Of Monuments and Men (July 23-26)

Last week I traveled through Iowa on I-80 for the third time in a month. That has got to be some kind of record. Certainly it is for me! The beauty of this time through is that I was not the only driver.

Brian, two of our three children and I piled into one van, and our friends Kurt and Katy and their three piled into their van, and we set off for another epic adventure. Our vans were full to overflowing with tents, camping chairs, coolers, suitcases, air mattresses, etc., but somehow we closed all the doors.

The first two days were driving, driving, driving. We went from Grand Rapids to Sioux Falls, South Dakota, which is a pretty long day of driving. In Sioux Falls we went to see the falls, and I have to say that it is a much more satisfying tourist stop than if someone came to Grand Rapids and went to see the currently non-existent rapids. Rocks crop up out of the ground as if they are part of a movie set, and the park centered around the falls is a pretty setting in the city.

Sioux Falls is not a huge city, but it seems to have a vibrant economy, at least as far as we could tell. The main downtown area is lively and full of fun-looking restaurants and shops, and there’s not a lot of empty retail space that we saw. The people sitting outdoors at cafes and bars were a mix of ages—seems like they are doing all right.

The next morning we packed in again, said goodbye to hotels for a while, and headed back out on the highway. An hour in we made a stop at the Mitchell Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. I have passed this a few times in my life and have always wanted to stop. Honestly, I had in mind the ice hotels that are somewhere in Scandinavia, carved completely out of ice. This would be a palace built completely from corn cobs. I was ready to be impressed. I had imagined a palace of some whimsical design, but instead we found what is pretty much a civic center/arena/auditorium-turned-gift shop that is mostly brick with some murals made of corn. The large, free bathrooms were not enough to turn this into a successful detour.

Onward. We drove through Badlands National Park, which was characteristically hot and dry, and full of gorgeous, lunar-like scenery. It’s so different from the farm and ranchland that leads up to it, it’s a really unique stop. Also, there are large prairie dog towns, where the prairie dogs amuse themselves by disappearing into their holes as soon as anyone with a camera comes near. They or their next of kin then pop up just out of camera lens reach at the back of the town and make a lot of squeaking sounds, presumably prairie dog laughter at our expense. Afterward we dropped in at Wall Drug for some ice cream, but the hordes of tourists kept our stop to a minimum.

Our first destination was Custer State Park, where met up with Brian’s sister Julie, her two kids, and our youngest daughter, who had been visiting Julie in Colorado for a few weeks. We all stayed in camping cabins for two nights. Camping cabins are our new favorite way to camp. $50/night, no tent set-up, and all you really need is cooking stuff and sleeping bags. You still eat outdoors, you still visit the public bathrooms and tote your own water, but you sleep in a dry place on a mattress, and your car could be half as full.

Custer is a fun place to go—it’s very large for a state park, and we only got a taste of it. We drove the wildlife loop and got tangled in the slow, ecstatic traffic jam in the middle of a herd of bison. We kept our bodies safe, but loved listening to them snort and watching them stomp and roll in the dust. Katy and I also took the kids to one of the small lakes nearby, and they all took a dip in some chilly water for a little while.

We made an evening trip to Mt. Rushmore. What we didn’t know is that they don’t turn the lights on until 9:30, and it gets dark a bit before that. Luckily we took a wrong turn and it took us twice as long to get there as it should have, so we only had to wait 15 minutes for the sculpture to be illuminated. Before that, there is a video presentation, and a program which includes calling all past and present U.S. servicepeople to the front to say their names and branch of military, and that is a pretty big group of people, at least the night we were there.

And then the lights go on. It’s sort of exciting, and the sculpture is majestic, but I have been there in the daytime, and it is much grander when you can see all of the rock face rather than just the four heads that have been sculpted into it. I recommend a daytime viewing if at all possible. Nighttime worked for us on our limited schedule.

We ran out of time, but someday I’d like to see the Crazy Horse sculpture that is being created in same vein as Mt. Rushmore. Mt. Rushmore was completed in 1941. Lakota chiefs approached a Polish-American sculptor to create the Crazy Horse Memorial on sacred land, and the work was begun in 1948. The sculptor refused to take government money, so the work slowly continues, but no end is in sight. The sculptor died in 1982, but his family has carried on with the work.

Meanwhile, it sounds as if Crazy Horse’s descendants are not so pleased with the whole idea, because it goes against their beliefs to take a wild mountain and turn it into a monument to someone who wouldn’t even let people know where he was buried (thank you Wikipedia). I’d still like to see it, but it’s interesting to think about the difference in the two cultures—one that makes heroes larger than life and one that recognizes that heroes are human just like the rest of us. That said, this summer I am benefiting greatly from the efforts of Theodore Roosevelt, who was a strong force in creating and maintaining national parks and monuments.

Next up, Yellowstone National Park.