Black Hills

How could we begin with anything but the Mt. Rushmore "faces". We went to the evening lighting ceremony with Brian, Donna, Rachel, Jon and Lori. What a fun evening that was. We had an opportunity to walk the grounds a little before the lighting which can only be held at dusk. The ceremony begins with a question and answer game held with the audience. Then a 10 minute talk by a ranger and she was very good at giving details of the area. Then a 20 minute video with short vignettes on each of the 4 past presidents. That was very insightful as it gave incidents that we don't usually think of, it was more the general philosophy of each person.

The recent renovation of the Rushmore area makes a visit there turn minds to patrotism and pride for those who have given of themselves to make this country a better place to live. The flags add to the emotion of pride.

After the lights were put on the faces and after the video a group of Boy Scouts lowered the flag and folded it according to protacal. All in the audience who had served or where still serving in some branch of the military were invited up to the stage for recognition. Dad of course went up along with many, many other men and women. Then the ranger took the flag and walked past the people lined up on the stage, had them touch the flag and they each gave their name and branch of service they had served in. The audience was totally quiet during the ceremony. It was so good to witness the respect the audience had for our Country and for those who had served.

Not on the same level but an expected event in the Black Hills is seeing some of the wild animals and we really lucked out on that.

We took the Custer State Park loop and saw hundreds of buffalo. There were many adult buffalo, some huge beasts, but many young born this spring. They could not have been less concerned that there were dozens of cars stopped to take their picture. At least they ignored the cars. A little farther along there were many dozens of donkeys. They did not ignore but walked up to the vehicles, stuck their heads in the windows if open and expected a treat of some kind. Then farther along the road were what we thought were antelope. I really like the long range optical zoom on the new camera in cases like this with animals. No need for long range zoom with donkeys however.

Saturday we drove to Deadwood to see the parade celebrating their Days of '76. The parade was mostly horses, naturally, with a few community bands, old cars, etc. Deadwood is an old town but has been restored so that the buildings look very neat. However, we did notice that about every other building down town was either a casino or pub. The bikers have begun gathering in the Stugis area already so they could be heard revving up their cycles in Deadwood and most every little town around here. I would not care to be in the area when the "race" is actually held. I believe it is Aug. 3-9 this year. There are many good bikers and the church we attended this morning in Rapid City was organizing their congregation to have a tent up for 3 days and offer food, spiritual food and other amenities for the bikers. Some of them were staying in homes near the church and they have reached out to the bikers for several years.

I think the picture at the left was my favorite entry in the parade. Of course the Native American was a big part of this State's history and the people have not forgotten it.

We have enjoyed the many components of what make this place special We enjoy the history and have made new friends while getting this education.

Tuesday we head to Sioux Falls, spend the night there with two girls who are excited to spend a night in the RV with us and then on to Sioux Center and the activities of visiting family and the wedding on the 7th. Don't know if I will faithfully blog the next couple of weeks but we leave again in Sept. for an RVICS project in Kansas so will try to keep you updated on that and successive projects, the Lord willing.
Love and best wishes to you all,

Mom and Dad, Marilyn and Wilmer