Sept. 30, 2008 – Sundance, Wy.
..monuments and veterans
Tonight I sit about 30 minutes from Devils Tower in Wyoming. I debated on whether I should skip visiting the monument, but when I think about how much I enjoyed viewing landmarks, scenery, and monuments earlier today, I realize that I should try to make the best of Wyoming by seeing all of it during the daylight hours. After all, who knows if I’ll ever have the opportunity to visit here again.
Badlands
When I started out today, I figured that I would spend around an hour in Badlands National Park. The park is south of I-90, so visiting it required me to take a slight detour and an hour should have been enough to make the scenic drive.. I was kind of close in my estimation. I only missed by four hours, or 500%!! What I had planned on being an hour detour turned into a five hour drive filled with stops, walks, and me staring for an unidentified amount of time into space.
There were spots for viewing and hiking all throughout the park. If I had hiking boots, no fear of rattlesnakes, and more time, I probably would have spent a few more hours hiking around the Badland Trails. Today, it was not to be. I had to press on because it seems to get dark shortly after 6 around here.
There were tourist “traps” all around Rapid City. Some of them would have been great to see, but I had neither the time nor the money. The two things I wish I could have seen were the stalactite caves and the cosmos. I had been to the Cosmos about twenty years ago, but would have liked to see them again. It is a place where you think you’re standing level, but things roll up hill. All sense of levelness is gone.
A reunion at Mt. Rushmore.
So I bypassed everything else and went straight for Mt. Rushmore. The drive through the Black Hills is beautiful. I wish I would have spent an entire day in the Hills. I think part of my enthusiasm for the change in landscape is because I rarely see mountains, so I keep reminding myself that I’m going to see many mountains over the next two weeks and I’ll probably become desensitized to the view and probably won’t be bothered by spending as little time here as I did. We shall see.
Mt. Rushmore is truly majestic. I was disappointed when I saw it for the first time about twenty years ago and I’m not sure why. Maybe because it’s so high up on the mountain that the view isn’t exactly the same as it is on Tv or in the books. I’m not sure, but I’m definitely amazed with it now. The place was packed with tourist of all accents: British, Australian, German, Chinese, etc.
Although people from all over the world were here, it was a large American group of elderly men and women that were taking numerous pictures together and wearing the same hats that caught my attention. I had to find out what this was all about. I approached a man that I figured to be in his upper 70’s and asked him about this large group of people. He proceeded to tell me how it is a reunion for some of the remaining veterans of the Berlin Airlift
When the Soviets blocked off the major highways into West Berlin in hopes that the Berliners would succumb to the communist after their 35 day supply of food and water ran out, the allies started the Berlin Airlift. West Berlin may have been cut off from suppliers by ground, but these allied veterans took to the air to drop food and supplies into West Berlin so that the city didn’t fall into the communist hands. The man I stopped and talked to had volunteered to join the service and was sent to Germany to carry out these missions in 1948
The group has a reunion every year in various parts of the country. This year happened to be Rapid City, which put them at Mt. Rushmore during the same hour I was there. I find it so interesting to think about the strangers around us. We have all taken such different paths to get where we are at this very moment, but here we stand… side-by-side, focused on the same point of interest… Think about that next time you’re bored in the grocery line.
After listening to the Berlin Airlift stories from a man whose name escapes me. (Do I need to start taking notes everywhere?) I hit to the road in hopes of getting to Devil’s Tower before sunset. About a 1/2 hour later-around 6:00- I quickly realized that this wasn’t going to happen. I keep
He remembers East Germany very well
underestimating the shortness of daylight hours here. 12 hours of darkness and 12 hours of daylight. With the sun setting fast and there being no chance of me getting to the monument before sundown, I took a quick detour to Deadwood, S.D. I have never been to this town, but enjoyed the TV show called Deadwood and wanted to see more of this town that is supposed to be right out of a Western movie.
The town does still resembles an old western town, but mainly focuses on gambling these days. The main street was about one mile long and every store on the street had the flickering neon lights radiating from the slot machines that illuminated the storefronts. I thought to myself: -This must be chance that I am stopping here. Afterall, I didn’t plan on being here… so I parked my car, took my three one dollar bills out of my center console and headed up main street in hopes of winning some money. Ten minutes later, I was out three dollars and back on the road.
The town has a lot of western reenactments, the shootout at high-noon type of stuff. Maybe someday I will go back, but for now, it was back on the road until I was within a few miles of Devil’s Tower in Sundance, WY. After viewing the tower, I hope to get through Yellowstone before ending the day.
