A Full-time Life

  • EATING LOCAL, Oregon

    Blackberries82Blackberries grow wild along every country road (and quite a few city streets) in Lane County.  In August and September, just about everybody picks at least a few handfuls.   These bushes are growing in a sunny spot on the lakeshore just a few yards from our front door.   So for the past couple of weeks we've been eating a bowl of these tasty little anti-oxidants almost every morning. 

    One of these days, I'll get serious and pick enough to pop in the freezer for later on when we're somewhere down the road.  The taste always brings back great summer memories!

    Blackberries84 All kinds of berries do well in this climate.  Those long winter rains we used to get so tired of are good for them.  We've already eaten a few pounds of blueberries (from the "Alvadore gardens").  Strawberries are good here too but we missed their main season, which is in June. 

    We've been having a heat-wave — several days of high 90s weather –very rare for this area.  The heat is making the berries very sweet.  The best berries here were hanging over the water.  It felt good to go wading for them.

  • GARDENING — OUR RV WAY

    This beautiful garden belongs to our daughter and son-in-law in Alvadore, near Eugene OR.  It's one of our favorite places to hang out. We don't get to see flowers like this too often any more, because usually we're not in the northwest during the Spring.  But in 2007 we were in Oregon in April and the flowers were at their best.   Alvadore gardens

    Some of our family and most of our non-RV friends say that their yard is what they'd miss most if they were houseless like we are.   A few RVers must miss that too because they carry outdoor-friendly houseplants with them.  When they settle in they haul out the plants and then they have their own little garden wherever they are.  We're surprised sometimes at the size and number of plants that appear.  (And it makes me tired just to think about the logistics of packing them all away when it's time to move on down the road.)  

    Fern Ridge Shores, where we're staying now, has quite a few semi-permanent residents and many of them have very nice flowers in their yards.  It does add a lot to the park.

    But someone has to admire the results of all the hard work.  So we are garden and flower appreciators.  We enjoy the yards that belong to family, old and new friends, and even perfect strangers.  We love to stroll in public parks and gardens.  

    We enjoyed all those things when we owned our own house too, but back then every visit to another garden involved, at worst, envy, or at best, trying to learn to emulate the gardener's techniques in order to make our own yard better.  And we always enjoyed the looking and planning a lot more than we did the actual work.

    We are retired from all that now and the only thing I still want to learn about flowers is how to take better pictures of them.  I like to practice while I admire other people's yards: 

    Alvadore rhody

    Flowers coburg 020 Wild rose and bee so pth will 155 Butterfly and marigolds 100_0025 Bush's farm veneta 30

  • FERN RIDGE LAKE

    Fern ridge lake 081Our home page (http://www.FullTime-Life.com) says that we became full-time RVers when we began to dread going back to our stick-house.  This is a little bit more of the story of how that transition happened.  We are staying now at Fern Ridge Shores RV Park.  It's the first place we lived as full-timers and it's nice to be back.

    By 2002, we'd been traveling quite a lot of the time since we retired but were still maintaining our Springfield house (more-or-less).  We kept kicking around the idea of selling out, but kind of wondering in the back of our minds whether it was the right decision.  Or at least it was in the back of my mind.  I think Bill had his already made up.  For me, when we were on the road I couldn't have been happier, but when we got back home I still enjoyed the house.   Usually when we first got home from a trip, I'd think about selling for a few days and then lose interest and just go back to our normal at-home life.  In a home, by the way, that was much too big for two people and with way too much yard. We still had the same house where we raised four children.  There were rooms we'd hardly even visited for years!

    So the story is really about how I made up my mind that selling out was the right thing to do.

