What I did on my summer vacation--Part I

Those of us who teach recognize the end of July as the end of summer.  We're not obligated to be in the classroom for another month plus, but this is the time to finalize course preparation.  That said, I have to acknowledge that this has been a wonderful summer.

I was fortunate to be able to teach an online class during May term, a very brief  but productive three weeks.  Once that was over, we were invited to my daughter's housewarming party.  Little did we know that it was actually a surprise 30th wedding anniversary party for my husband and me.  My daughter had arranged for her out-of-town siblings to fly in from Tucson and Corvallis, Oregon.  We were absolutely delighted by it all.

I should mention that my dear daughter outdid herself.  Just the previous week she had hosted a bridal shower for her dear friend Amanda.

She accomplished all of this in the midst of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra's return to work.

The week after our anniversary, my friend Fran and I flew out to Tucson to collect furniture she had purchased from Craig's List for her new winter home.

In addition to an arduous and super hot day of moving furniture from four Phoenix suburbs to her new home, we also managed to have ourselves a fine time including a lovely Saturday evening at the Desert Museum.

The most memorable part of the trip for me took place the night before we returned.  We decided to spend a night closer to Mesa Gateway Airport, so we booked a hotel.  We left Tucson around 2 with an ETA of 3:30.  As we had done after collecting all of the furniture the previous (miserably hot) Wednesday, we decided to stop at DQ for an ice cream treat.  We made it to our hotel in excellent time and got out of the car, only to discover that my purse was not in the backseat where I thought I had placed it.  Absolutely panicked, we got right back in the car and headed back to the DQ in Casa Grande where we had stopped for the treat.  As I drove, Fran got out her trusty smart phone and started trying to find a phone number for the DQ in question.  Much to our surprise, she found a DQ App!  She started making phone calls with the aim of checking whether or not anyone had turned in my purse.  After a couple of wrong numbers, she hit pay dirt.  She told the person who answered the phone, "My friend and I just visited your store an hour ago and she thinks she left her purse in the bathroom."  The person who answered said, "Was that the women's restroom?"  After checking, the clerk came back with a negative.  By that time, I had pulled in to the parking lot.  Just on a whim, I said "Fran, would you call my cell phone?"  You guessed it...  My purse had been wedged in a great tightness underneath the seat that whole time.


July started with a terrific week-long course on the Holocaust in European Memory at UMTC and a concert at the Minnesota Zoo.  While we enjoyed the evening, it was probably the most monochromatic experience I've ever had.  You can fill in the blanks.

The very next week, my husband and I embarked on our road trip west to Corvallis, Oregon to visit our oldest son. We decided to take the southern route along I-90 so that we could explore South Dakota--something neither one of us had ever done.  The first full day of travel happened to be my birthday, and we managed to hit all of the South Dakota highlights.  We started at the Corn Palace in Mitchell (home to Senator George McGovern, may his memory be for a blessing).  Our expectations were very low, but we were very pleasantly surprised by how interesting it was.

Of course, there was plenty of kitsch to go with the genuinely interesting information about the role the Corn Palace played in the development of South Dakota agriculture and commerce.

The murals on the exterior walls of the corn palace make use of 13 different shades of corn, including red, brown, black, blue, white, orange, calico, yellow and green.  The murals on the outside of the building change every August, so we got to see the beginning steps of changing the murals.  Workers were busy removing the rye and dock and setting up the replacement grains.

This month, they'll change the murals themselves.

It was an hour's worth of fun, and we felt the time was well spent.

We were back on the road by 10, headed to Wall Drug for lunch.  This time, the kitsch was overwhelming.

I'll give them this--they know how to process a crowd.  There were hundreds of people there and I don't think anyone left hungry.  We had a fairly unremarkable lunch and decided that one visit was sufficient.  Five cent coffee just isn't enough of a draw.

Mt. Rushmore is not too far from Wall Drug, so within an hour we were at a worthwhile venue.

I enjoyed looking at the "heads" (as my sister-in-law refers to them), but the background information was what was really interesting.

When we returned to Minnesota, we learned that while serving as a CCC doctor in the 1930s my father-in-law (may his memory be for a blessing) met the artist, Gutzon Borglum.

As impressed as we were by the monument, our next visit was that much more inspiring. 

Seventeen miles south from Mt. Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Memorial.  We had been warned that this site was much more expensive.  The parking fee at Mt. Rushmore was $11, but there was no entrance fee.  It's $10 per adult, or $27 per carload to get in to the memorial site, but that's how this site makes money.  Korczak decided not to take any government money to support the project.  Instead, the project has been funded by admission fees and tips.

After encountering his award-winning sculpture of Polish composer Ignacy Jan Paderewski at the 1939 World's Fair in New York, Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear, commissioned Korczak Ziolkowski  to sculpt the memorial to the spirit of Crazy Horse. Ziolkowski had also come to South Dakota to work with Borglum on the Mt. Rushmore Monument. 

Ziolkowski served with honor during World War II and didn't begin working on the project until 1948.

The site includes The Indian Museum of North America, the Native American Educational and Cultural Center and Korczak's home and studio.  Additionally, visitors may pay a small fee to ride a school bus up to the mountain for a closer look.

These images represent 65 years of work.  Best estimates suggest it will be another 100 years before the work is complete. 

Beyond the sculpture, Korczak's vision was focused on the Native American people of the area.  According to the Memorial's website, "The Memorial’s mission is to honor the culture, tradition and living heritage of North American Indians.  Korczak’s vision extended beyond the mountain carving. In 1978, Korczak began a scholarship program with just $250 to start the educational portion of the dream. In 2008, the program has reached the $1 million mark in scholarships, mostly to Indian students attending South Dakota school."

At the end of the afternoon, we continued on our journey west.  We had a rather mediocre dinner in Sundance, Wyoming, and landed at Gillette,Wyoming for a night's stay; we didn't really mind though because it had been such a full day.  All in all, it was a great way to spend my birthday.