Pine Ridge mission trip, Day 7

Remember the old saying that goes something like this: "How was your vacation?" "Great! I just spent a week with people I used to like."

Although most of us aren't to that point yet, it's getting close for some and crossed the line for a couple in the van today. Everyone is ready to head home tomorrow -- especially the youth, I think. (Though Christine, Clark and I have all exceeded our tolerance threshold for loud boys. They're going to have to go outside and run laps tonight before they come back in to sleep.)

But that doesn't mean we didn't have a good time today on the "Big Monument Loop." First, though, morning devotionals featured Zach reading Scripture (pictured below) and Clark relating the story of Ed Pulaski and his unflinching dedication to his 45-member firefighting crew while they were caught in a firestorm (see http://www.fs.fed.us/r1/1910-centennial/pulaski.html and http://culture.polishsite.us/articles/art451fr.htm for the story).

First stop -- and favorite stop for everyone, it seems -- was the Crazy Horse monument north of Custer, S.D.

There was SO MUCH to see there, from Native American historical images to paintings to artwork created by local native artisans. There also was a movie about the project, a museum that told the story of the memorial and a peek inside the artist's studio (complete with Cheyenne-to-Deadwood stage and other sculptures he had carved through the years). For more, visit http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/.

After about two hours, we had lunch there at the Laughing Water Restaurant, where Sydney, Conner and I all had buffalo burgers.

Then it was on to Mount Rushmore (http://www.nps.gov/moru/index.htm):

We walked down to the amphitheater right away, then wandered in and out of exhibits and gift shops before deciding to take the Presidential Trail along the base of the mountain (where you're so close you can see if they left any "hairs" inside Jefferson's nose). In case you haven't noticed by the pictures so far, it was a far cry from Monday's 101 degrees, so it was a nice day for a hike up some stairs. (At one point after leaving Crazy Horse, in fact, it was just 57 degrees!)

Before we left, we had to get some ice cream or coffee, of course. Then we traveled east along Highway 40 back to the reservation. Just after passing the small town of Red Shirt, we got to the only Badlands overlook on the rez:

Can you tell they're all tired? The Badlands are truly amazing, though, and it was a nice last stop before returning to the Makasan center for dinner tonight. As dinner was being prepared, we had a beautiful, red sunset that was a nice symbolic end for our journey together:

Until next time! Wopila Tanka (Thank you) for reading!