    One afternoon in 2002 we were heading south on I-5 toward our home in Springfield after having been traveling for several months.  I began to think of the dust and accumulation of papers and so forth that awaited us at the house and literally burst into tears.  Life was so much simpler in the RV and so much more fun.  I did not want to go home!  Or, more accurately, I felt like I was already at home.  So we pulled the trailer off at the next rest-stop, pulled out our RV Bible (the Good Sam Directory of RV Parks) and called the nice people at Fern Ridge Shores, a Park about 20 miles from our house.  We'd looked at the park before because at that time two of our kids and their families lived in western Lane County near here (our daughter andson-in-law still do).  But since it was so close to our house, we never thought we'd stay there.

    Fern ridge lake rv park 085So we reserved a spot and lived in our RV here at the Lake here for several months while we readied the house for sale.  (The picture is our first RV home when we were here that time.)

    Once we weren't living in the house, getting it ready to sell was easy.  We gave a few family heirlooms to the kids, and got the rest of our stuff ready for the obligatory yard sale.  It was easy — emotionally anyway.  It was a lot of physical work to get rid of most of the accumulation of 40 years.  

    We've never missed the house!  It was a good decision for us.  Living out here on this beautiful Lake made it even easier as it reinforced what we already knew from our travels.  At this stage in our life, we don't need so much "stuff" to be happy.  We have everything we need in our traveling home.  In it we can enjoy the beauty of many different areas.  When we are visiting in Lane County,we feel at home  on the Lake.  And we can still enjoy our family and friends just like we did when we lived in Springfield for all those years.   It's nice to be here. 

    Here's the website for Fern Ridge Shores:   http://www.fernridgeshores.com.  Danna and Ron, the same couple who managed the park the first time we stayed, are still here and still doing a great job.  They really care about the park and it shows.

  • ARCHES, CANYONLANDS and MOAB

    Cynlands moab arches 1292 There was only one thing wrong with our 2006 visit to these two beautiful national parks — we didn't get to stay long enough.  We hope we get to go back.
    We visited both parks at least twice during our time in the area.  Does everyone know about the National Park's lifetime Golden Age Pass?  It's absolutely the best travel buy going for anyone over 62 (I think it was 55 when we got ours.)  We've had ours for years (well, duh) but I just checked and the current price is only $10.00.    You get in to any National Park and most other National Recreation areas without further cost.  I can't even begin to add up how many times over we've gotten our monies worth.  Get one if you're eligible!

    The vistas at Canyonlands and Arches are awe-inspiring.   And the walking is great  – once you recover.  The Visitor Centers at both parks were helpful in providing an overview of the history and geology of the areas.    

       Geoff and Sallie at keyhole _1352  Moab 9538 Used cynlnds arches hiking path 1331 Used Keyhole arches NP 1330

    We stayed in the nearby town of Moab — touristy, but still charming.

    Usednear moab _1290

    Geoff on natural bridge 1307 Moab 9552  Top of the keyhole trail _1338

    Geoff drove over from neighboring Colorado to join us for a couple days of our stay, so we were able to explore some back roads with his Jeep. (Part of trail pictured below).    It's a rite of passage toward acceptance of middle- (or greater) age when you can trust your life to someone whom you taught to drive!  But once you get over this angst, it's a great feeling.  We loved the ride.

    At one stop on the trail, we met some people from the Netherlands.     It was their first visit to this country and first time to drive a Jeep (they had a rental).   They'd been watching and following us (at a good distance).  We were happy that we — and they — hadn't had any troubleArches jeep trail _1319Jeep trail we took 1309. 

    Bill had to walk in front a few times to  a guide Geoff, because he couldn't always see the travel line through the rocks we encountered. 

     

     

     

    How to move a rock moab_1284 The huge balanced rock was beside a road out of Moab.  It looks like Bill is trying to find the best way to move it.    

     

     

     

    ______________________________

    Just before we got to Moab, we stayed for a few nights at Bloomfield, Utah, only about 200 miles away.  It was from there that we visited Chaco Canyon.  http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2008/02/chaco-canyon-ju.html

    We really hope to go back to this area.  We'd like to revisit all three of these beautiful parks and see the rest of the Four Corners area.

