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The day started with a mountain mist sitting on the KOA site. I threw on my anorak over my shorts and old walking boots and took Abby for a longer walk as she had missed out in the past few days. We ended up at the Cook Tent. I tied her outside to a bench and ordered my breakfast and when I returned I was approached by a wiry, Harley clad, Biker. He strode purposefully up to me and I waited for some comment about my sartorial tastes. Instead, he meekly said that he wanted to feed Abby and had wanted my permission to do so. Abby was smitten by him, especially after the sixth portion of sausage. She sat and delicately took the treats from his hand as if it were an everyday occurrence. It turned out that Bruno the Biker had been raised with Springers; not that he was one of the litter, more that his childhood had been spent with these wonderful dogs. I would recommend them to anyone who is looking for an introduction to strangers. The dogs are simply conversation starters.
From the site, we traveled a short distance down the road to the Crazy Horse memorial. Unfortunately, the mist was still sitting on the mountains and the best we saw was his arm and what will be his horse. However, the scale of the work is difficult to imagine. The sculpture was begun by Ziółkowski in 1948. When completed, it will be 641 feet (195 meters) wide and 563 feet (172 meters) high. The Rushmore faces would fit into the face of the Indian. It was interesting to get underneath the scale of the project and to be shown what the finished sculpture will finally look like. Scale is something that the Americans have as part of their daily diet; figuratively and literally.
Once we had sated our curiosity and bought the obligatory T shirt, we completed the drive along the 385. We lost the bikers at Custer and from then on the terrain leveled to the Great Plains.
Eventually, we reached Ogallala, named after the Oglala tribe of the Dakota Sioux. The town earned the nickname of the Gomorrah of the Plains due to the fact that the Texan cowboys, having herded their cattle to the railroad junction, wanted to let off some steam. The site was complete with wifi and pool and we settled down with a deserving Sam Adams to learn more about the I90 corridor, Nebraska and Iowa. The latter was described to me by an Iowan as somewhere to drive through. I’ll let you know tomorrow but now I will go and watch nature surpass any manmade light show. Surrounding the site on two sides was a monumental storm with a kaleidoscope of flashes, some forked some sheet, which illuminated ever-changing cloud shapes more wonderfully than we could ever hope to emulate.
From the site, we traveled a short distance down the road to the Crazy Horse memorial. Unfortunately, the mist was still sitting on the mountains and the best we saw was his arm and what will be his horse. However, the scale of the work is difficult to imagine. The sculpture was begun by Ziółkowski in 1948. When completed, it will be 641 feet (195 meters) wide and 563 feet (172 meters) high. The Rushmore faces would fit into the face of the Indian. It was interesting to get underneath the scale of the project and to be shown what the finished sculpture will finally look like. Scale is something that the Americans have as part of their daily diet; figuratively and literally.
Once we had sated our curiosity and bought the obligatory T shirt, we completed the drive along the 385. We lost the bikers at Custer and from then on the terrain leveled to the Great Plains.
Eventually, we reached Ogallala, named after the Oglala tribe of the Dakota Sioux. The town earned the nickname of the Gomorrah of the Plains due to the fact that the Texan cowboys, having herded their cattle to the railroad junction, wanted to let off some steam. The site was complete with wifi and pool and we settled down with a deserving Sam Adams to learn more about the I90 corridor, Nebraska and Iowa. The latter was described to me by an Iowan as somewhere to drive through. I’ll let you know tomorrow but now I will go and watch nature surpass any manmade light show. Surrounding the site on two sides was a monumental storm with a kaleidoscope of flashes, some forked some sheet, which illuminated ever-changing cloud shapes more wonderfully than we could ever hope to emulate.
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