Orientation day at Crazy Horse

Posted on May 16, 2014 by liv2rv

Wednesday, May 14 was “back to work” day!! We were both excited to start our new adventure for the summer, and it will be nice to have money coming “in”, instead of always going “out”. The first day is just orientation, filling out tax forms (only Federal since South Dakota has no state income tax), along with going over the basic rules that you have with any job.

Dan’s mom always took a ‘first day of school’ photo, so I thought I should get a ‘first day of work’ photo to continue the tradition!

Back to work!

We watched an excellent film on the history of Crazy Horse in one of the 2 theatre’s in the Visitor’s Center of the Memorial. If you ever come to Crazy Horse, we highly recommend viewing the movie as the first thing to do in the complex. It goes over the history of the Memorial, and has interviews with the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski (pronounced ‘jewel-cuf-ski’), who passed away in 1982, as well as his wife Ruth.

Then we took a tour of the many buildings in the complex, and then headed back to our meeting room for more orientation. We had an excellent complimentary lunch in the Laughing Waters Restaurant, followed by the highlight of the day, a van tour to the top of the monument.

I plan on a separate post about the history of Crazy Horse, as well as what is all available to see and do on-site. There simply is too much to cover in one post.

A FEW FACTS ABOUT THE MONUMENT

The first blast on the mountain was June 3, 1948, with 10 tons removed. When completed, the memorial will be 563 feet high, and 641 feet long in the round. The face of Crazy Horse is 87 feet, 6 inches. In perspective, the heads on Mt. Rushmore are 60 feet tall.

Korczak refused to take any money from the state and federal government. This policy remains in effect today, and the family has turned down several grants from the government. He did not want the memorial to remain unfinished, like Mt. Rushmore, after they accepted money from the government. The original plan for Mt. Rushmore were for more complete profiles, at a height of 285 feet. Another difference between the two, is Mt. Rushmore was carved on a mountain and Crazy Horse is blasting a mountain into a monument.

The memorial is supported entirely through admission fees, gift shop sales and private donations.

THE RIDE TO THE TOP

Our orientation group was able to take a van tour to the top of the memorial. For the general public, there are two ways you can get to the top. Twice a year, they have a Volksmarch, where the public is invited to walk to the top for a small donation of $3.00. It is 6.2 miles (10K) round trip. The other way to the top is with a private van tour, which costs $120.00, with $100.00 going as a tax-deductible donation to the non-profit foundation.

The roads are all crushed gravel, made from the rock blasted off the mountain. There is a ‘graveyard’ of old equipment, that they use for parts to repair current machinery.

The graveyard

There are deer and mountain goats that live up in the hills around the memorial. We saw some deer, along with this little critter. It is called a Marmot, which is similar to a woodchuck. The animals don’t seem to be bothered by the regular blasts.

Marmot

They are working on the hand, and the nose of the horse. This view of the outline of the hand is not visible to the general public, as it is on the back side of the monument.

working on the hand

This picture is directly on top of the hand, and shows the red lines where they will be blasting out for the hand.

markings for future blast

The face of Crazy Horse.

standing on arm

We had to wear hard hats, as they were working below.

This is an old shark tank which was donated to the memorial. When they are blasting on top, the workers will stay inside this to avoid getting struck by flying debris.

sharks?!

The view from the top….spectacular!

view from the top

To put the size of the memorial in perspective, this is the view from our campground…

view from our campground

And this is the view of our campground from the top of Crazy Horse.

CG from Crazy Horse

This is the view of the visitors complex.

Visitors Complex

The rock formation below is where Korczak is buried, as well as his daughter Ann, who passed away in 2011.

burial site

We did make time at the end of the day to stop back into the restaurant to sample Kuchen, the state dessert of South Dakota, as well as some Indian Flat Bread. Both were delicious.

SD State Dessert!

Indian Flat Bread

Dan commented that it was the best 1^st day orientation that he has been a part of!