  • LANE COUNTY, OREGON

    There's an article in the Oregon Life section of this week's Sunday paper (http://www.registerguard.com<nbsp;called  ) called "One-Tank Wonders."  It talks about some of the many interesting places you can get to from the Eugene area on a single tank of gas. 

    We loved that aspect of living in Lane County when we were raising our children here in Springfield.  Back then, it was time constraints rather than the high price of gas that made it so wonderful to be able to do and see so much in such a short time. 

    Oyster place 62 It's an easy sixty miles from Eugene-Springfield to Florence on the beautiful Oregon Coast and about the same distance the other direction to the mountains, where there are lots and lots of wonderful campgrounds on both the Willamette and McKenzie Rivers.  We've always loved the outdoors and camping, so it was a great place to live for 30+ years! 

    (Winchester Bay on the Coast has the best crab and oysters anywhere!)

    There are also a lot of outdoor recreation opportunities without ever even leaving the metro area.  Lane County is well-known for its excellent bike and walking paths, many along the two rivers.    These pictures are of a few of them.  Left to right (click to enlarge):  Alton Baker Bike path between Springfield and Eugene; Rose Garden on the bike path across from Valley River Center (the area's largest shopping mall); the Willamette path at Buford Park, south of Eugene; plein-air painters on the South Shore Bike path.      

    Alton baker bike path 25 Rose garden so path VRC 156 Willamette buford park 2 100_0020 Rose garden147

    We are always surprised when we meet RV people who have never been to Oregon and we always tell them to come and visit.  It's best to be here in the summer, when it doesn't rain —  just leave an RV Space for us, please!

  • ROADTRIP Part 2 – SOUTH DAKOTA TO OREGON, June 2008

    Cabala's sidney neb The first night out of Loveland, we stayed in Cabela's RV Park beside the chain's flagship store in Sidney, Nebraska.  It is hard to remember the name of the town because we were just calling it Cabela, Nebraska.  The store and corporate offices are way bigger than the tiny town and people drive from miles around to work here. Cabela's is a big sportsman's chain that started in Sydney.  Each of their huge stores feature a fresh-water aquarium of local sports fish and a diorama Cabela's acquar display of (stuffed) game animals.   It was an ok full hook up rv park for an overnight stop–walking to the store and browsing the aisles was a fun and different way to do our usual evening walk. 

    We were heading for South Dakota, where we had to be before August to renew our drivers' licenses (we've been residents for five years now and that's how many years the license lasts).    Click here for information about our South Dakota residency: 

    http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2008/03/a-south-dakota.html

    As long as we were in the state on our "official business", we checked out these two favorite spots:

    http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2008/06/custer-state-park-south-dakota.html

    http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2008/06/chief-crazy-horse-monument.html

    In the Spring or summer, after we stay in Colorado (and then South Dakota this time) we head to the Northwest to visit family and old friends.  To get there, it is necessary to drive through part of the State of Wyoming (which I usually spell WHYoming — as in WHY do we have to be here?)  Yes, poor Wyoming is not my favorite State.  Part of it is not really the State's fault — by the time we've visited our kids in Colorado, we are ready to be in Oregon and Washington visiting the rest of them.  The adventure is kind of gone at this point and we need a jetpack!  But the other part of it is that this state (other than the beautiful Teton/Yellowstone corner) is really not very scenic AT ALL. 

    350px-Coal_mine_Wyoming

     

     

     

     

    Usually, when you cross a stateline there isn't any obvious difference at all from one side to the next.  But when we left Custer in SD we dropped down in altitude and, as we crossed the border into Whyoming, the terrain changed immediately from the lovely Black Hills into dry and uninteresting high desert country.  And there were a lot of open pit coal mines — pretty horrible to look at, in my opinion.  We have a bit of a disagreement about this though.  Bill agrees that they're not beautiful, but he would very much like to tour one to see how they operate.  I'd rather try to pretend they aren't really there.  Someday, we probably will take that tour — and then I will learn something in spite of myself. 

