Chris Loehmer Kincaid's Blog, page 17

Blandlands – Dakota Vacation blog post #20

Itotally get why they named this area of South Dakota the Badlands.

Buteven this herd of bison was bored.   

Maybethey should have called it the Boredlands. 

Orat least the Blandlands. 

Butseriously, since I took over a hundred pictures as we drove through, I musthave found something exciting here.

OrI was really just hoping to capture something more interesting than domesticatedcattle. 

Butit’s still possible to find beauty out of what appears to be nothing. And maybe I was just done with vacation by then.   

Journey – Dakota Vacation blog post #19

 Finally– our last full day in Rapid City, South Dakota, back in June! Appropriatelyenough to finish that part of our journey, we visited the Journey Museum. 

Aswe entered the museum, we were met with the night sky, perhaps the first viewof the South Dakota area, before there was solid ground, but there was a “Wheelin the Sky” and a thousand stars. 

Justaround the corner, we were meant with famous prehistoric creatures which firstroamed the area. The dinosaurs. “Don’t Stop Believing” that they reallyexisted. 

Thetopography of the Black Hills was just getting started. Those fascinating rockformations we saw along the Needles Highway? A place to find a “Stone in Love”,several million years ago.

Next,we learned about the earliest people in the Black Hills, the Clovis. 12,000years ago, they hunted ancient mammoths and created rock art “Any Way You WantIt” or they wanted it. 

TheLakota people, part of the Sioux Nation, ruled the Black Hills starting in the18th century. The Journey Museum is home to the Sioux Indian Collection andproof that “Still They Ride”. 

Fromthe Custer Expedition of 1874 to the Battle of Little Bighorn, the exhibitschronicle the western expansion of the 19th century. Some of those events weregood, but others left us asking “Who’s Crying Now”? 

In1972, the Black Hills Flood tragically took 238 lives. It was a lot to recoverfrom, but all the survivors were met with “Open Arms”. 

Sorry that this is sodumb. But this “Girl Can’t Help It” that this was so easy.

Our Freedom – Dakota Vacation blog post #18

If an army surrounds me, I will not beafraid. If war breaks out, I will trust the Lord. (Psalm 27:3, New CenturyVersion)

     Idid some research online for this one, but I decided to go with the memories mydad shared when I was a kid, the things I learned in German class in highschool, and news that happened in my lifetime. If you know for a fact that whatI write here is completely out in left field, please feel free to correct me.

Mydad, who was born in Germany just as World War I was breaking out, told me thatwhen the Allied Forces won that war, they really stuck it to the German people, expecting them to pay millions in reparations. This helped to win thepeople over to Hitler, as he started out by filling them with promises ofmaking Germany great again (Have I heard that somewhere else recently?).

Anyway,I know a lot of things go into declaration of any war, but those were just someof the things I grew up hearing. 

Andthen, Germany lost the second World War. This time the Allied countries of Russia,Great Britain, France, and the United States each claimed part of the countryof Germany as its own – in a way. They also divided the capital city of Berlininto four sectors, one for each of those countries.

Theidea was to temporarily take power away from Germany, so that it wouldn’t retaliateagain and also so that it would be forced to pay those reparations this time while stillrepairing damages made throughout the beautiful country during the war.

Afterfour years, Great Britain, France and the United States turned their segmentsof the country and the city of Berlin back over to Germany. But communist Russiasaid, “no, we’re keeping our parts of Germany so they can become wonderfulcommunists like us.”

By 1961, the East Germans were leaving East Berlin in such droves, that the Russians built a wall around West Berlin, not to keep them in, but to keep those wanting freedom from the communist regime from escaping.

Finally, in the fall of 1989, the Berlin Wall came down in a changing political climate and nearly a year later, East and West Germany were unified into one country again.   

There are segments of the Berlin Wall all over the world, over fifty pieces alone are in the United States, spread out over half of the states.

We got to see this section when we were in Rapid City, South Dakota in June.

It’s a solemn reminder of what war can do and how much we need to preserve our freedom. 

Ok, so some are dead in Deadwood – Dakota Vacation blog post #17

 

Afterdriving up and down Deadwood’s main street, we drove up to Mount MoriahCemetery to see what was happening there. 

Iwas floored that they charge a $2 admission. To a cemetery! Who ever heard ofsuch a thing, but it was only two bucks, and I suppose they get a lot of peoplewandering through just for the famous residents of the graveyard. 

Itwas a steep hike up to those graves – Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. 

Hubbymade it that far, then took up residence on a bench, while I continued towander. 

Iexplored about half of the cemetery, not hiking any further up the steep side.

Not Dead in Deadwood – Dakota Vacation blog post #16

 

Duringthe summer of 1874, General George Armstrong Custer led an expedition to theBlack Hills, planning to find a location to build a fort. Two prospectors joined the group, and on August 2, they discovered gold near what is now the city ofCuster, South Dakota.

Soon,prospectors came in droves to the southern hills. Then, in the fall of 1875, agold deposit was discovered in the northern Black Hills. Miners staked theirclaims and set up camp in a gulch full of dead trees, and the town of Deadwoodwas born. 

InApril 1876, the city of Deadwood was officially laid out.

Dancehalls, gambling establishments, saloons, and brothels were constructed on bothsides of Main Street, causing this area to be known as the “Bad Lands” ofDeadwood.

Overthe following few years, Deadwood was hit with three major fires, a flood, andother hardships, pushing it to the verge of becoming another Old West ghosttown.

