry, but they'll give you the idea. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend doing this tour.











Entrance gate; design of the installation; 3 ft. thick door to underground command center.











Photo of command center capsule construction; tour guide explaining it all; command center.











Command center views, and missile in silo (minus the warhead) about 12 miles away.

July 13, 2012 Wildlife at Badlands National Park

Most of these pictures are self explanatory. That sheep was completely unconcerned about the tourists gawking at it. We didn't see the prairie dogs until later in the day, and they were not shy, either.

July 13, 2012 Badlands National Park

This place was so awesome, I could hardly choose the pictures. The "loop" drive was twisty, and every curve brought a new breathtaking vista. We stopped at every scenic overlook, and were overwhelmed by the time we got to the other end. We were also getting dehydrated, because the temps were in the high 90's and up to 100, and dry, so we were sweating and hardly noticed..... wow! Imagine!