    Pronghorns The Wyoming terrain is apparently perfect for pronghorn antelope.  We see hundreds of them on any trip through the state.  Although wildlife watching is one of our joys, there are so many pronghorn that we now often don't even bother to comment.  It would be like saying "there's a cow."  Wildlife has to be little bit hard to spot for watching it to be a sport!

    Our first overnight stop in Wyoming was in Casper.  We wanted to visit the Teton plant, so that we could save shipping costs on some parts we needed for our rolling home.   When  we picked it up from the factory two years ago –  and when we visited the city to tour the plant a few years before that — we had stayed at a little RV Park called Fort Caspar.  That park is on the North Platte River and it is next door to a historical museum.    It's not a bad place to stay at all because of the river.  This year, it was full and we had to stay at a nearby KOA.  We aren't crazy about KOAs — they are expensive and usually not in the most scenic part of an area.  One reason they cost so much is that they have a lot of activities for families.  This probably makes it worth the extra expense when you're camping with kids, but we don't care about game rooms and so forth, so those are wasted amenities for us.    At least it was just for one night. 

    Independence rock2 The next night we were in Rock Springs, where we also had to stay in a KOA.  This is Independence Rock, one of our rest stops during our 243-mile day between Casper and Rock Springs.  (I have mentioned that we don't rush our road trips, haven't I?)  Independence Rock, which is on the Emigrant Trail, was called that because wagon trains heading from Missouri to Oregon or California needed to make it to this landmark by July 4 in order to reach their final destination before it snowed in the mountains.  It was a tradition for emigrants to carve their names in this granite rock.  It's an easy climb and there's a big parking area-rest stop right near the rock, so it's a great short stop for us.

    Ind rock, sign 3We shared the rest stop with several big busloads of kids on a summer camp experience along the Trail.   All of them were wearing pioneer clothing.  It was cute to see — they looked authentic, except for their modern running shoes. 

    <span (1840="(1840" (the="(the" –="–" 1869)="1869)" 4="4" a="a" all="all" an="an" and="and" away="away" before="before" behind="behind" between="between" big="big" bound="bound" by="by" california="California" camp="camp" carve="carve" casper="Casper" climb="climb" common="common" cute="Cute" destination="destination" easy="easy" emigrant="Emigrant" ensured="ensured" for="for" from="from" garb. ="garb.&nbsp;" gave="gave" get="get" in="in" independence="Independence" is="is" it="it" it?s="It?s" july="July" kids="kids" lies="lies" messages="messages" modern="modern" of="of" on="on" or="or" oregon="Oregon" parking="parking" parties="parties" people="people" pioneer="pioneer" program="program" reach="reach" rigs.  ="rigs.&nbsp;&nbsp;" rock="rock" running="running" see="see" several busloads="several&nbsp;busloads" shoes="shoes" short="short" snowed. ="snowed.&nbsp;" span="span" springs. ="Springs.&nbsp;" stop="stop" style="We: " summer="summer" that="that" the="the" their="their" them="them" them. ="them.&nbsp;" there were="There&nbsp;were" they="they" this="this" though).

    We had a three-state day when we left Rock Springs.  We almost never travel over 250 miles or so in a day, so a three-stater isn't at all common when we're in the West.  But we breezed  through Utah and spent the next night in Declo, Idaho at a very nice RV Park.  Lovely family-owned and run park called Village of the Trees.  It was aptly named.  There was even a small fishing lake with a walking path around it.  The park was next to the beautiful Snake River and it was amazingly quiet, even though it was just yards off of Highway I-84.    Wish they could all be this nice.   http://www.villageoftreesrvresort.com

    We actually might have been tempted to stay another night at this park and explore some of the surrounding area — but we were eager to get to Oregon.  Maybe another time.  It's a travel dilemma — so many new places we want to see, so many old places we'd like to visit again.