Quote for the Day: “Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” – Confucius

Initial impressions of the Black Hills

Posted on May 13, 2014 by liv2rv

After 2 long days of driving (to stay ahead of the Winter Storm Watch), we arrived at Heritage Campground in Custer, SD in very heavy fog. Phil came over and welcomed us and we caught up on things since we last saw them at Amazon. Late Wednesday night it began snowing, and we were thankful we did not have to drive in the snow with the fifth wheel.

Heritage Village CG

view from CG

We can see Crazy Horse from the campground, even on a winter morning.

Crazy Horse from CG

view from CG

Makena and I were up early Thursday, taking pictures of the area from our campground, as well as scraping off a few snow-covered vehicles in the campground (I missed doing that all winter!). It was a beautiful and peaceful morning, and we are very happy we decided to come to the Black Hills for the summer. We have made a long ‘to do’ list of the area’s attractions that we plan on accomplishing this summer.

First, a little facts about our new ‘home’ state of South Dakota (remember, one should never stop learning!!). The population of the state is 814,180. Pierre (pronounced “peer”) is the capital, and the nickname is The Mount Rushmore State. The highest point is Harney Peak. At 7,242 feet it is the highest point east of the Rockies. The state dessert is Kuchen, a coffee cake. South Dakota is home to the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota. There are nine tribes from these three dialect, representing about 62,000 Native Americans.

We are in the area referred to as the Black Hills, as it encompasses 1.2 million acres of the Black Hills National Forest. The hills are primarily Ponderosa pines, and the valleys have Black Hills spruce. Many visitors to the area inquire about the orange trees in the forest, and those are the ones killed off by the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic. The population in the Black Hills area is around 250,000, with Rapid City being the ‘big city’ at 69,200 people.

Custer State Park, at 71,000 acres is also nearby, and is home to over 1300 bison, as well as elk, mountain goats, burros and pronghorn. It has lots of fishing, hiking, biking, canoe/kayaking and horseback riding available.

Thursday night we went out for dinner with Phil and Rudee, at a nice restaurant in Hill City, about 9 miles away. They drove us around the area, past Mt Rushmore (never gets old seeing that), and to check out the rock formations on the back side of the monument (since this is a PG blog, I probably should leave out those photos, but Dan put them on Makena’s Facebook page!!!). We stopped in for a brief tour at Crazy Horse, and met some wonderful co-workers. They really have a large complex with many interesting things to see and do. I will have much more on Crazy Horse after we start our jobs there.

Friday, once the snow started melting, we ventured out into the city of Custer, which is about 4 miles away, and checked out the area and did some grocery shopping at the local market. They will have a farmers market in town on Saturdays, starting in June, so we hope to check that out. Friday night we went out for a fish fry near Hill City, with two other couples that we will be working with, Dick and Cheryl, and Phil and Sandra. Phil and Sandra have been full-timing for 13 years!

Saturday we took a drive on 16A, which goes thru Custer State Park, and up to Iron Mountain Road, which is a very scenic 17 mile road, with 14 switchbacks, 3 tunnels and past the 4 Presidents. We basically had the road to ourselves, which made for a pleasant drive. We were able to stop and take pictures in the tunnels which is something that won’t happen once tourist season is in full bloom.

Custer is famous for their buffalo, but we only saw two on this drive.

There are several lakes in the park.

ready for fishing!

After leaving Custer State Park, you enter right into the National Forest. On 16A, when you see the first park sign, that is when you get your first glimpse at Mt. Rushmore, from a distance.

Custer, SD

Mt Rushmore is just above the hood of the truck.

Mt Rushmore in the distance

Here is a closer view.

1st glimpse of Mt Rushmore

Black Hills

Black Hills & Presidents

scenic views

There are also some fun tunnels to go through, with two of them giving a view of Mount Rushmore.

