Road Trip Part 2

After Mt. Rushmore we drove over to Crazy Horse.

This is the Native Americans' response to Mt. Rushmore. It is the carving of Crazy Horse. However, there is one problem with Crazy Horse: It is nowhere near completion. And when I say nowhere near completion, I mean NOWHERE NEAR completion. Like, at the rate they are going, it will be at least another 200 years before they can even see the finish line of completion.

It is quite an ambitious project.

When it is complete, in 200-plus years, it will be awesome.

As it is now, it is very cool. They have the face of Crazy Horse complete. That took 60 years. And it is very cool.

Instead of a National Park/Monument, they are relying solely on private funds. They have created an entire cultural center with a restaurant (where the food is fantastic!), a museum of Native American artifacts, and a theatre that shows a video of the story behind the Crazy Horse Monument.

Even though the monument was not complete, we really did enjoy our time there. We learned a lot, and it really is great what they are doing. They have a lot of patience for the building of their monument- much more than I have!

 When, and if, it ever gets completed, it will be 4 times the size of Mt. Rushmore. The white drawing on the mountain is where the head of the horse will eventually be carved out. Right now they are working on his hand, which is pointing out directly under his face.

 Dancers came and told stories and danced for us. That was definitely a highlight, though a little embarrassing, too. The dancer below told several stories. We were sitting in the front row and he said, "Can I tell you another story?" Camille yelled, "NO!" Yelling "NO" is her M.O. She does it all the time, but in this instance- with the crowd silent and everyone hearing her- it was not cool (actually, come to think of it, it is rarely cool, but sometimes funny- just  not at this moment). The Indian came over and looked right at her and said, "Can't I tell you a story? Maybe about Minnie Mouse?" He was very polite and good-natured about it. Instead of responding, Camille burrowed her head in Ben's shoulder and gave a huge scowl. Yup, that's the way we roll in our household.

 Proof that the girls love Grandma just as much as Grandpa:

Overall, I think it was worth the trip- not necessarily for the monument, but because of all that we learned and saw. And the food. The food was really, really good.