  • ROADTRIP Part 1 – TEXAS TO COLORADO, Spring 2008

    "Getting There is Half the Fun" is the adage we live by as full-time RVers.  You have to enjoy the trip as well as the destination, because there are going to be some road trip days.  Sometimes those days are amazing, sometimes not, but they are always worth it.  Even on the worst road day, we have our house with us at the end of it and we're always heading on to the next adventure.    

    It was still tornado season in Colorado when we were ready to leave Port Aransas at the end of May, so we had to choose our route carefully, based on watching the weather. We actually stayed a couple of weeks longer in calm and cozy Port A than we'd originally planned, waiting out some really bad weather to the north of us. By the time we left, the local papers were full of tips on preparing for the coming hurricane season, which starts the first of June.  You've got to hate it when those two seasons overlap.  On this leg of the journey, we had a lot of thunder and lightning and a few nights of big hail — but no damage at all.  It was a nasty spring in so many places this year — we were fortunate.  

    Armadillo 005 On our first night out of Port A, we stayed overnight at Armadillo Junction RV Park near Kerrville.  This is in the Texas hill country — like the Gulf Coast, this isn't the typical Texas that people from the Northwest tend to imagine.  It's green and rolling hills.  The Guadaloupe River flows nearby.  We like this area and have stayed there longer on past trips.  But it was terribly hot this stop – definitely time to head for cooler climes.

    Jackrabbit Next we stopped at San Angelo State Park.  Texas State Parks are excellent — we had purchased an annual pass on our way to Port A.  This makes the cost quite reasonable (and we like the idea of supporting the parks).  This one is on a huge reservoir, lots of birds even this late in the season.  While settling in for the evening, we saw a jack rabbit that we honestly thought for a moment was a small deer.  Huge.  Walking later on, we saw a badger heading for its den.

    We had decided to stay a couple of days here because we thought it would be busy on the weekend, with school out and Memorial Day.  It wasn't — we practically had the park to ourselves — but it gave us the opportunity to explore the area a little bit. 

    Ft concho Just before getting to the state park, we had driven past the tiny, tiny town of El Dorado.   This little village and the town of San Angelo had been much in the news just before we got there, because it is where the State had removed FLDS children from the El Dorado polygamist compound.  The courthouse where the hearings were held is in San Angelo as is Fort Concho, the frontier era fort where the mothers and children stayed for a time.  We took a quick tour of the Fort, which has now been restored to its status as a historical museum. 

    This whole area is quite isolated and it was interesting to see these places.  News-people from back east must have felt like they were in another world.  We kind of did.

    Big texan limo We stayed the next night at Amarillo Overnight RV Park.  This is an appropriate name for the park.  It's nothing outstanding but perfectly adequate for one night and easy to find.  You can take a Texas limousine from the RV park to a restaurant called "The Big Texan" in downtown Amarillo.  So this park and the restaurant (for which "big" is a good description, both of the restaurant and the food) are about all we know about this city besides the song "Amarillo High Morning." 

    There sure are a lot of Texas cities that have songs written about them!  (I just have to "sing" a bit of them when we drive through El Paso, Laramie or Amarillo….I'm pretty sure Bill wishes that those songs didn't exist — as I can't carry a tune in a bucket!)

    Oklahoma sign 07

    Amarillo to Colorado took us across this skinny little part of Oklahoma.  There is nothing in that part of that state but dead looking grass.  No towns.  We had to stop quickly though just so that we could say we'd been on Oklahoma soil.  I think it only took us about  an hour to cross that panhandle. 

    The first night in Colorado we stayed in a town called Lamar at a park called Lamar Sportsman.  The sport of choice here was horseback riding — and the stables were rather close to the RV spots.  Hot — and flies.  This was not the Colorado we know and love — and have already posted about (extensively actually). 

