Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Sunny Hours
Sometimes sundials are smarter than we are.
Philippians 4:8 (ESV)
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Road Trip, Part 4 (Finale.)
After leaving Wall, Dana and I continued on our drive to Rapid City, SD. The home of Ellsworth Air Force Base, Rapid City provides a ton of potential activities for ambitious tourists. Since we were planning on being there for two days, Dana and I settled on visiting nearby Mt. Rushmore (a no-brainer choice), and -- based on glowing feedback from friends -- Bear Country U.S.A.
We arrived in Rapid City just as evening approached, and we headed straight for Mt. Rushmore. We made it just in time to witness the night's lighting ceremony. All of the lights from the viewing platform were turned off, and as patriotic background music filled the air, spotlights slowly lit up the faces on the monument. What an experience!
The next day was basically a rest day. After the hurried schedule of the previous day's effort to drive across South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore's night ceremony, we were exhausted. So we slept in, caught up on email (and in Aaron's case, online work), and headed out to Bear Country U.S.A. in the afternoon.
Bear Country is basically an animal park that visitors drive through in their own vehicles. We were given instructions upon entering to keep our windows up at all times in an effort to keep bears from climbing inside the car. Aside from the aforementioned black bears, Bear Country also housed arctic wolves, reindeer, rocky mountain elk, bighorn sheep, rocky mountain goats, mountain lions, timber wolves, mule deer, and bison!
I was curious to see how close the bears actually came to the cars as they drove through. They literally brushed against our SUV.
.JPG)
Did I mention that we saw bison?
We found an alley at the end of the drive lane and took advantage of it to go through the park three times. We LOVED Bear Country, and recommend it highly.
After finishing the drive, we parked and visited the BabyLand area of the park. This is where they keep some of the smaller critters in zoo-like enclosures. We saw raccoons, bobcats, a lynx, badgers, skunks, porcupines, beavers, and bear cubs. There were over a dozen cubs in their enclosure, and they played endlessly, challenging each other to a "king of the mountain" game at the tops of the trees.
The next day was the final day of our trip. We wanted to see Mt. Rushmore again (in the daylight), the Crazy Horse Memorial, and get home to Colorado that night.
Did you know that Mount Rushmore was carved by 400 men over the course of five years, hanging off ropes, and blasting away with dynamite -- and not one of them died throughout the process? That's amazing.
A big storm was announced on the loudspeaker at Mt. Rushmore warning of its pending arrival in about 15 minutes, and we knew we were about 15 minutes away from the Crazy Horse Memorial. So we rushed out to our car and tried to beat the rain.
We didn't quite make it in time, but we stopped at Crazy Horse anyway.
We soon realized how underrated the Crazy Horse Monument is. It is a mountain monument under construction in the Black Hills of South Dakota, in the form of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior, riding a horse and pointing into the distance.
The memorial consists of the mountain carving (monument), the Indian Museum of North America, and the Native American Cultural Center. The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain on land considered sacred by some Native Americans, between Custer and Hill City, roughly 8 miles (13 km) away from Mount Rushmore.
The sculpture's final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high. The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet (27 m) high; by comparison, the heads of the four U.S. Presidents at Mount Rushmore are each 60 feet (18 m) high.
The monument has been in progress since 1948 and is still far from completion. If it is ever finished, it may be the world's largest sculpture. The memorial has never accepted funding from the U.S. government, choosing to build their memorial using private donations only.
What fascinated me the most about this monument is that, unlike Mount Rushmore which was carved into the face of a mountain, this monument is being carved on all sides of a mountain. And it dwarfs the size of Mount Rushmore.
Here's a model of what the monument is planned to look like eventually (on the left):
We finished our incredible vacation by driving through Wyoming, where Dana went ballistic over catching a glimpse of a double rainbow.
We arrived in Rapid City just as evening approached, and we headed straight for Mt. Rushmore. We made it just in time to witness the night's lighting ceremony. All of the lights from the viewing platform were turned off, and as patriotic background music filled the air, spotlights slowly lit up the faces on the monument. What an experience!
The next day was basically a rest day. After the hurried schedule of the previous day's effort to drive across South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore's night ceremony, we were exhausted. So we slept in, caught up on email (and in Aaron's case, online work), and headed out to Bear Country U.S.A. in the afternoon.
Bear Country is basically an animal park that visitors drive through in their own vehicles. We were given instructions upon entering to keep our windows up at all times in an effort to keep bears from climbing inside the car. Aside from the aforementioned black bears, Bear Country also housed arctic wolves, reindeer, rocky mountain elk, bighorn sheep, rocky mountain goats, mountain lions, timber wolves, mule deer, and bison!
I was curious to see how close the bears actually came to the cars as they drove through. They literally brushed against our SUV.
.JPG)
Did I mention that we saw bison?
We found an alley at the end of the drive lane and took advantage of it to go through the park three times. We LOVED Bear Country, and recommend it highly.
After finishing the drive, we parked and visited the BabyLand area of the park. This is where they keep some of the smaller critters in zoo-like enclosures. We saw raccoons, bobcats, a lynx, badgers, skunks, porcupines, beavers, and bear cubs. There were over a dozen cubs in their enclosure, and they played endlessly, challenging each other to a "king of the mountain" game at the tops of the trees.
The next day was the final day of our trip. We wanted to see Mt. Rushmore again (in the daylight), the Crazy Horse Memorial, and get home to Colorado that night.
Did you know that Mount Rushmore was carved by 400 men over the course of five years, hanging off ropes, and blasting away with dynamite -- and not one of them died throughout the process? That's amazing.
A big storm was announced on the loudspeaker at Mt. Rushmore warning of its pending arrival in about 15 minutes, and we knew we were about 15 minutes away from the Crazy Horse Memorial. So we rushed out to our car and tried to beat the rain.
We didn't quite make it in time, but we stopped at Crazy Horse anyway.
We soon realized how underrated the Crazy Horse Monument is. It is a mountain monument under construction in the Black Hills of South Dakota, in the form of Crazy Horse, an Oglala Lakota warrior, riding a horse and pointing into the distance.
The memorial consists of the mountain carving (monument), the Indian Museum of North America, and the Native American Cultural Center. The monument is being carved out of Thunderhead Mountain on land considered sacred by some Native Americans, between Custer and Hill City, roughly 8 miles (13 km) away from Mount Rushmore.
The sculpture's final dimensions are planned to be 641 feet (195 m) wide and 563 feet (172 m) high. The head of Crazy Horse will be 87 feet (27 m) high; by comparison, the heads of the four U.S. Presidents at Mount Rushmore are each 60 feet (18 m) high.
The monument has been in progress since 1948 and is still far from completion. If it is ever finished, it may be the world's largest sculpture. The memorial has never accepted funding from the U.S. government, choosing to build their memorial using private donations only.
What fascinated me the most about this monument is that, unlike Mount Rushmore which was carved into the face of a mountain, this monument is being carved on all sides of a mountain. And it dwarfs the size of Mount Rushmore.
Here's a model of what the monument is planned to look like eventually (on the left):
We finished our incredible vacation by driving through Wyoming, where Dana went ballistic over catching a glimpse of a double rainbow.
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