No problem with this tunnel

tunnel with a view

coming thru with Presidents in view

There is an overview/stop off where you can see Harney Peak in the distance. They have several hiking trails to the top. We are pondering the 6 mile round trip hike. ( I think it would be easy to do if we had a scanner and a cart to push and pretended we were at Amazon!)

Harney Peak

Iron Mountain Road (16A) is a must-do drive, but don’t bring your RV!

Not an RV friendly road!

After 16A, we turned West on Hwy 244, which goes right past Mt. Rushmore, so we took some more “drive-by” photos.

Mt Rushmore from Hwy 244

There is a turn-out down from the monument, where you can get a profile view of George Washington.

profile view

The scenery here is breathtaking and we look forward to exploring many parts of this majestic area. We would like to travel on the Needles Highway (Hwy 87), but there is one tunnel that has a width of 8’4”, and we did a rough measurement of our dually pickup, and we think it is 8’7”. So we will hold off on that drive for now!

Sunday was a cold, blustery day with constant winds around 25mph. So it was a perfect day to do laundry, and go through the many tourist brochures we had picked up. In the afternoon we visited with Steve and Joan and had a wonderful time getting to know them as well.

Monday we checked out the library in Custer, which not only has free wi-fi, but seems to be the social hub of the community, based on how chatty the librarians were with the patrons. It had the ambiance of a coffee shop, but no food or beverages allowed!

We took Makena on a long walk along the George S Mickelson Trail, and picked up annual passes at the visitors center in Custer. All user fees support the trail. The trail follows the old Deadwood to Edgemont Burlington Northern rail line, which was abandoned in 1983. The trail was originally called the Black Hills Burlington Northern Heritage Trail, but was renamed in 1993 after the death of Governor Mickelson, who supported the trail and dedicated the first 6 miles of it in 1991. All 108 miles of the trail were completed by 1998.

Tomorrow (Wednesday May 14) we have our orientation at Crazy Horse, and will find out what our schedule will be for the summer. We look forward to a fun summer getting to know our co-workers more, as well as visiting the many attractions in the area.

Quote for the Day: “Once a year, go someplace you have never been before.” – Dalai Lama

Odds and Ends

Posted on December 13, 2013 by liv2rv

After 6 days in a row, and about 75 miles of walking, we had a day off on Thursday. We were expecting to go back to work today (Friday) for mandatory overtime, but it was cancelled. At first we were disappointed, but we appreciated another day of rest. And we made sure it was a day of excitement, with laundry, defrosting the freezer, clipping Makena’s nails, and making a big pot of chili to go with another Columbo movie!!

On Monday, we did get together with Karen and Al, whose blog I have been following for awhile now. (http://wishuponanrvstar.blogspot.com/) It has been fun getting to meet all the folks who have helped to inspire us to live our dreams.

This week we did have a telephone job interview, for Crazy Horse Memorial. We did accept the jobs, and we are both looking forward to spending May thru September of 2014 in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota. We will be working in the gift shop. You can check it out at: http://crazyhorsememorial.org So if you are out that way, please let us know so we can get together. They do have a campground right at the memorial, so we can walk or bicycle to work.

There is one thing this time a year that I will miss…and no it isn’t snow and bitter cold!! My sister Margie and I have been having a “cookie bake-a-thon” for over 25 years. We spend 3 days doing nothing but making Christmas cookies. Day 1 is planning and mixing the dough. Day 2 is baking, and Day 3 is decorating/frosting and boxing up the cookies for gifts for family and friends. And of course at the end of each night, we would have a tasty Tom and Jerry!!!

When we were at the grocery store the other day, I just felt very sad when I looked at the display of baking ingredients….

Here are some past photos:

Margie and I

The supplies

The finished product!

Chief cookie inspector

end of the night!

Quote for the day: “Think what a better world it would be if we all, the whole world, had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down on our blankets for a nap.” – Barbara Jordan

Liv2RV

Living and working around the country in a RV

Tag Archives: South Dakota

Orientation day at Crazy Horse

Initial impressions of the Black Hills

Odds and Ends