    We got to the "real deal" the next day and we had a wonderful time as always.  In case you missed those earlier posts — or just want another look at the beautiful part of Colorado where we stay — click on these earlier links:  

    http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2007/11/colorado.html

    http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2007/12/more-from-color.html

    http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2008/06/sculpture-gardens.html

    http://travelingrainvilles.typepad.com/traveling_home/2008/06/colorado-in-june-2008.html

     

     

  • BLOGGING ANNIVERSARY, JUNE 2008

    Hwy 20We were pulling our house across Oregon the other day and got to reminiscing about where we were exactly a year ago.   (There's quite a long stretch of straight highway through the desert between Burns and Bend.  So boring that we were very happy to have something fun to talk about.)  

    (Lonesome Highway 20)

    One year ago this month, we were in the middle of our three-month stay in Sydenham, London.  And besides all the lovely memories of our time over there, I was reminded that we have now celebrated our first anniversary as bloggers.     We started while we were in London.   Our Colorado kids set it up for us, because I mentioned in an e-mail that it was hard to remember who I had told what to!  So with their help and a lot of e-mails back and forth across the pond, we became bloggers.  Most people probably would have learned how before leaving on a three-month trip to another country, but this was just one more instance of us not doing things in the normal way.

    When we got back home (to the USA), Geoff convinced us that it would be fun to continue to blog so that we could share our RV travels.   He was right — it is fun.

     I started posting to this blog "Full-Time Life" while we were staying in Eugene late last summer.   Now, we're back in the Northwest again after about eight months of exploring other places.      

    On our trip from Eastern Oregon the other day, lonesome Highway 20 took us through Bend.  Our jaws just dropped because this city has grown so much.  Then we drove through the cute little town of Sisters.  We haven't been through either of these in years.  Sisters was definitely recognizable, but we could hardly believe the change in Bend. 

    Pretty soon after Sisters, we were driving along the beautiful McKenzie River.  That's it in the picture below, near Sahalie Falls.  

    Mckenzie river sahalie 134 We used to live near the lower portion of the McKenzie (when we had our stick-house in Springfield), so as soon as  we saw the River, it really felt like old times.

    One thing I am looking forward to doing  while we're in the Northwest is writing some posts about this beautiful area.  We lived here for such a long time that we've tended to take it for granted.  And so we began the blog by posting about different parts of the country because we thought those pictures would be more fun for our family and friends in the Northwest. 

    As we travel, we find many other places of interest around the country but we have also come to appreciate once again how beautiful and interesting the Northwest is.  We loved it when we lived here and we love visiting now.

    We still have itchy feet and we still want to see what else is out there.  But for this moment of our full-time life, we are very happy to be here in beautiful Oregon and even more happy to be spending some time with family and old friends.  

       

  • CUSTER STATE PARK, SOUTH DAKOTA

      "You can't rollerskate in a buffalo herd …. but you can be happy if you've a mind to"  (Roger Miller)

    Bherd_2023

    Well, who would argue with Roger Miller.  You can't skate, but you sure can take pictures if you've a mind to.

     Buffalo crossing_2027 Calf 2028 Closeup2029 IMG_2022

    It would be hard not to be happy in beautiful Custer State Park in June — when the baby bison are frolicking and the grass is green.  This State Park (in our adopted home state of South Dakota) puts many national parks to shame.  There are miles of scenic roads to drive or walk and all of it is well-maintained. 

    In addition to the buffalo or bison (the official signs use both)  we saw a herd of wild horses, a wild burro, a bunch of pronghorn antelope, as well as blue- and other birds, and some prickly little porcupines having a great time in the new grass up near Crazy Horse. 

