Day 7 (August 12):

   We got up early and left Lander, Wyoming and drove east through the high plains of Wyoming. I have been amazed at all of the colors I have seen on this trip. When I think of my paints and how I mix them I think of all of these very same colors I have attempted (that is my favorite part of painting)...I have been thinking God is the most wonderful artist of all and all we can do is imitate Him. The plains have the most beautiful golden grass and it covers the ground as far as the eye can see there...and one can see a long long way because there are very few trees or towns to get in the way. We saw a lot of pronghorns (antelope) today.

     We had hoped to see some bison but no luck so far. We met a man at a restaurant at noon and he said we would probably see some around the Black Hills National forest where we are staying tonight. 

     We were just leaving our restaurant when Tyler spotted a long coal train from Burlington Northern Santa Fe with 2 engines in the front and two in the back. It was at a coal company. They were loading countless cars with coal as far as the eye could see. 

    

 












  We decided to visit the Crazy Horse Monument before going on to our campsite later in the afternoon. We got to Custer which is not far from there and saw hundreds of Harleys parked in the street. We have been seeing people on Harleys all week because the Black Hills Bike Rally is going on here in SD and it is a HUGE deal.

     We had to stop for construction traffic today and there were bikers behind us and Tyler got out to talk to them (sometimes you wait for 15-20 minutes for the pilot car to come to take you through to the other side of construction. The bikers were from Germany and had rented bikes and an RV and were biking across the west to Sturgis. Amazing! People literally come from all over the world for this. When we got to the Crazy Horse Monument and Museum there were hundreds more of them and they are all very courteous and friendly. Most of them are 40 years old and above:)...mostly above.

Crazy Horse is absolutely huge. Of course they only have his face completely finished but we saw a model of how it will look when it is finished and it is impressive. Tyler did a photo of the model sculpture with the mountain face in the background.

      We saw a video in the theater there (with all of the bikers) and it said that the presidents on Mount Rushmore would fit in his head. It is going to be a long time before it is finished but it will be the biggest sculpture of all time when it is finished. The video went on to tell about Crazy Horse and how the monument came to be. The museum is the National Native American Museum and is really kind of a piece of art itself and has many Indian artifacts and artistry. We really enjoyed our visit there.

We drove on into the park and found our campsite which is very nice. In fact I would say it is the nicest one we have been in yet. Our site is shaded and rather large so we are looking forward to hanging out this evening...perhaps with the bikers next door. On to dinner and our evening plans.  (we tried to add photos but they wouldn't load so we'll try again tomorrow.)