Olsen Westward Expansion: Day 5

Day 5: Rapid City, SD to Casper, WY

Total Distance: 271 Miles
Total Vomits: 0 (But Mexican food in Casper, WY made it a close call)
Total "Dad Moments" where I lost my patience and became the Herm of my childhood: 1
License Plate Challenge: 45/51 (forgot about DC)
Listened to: 

• Music: The Avett Brothers
• Podcast: The Daily
• Audiobook: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Day 5 Highlights:

We started Day 5 by going directly to Mount Rushmore, a place that is more shrouded in controversy than ever before due to three factors:

1. First, there are a growing number of monuments and statues being removed across the country because they memorialize and glorify deeply flawed individuals. Mount Rushmore features two slaveholders and four presidents who displayed varying degrees of hostility or outright contempt for American Indians. 
2. Second, the monument is built on stolen land. And we're not talking about the concept of stolen land in the somewhat abstract (e.g. all of North America is stolen land when considering the native people who were here first and greedy European colonization). We're talking about black and white, no ambiguity, stole. American Indians even won their case at the U.S. Supreme Court, but their land has not been returned.
3. Third, Donald Trump is coming to the monument in a couple of days for a 4th of July celebration, and that man politicizes everything he touches.

So with that in mind, we went to Mount Rushmore with a desire to see, experience, and teach Valencia about human fallibility. She displayed a maturity beyond her years when we talked about the flawed men featured on the mountain, their good deeds and their misdeeds. She seemed to take it in and understand that no one is perfect. She was more shocked to learn that the U.S. government stole land from the Indians and lied to them, and was quick to come up with suggestions on how we can make things right. Hugs were mentioned, but so were other more substantive suggestions, like building a mountain monument with "Indian Presidents" so that it would be equal.

That brings us to the highlight of the day: the Crazy Horse Memorial. This Mount Rushmore alternative was actually much cooler in our opinion. The memorial is still a work in progress that currently features the face and finger of Crazy Horse, hewn out of a granite mountain, just like Mount Rushmore. If you look below, you'll see a model of the finished product in the foreground with the actual mountain/memorial in the background. The original sculptor died many years ago, so his family is keeping the operation afloat, but at a snail's pace.

The site includes a museum and cultural center that were really incredible. The mission of the memorial is also to build an American Indian University and educate people on American Indian culture, language, and history. Mount Rushmore didn't allow us to do much more than stand and look at the mountain for a few minutes. People stand and take photos for about 5 minutes on average, then we all just walked back to our cars.

We then went to Wind Cave National Park, which was a little underwhelming because the actual cave—the park's main attraction—was closed for repairs on their elevators. That meant that we had to settle for a nature hike, spotting lots of prairie dogs, and a long-distance encounter with a buffalo. Overall cool, but not the thrilling park experience that Badlands was.

We ended our day with a long drive to Casper, Wyoming. We can now smell the west in the air. The dry, arid wind blows through our hair, into our nostrils, and it smells like home. Tomorrow we'll launch early to get to Yellowstone National Park and the beauty and treasures it holds within its borders.