      Porcupine crazy horse 2005 IMG_2004

    While in South Dakota this time, we stayed at Heritage Village in Custer.  It's about a mile from the Crazy Horse Monument  (we could actually see the Chief out of our window) and just a few miles from this state park.        Custer is an OK little town — there's a lot of kitschy tourist stuff here and all around the area.  Things to keep the family happy — because the parents were, of course,  mistaken when they thought the kids would actually enjoy learning about history and nature.  So you see a lot of tourist trap kid stuff.   But if you're old with no kids, it's easy to turn a blind eye to all that and the town is OK. 

    The Black Hills are beautiful  — especially this time of year.    We got a short thunderstorm with hail nearly every afternoon (and one doozy in the middle of the night).    Here's a picture taken just outside our door after the day's storm was over.  All's well that ends well.

    Rainbow rv park02

  • CHIEF CRAZY HORSE MONUMENT

    IMG_1995

    We are a little obsessed with this monument.   It's kind of odd to feel that way, because when you think about it, carving up mountains doesn't seem like something nature lovers would necessarily applaud.  (I hope this admission doesn't get me on the Patriot Act list of suspicious persons, but Mount Rushmore, which is nearby, kind of left us cold.  We went to see it the first time we were in South Dakota.  It looks better in the movies or on stamps or license plates than it does "in person" and we don't especially want to go to see it again.) 

    On the other hand, this was our third visit to Crazy Horse and we'd definitely go again whenever we're in our adopted home state.

    Crazy horse w marble model_2015  There are so many facets to the amazing story of this monument.   It isn't hard to see why it is so fascinating. One of the main reasons it's so interesting is that you are seeing a work in progress.  This is a current picture of the unfinished monument from the viewing veranda in the visitor center.  In the foreground is a 1/34 scale model.   Chief Crazy Horse is pointing to the lands that once belonged to his tribe.  He said  "My lands are where my dead lie buried."

     

    Size sign 46 Millions of tons of rock have been removed from the mountain.  The face of Chief Crazy Horse is nine-stories high.  Right now, the work is on the horse's head, which is 22 stories.  The whole sculpture is being built in the round.  This poster (click on it to enlarge) gives the actual measurements.

    The statue's creator was Korzak Ziolkowski.   A respected marble sculptor, he had assisted Gutzon Borglum in creating Mount Rushmore.  Some time after that monument was dedicated, Lakota Chief Standing Bear asked Korzak to the Black Hills to carve Crazy Horse.  He said: "My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too."    Korzak  (he is always referred to by his first name) accepted the challenge and began to design a monument that he knew would take generations to complete.  He began work in 1948, without much money and without very good working tools. W horse head outline _2019

    I think the monument does a good job of honoring the Native Americans who inhabited this area.  Korzak's family has established the Indian Museum of North America on the grounds of the monument.  In the Visitor Center, there is a huge collection of Native American artifacts, a collection of Edward Curtis photos of Native Americans, and a cultural center for Native Americans of all tribes.  

     In this picture, you can see where they are going to blast out the horse's head.

    The Ziolkowski family story is fascinating.  Korzak married Ruth after he began work on the Close up 1994 monument.  They had ten children who were raised with the project.  Korzak died in 1982.  Work continues from detailed plans that he left, because he always knew that it would take more than a lifetime.  His widow, Ruth, heads the foundation.  Seven of their children, as well as some grandchildren, have an active role working on the monument.  You can tour part of their original home. 

    The Mountain is a private foundation and they have never accepted any public funding. At the beginning, Korzak supported the family by running a lumber mill and a dairy farm at the same time as he worked on the carving.  His motto was "Never forget your dreams."

    The visitor center was established pretty early in the process and it is very active now.  Of course these days they get private donations.  All of the buildings were built made from stone fragments blasted off the mountain.

    Crazy Horse night blast _0451 On a previous visit to the Monument, we got to see a night blast.  These take place twice a year, on Korzak's birthday (which date he shares with Chief Crazy Horse) and on Ruth's birthday.  We just arrived by chance on the right day that time.

    Here is a link to the Crazy Horse website:  http://www.crazyhorse.org .  Never forget your dreams!