We ordered breakfast from a waitress without front teeth. Then headed north into the Black Hills of South Dakota. Custer state park is home to approx 1500 free roaming buffalo. Nothing is more american then buffalo. Traveling through land that was once owned by millions of these large beasts, we had to make seeing them a priority. Initially driving through Custer we only saw a lot of prairie dogs. They ran the plains. Hundreds of them. But then we made a turn and BOOM, there was one in the middle of the road. upon further investigation we ran into a herd of about 50, all shapes and sizes. The young ones were running around and playing, they looked and moved like dogs. It was crazy seeing an animal so big play like that. They got right close up to the car. Tatanka and Falkor as one.
We drove through the rest of the park and caught a lot of bison from a distance, nothing as close as our first run in, but we did catch the “begging burros.” These ugly donkeys stop traffic then stick there heads into you window and beg for food. Because people feed them a lot, they expect it and surround every car that passes.
From Custer we went to the worlds largest sculpture. Crazy Horse Monument will be the worlds largest monument if completed. The 4 Mount Rushmore heads could easily fit inside of crazy horses head. The head is all that’s currently complete. This monument has a really cool story. “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heros too” Standing Bear of the Lakota. So they asked a Polish-American sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski to built a monument to Crazy Horse. He excepted and after volunteering to fight in ww2 he was wounded in Normandy and started the project. He married and had 10 kids. He started blasting in 1948. He passed in 1982 but his family still continues to blast and sculpt. The project is privately funded and moves slow. I wonder if it will ever be finished. I really hope it does. More Info
What its gonna look like
The Man
Then we went to the government funded white mans monument. Which would’ve been cooler if it wasn’t for my recent trip to the privately funded, family built, grander scale CHM. Mount Rushmore was cool tho. We got there at a good time and caught the right light for pictures.
We drove towards hotel Walmart in rapid city and pulled over for a little black light indoor mini golf, the new teen sensation. It was really fun. the place was decade themed, music and all. Jillian beat me by 2.
At Walmart we rented a movie, and cuddled up in the van for the night.
-Ricky
Next Stop: More South Dakota Tourist Attractions