Somehow,the town managed to survive. Today, Deadwood could be your tourist destinationfor all the Black Hills offers. Or, if you’re more like my husband and me, it’san interesting town to drive through.

A Few Proverbs

        Proverbs 14, Verse 34 - Doing what is right makes anation great, but sin will bring disgrace to many people. (New Century Version)

In my Friday morning Bible group, we studied chapter14 of Proverbs this week. Lots of good verses in there, and I thought I wouldjust share a few today.

        Verse 21 - It’s criminal to ignore a neighbor in need,but compassion for the poor—what a blessing! (The Message)

        Verse 22 - Those who make evil plans will be ruined, butthose who plan to do good will be loved and trusted. (NCV)

        Verse 11 - The work of the wicked will perish; thework of the godly will flourish. (Living Bible)

        Verse 31 - Anyone who oppresses the poor is insultingGod who made them. To help the poor is to honor God. (LB)

There are thirty more chapters in the book ofProverbs, all containing verses just as applicable to all of us today.

(Oh, and the picture above is of Bridal Veil Falls in the Black Hills. I still had to slip in our trip to South Dakota here.)

Not Rough At All – Dakota Vacation blog post #15

Oneday we finally saw something new in South Dakota. And it was worth the seventypictures I snapped. I wish we would have stayed there longer than an hour andexplored more.

 Roughlock Falls is an absolutely beautiful place along the Little Spearfish Creek, about fifteen miles south of Spearfish.

There is a developed walking trail along the water, but it didn’t feel too developed. There were also a fair number of people, but not so many to be intrusive.

Many gentle rapids and small waterfalls until you get farther downstream where the main falls is – called the Upper Falls. I couldn’t find anywhere just how tall it was, but Hubby and I guessed around thirty or forty feet.

But that wasn’t all. Just a little further downstream, the water veers all over a twenty-foot-wide swath, tumbling down in little rivulets. Like something out of Middle Earth.

With all that beauty, don't forget to still look up. Amazing place. 

Been there, Done that – Dakota Vacation blog post #14

Ifyou’ve been to the Black Hills of South Dakota, you’ve surely driven along theNeedles Highway. 

 It’s cool, but another one of those once and done deals. How many times have I ridden this windy road? 

The tunnels scare me to death, 

even the one where a Storm Trooper was standing guard.

And way out there, past this tunnel, what is that in the distance.

Oh, but first we stopped at Norbeck Overlook, named for Peter Norbeck. He was a governor and US senator of South Dakota, who lived from 1870 to 1936. He was instrumental in development of Needles Highway, Badlands National Park, Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore, and more.

I guess that gives it away.

Yet another – “been there, done that”. 

Never Give Up, Never Quit – Dakota Vacation blog post #13

Now you should finish what you started.Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving.Give in proportion to what you have. (2 Corinthians 8:11, New LivingTranslation)

1969was the first year I traveled through South Dakota. My sister Pat and I werecamping with our parents, heading to Yellowstone, but they took the time todrive through the Black Hills.

Ican’t remember much – I was seven years old for heaven sakes! But I have someof the black and white photos and the home movies from the 8mm camera. The mostprized possession, though, is Dad’s Camping Log.

Anyway,that was the first time I saw Crazy Horse, and it didn’t look much differentthan the picture above, which I took further down the road on the Needles highway this June. And they’dstarted work on it in 1947!

Thehuge mountain carving still has a way to go. I don’t think it will be finishedin my lifetime.

Butit is still a reminder to finish what we start, no matter how long it takes. Whateveryou do, put your trust in the Lord and never give up.

So we do not give up. Our physical body isbecoming older and weaker, but our spirit inside us is made new every day. (2Corinthians 4:16, New Century Version)

 

A Couple of Herds and Some Kind Strangers - Dakota Vacation blog post #12

Yes, I’m still writing about our vacationout west in June. Seems we did way more than I thought we did at the time. Today,I’ll tell you about two wildlife encounters which happened thanks to kind strangers.

First, we were driving along the paved roadof Custer State Park when a car came off of the dirt road to the right and thedriver was waving at us like crazy.

We stopped to listen and he said thatthere were thousands of buffalo back up the road they had just came down.

We thanked them and hung a sharp right.

          After driving about ten minutes, wecame over a ridge and saw maybe twenty buffalo off to the left.  

          Okay, nice to see them, but it wasn’tclose to thousands.     

          Aftera few dozen pictures, we continued and drove over the next hill.      

          Ah ha. This was where the herd of thousandswas grazing. Well, still maybe not thousands, but certainly hundreds. 

       And lots and lots of adorable calves. 

          And this guy. Not sure where he camefrom; he’s just trying to fit in. 

      We finally got through the herd and drove another 10 or 15 minutes to where the road narrowed with hills on both sides, sparse trees sprinkled about. An SUV with Michigan plates was stopped in front of us, looking at something. We couldn’t tell what, but we stopped behind them and just kept looking too.

          I took random pictures up the hillside, hoping my camera would catch what I could not. 

          Eventually, another vehicle came from the other direction and the first folks flagged them down. Hubby crawled out of our Honda at that point and asked what they were looking at. 

            A herd of elk were on the top of the ridge. Knowing now what I was looking for and where, I was able to zoom in on them with my camera and catch them, while hanging out the sunroof. 

          Scrolling back through my previous pictures, yes, I captured them then as well, but pretty out of focus. And does it count if I can’t see what I’m taking pictures of?