I Am a Motorcoach . . .

. . . with our third in a three-blog series on westward travels. This blog: South Dakota. But before getting to the SD content, there is something I just must share with you from a recent road trip. In Blog 56 (Wyoming) I educated you a little on one of my ancestors, the stagecoach. Well, I have a piece of follow-up ancestral education for you, an unexpected discovery with a much further reach into history than the stagecoach. The discovery happened like this:

While entering a parking lot at a scheduled lunch location . . .

“O look, the Flintstone Mobile!”

“The what-mobile?”

“The Flintstone Mobile! You don’t remember the Flintstones? Fred and Wilma, Barney and Betty . . . neighbors, best friends, long ago in the town of Bedrock?”

“O, can you pull over? I want to get a selfie!”

“Me too!”

“Me three!” (and so on, with abundant “yaba-daba-doo-oo-oo” enthusiasm)

“This is our mobile beginnings, the Stone Age predecessor to the automobile. Before horse power it was foot power.”

Selfies

(which by definition means I’m in them . . . though you might have to look for me)

So here it is, nothing to do with South Dakota or the West, but according to my passengers, a classic as far as selfies go. (Funny Pages Café, 1714 N Morley St., Moberly, MO)

MEETING THE NEWS on the roadways of America, first-hand, real time, real world news—going out and discovering the news . . .

STURGIS NEWS: No, we did not go to the famous motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, but we were in the state at the same time the event was taking place. And everywhere we went we saw some of the rally’s half-a-million attendees on their way to or from the super-size shindig. “Sturgis” got its start in 1938, a modest beginning with a few Indian Motorcycle enthusiasts going by the club name Jackpine Gypsies. Today, the town of around 6,600 residents hosts an annual ten-day motorcycle culture that draws cyclists from all over the world and brings in $800 million in revenues. The Badlands, the Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, and many other popular destinations in the state contribute to the location’s appeal.

BLACK HILLS GOLD NEWS: If your assumption is that Black Hills Gold is a special type of gold mined in the Black Hills, let me educate you. Originating from the Black Hills in story first, secondly by design, and thirdly by craft, the actual gold used in fashioning Black Hills Gold creations is mined elsewhere. The story is important. In the 1870’s a French dreamer, Henri LeBeau, who happened also to be a goldsmith, passed out somewhere in the Black Hills for lack of sustenance and dreamt of vines with golden grape clusters and leaves. That’s the essential beginning. So all Black Hills Gold must be based upon the grape clusters and leaves design of LeBeau origin. The design elements are typically a mixture of yellow gold, greenish gold (yellow gold alloyed with silver), and pink gold (yellow gold alloyed with copper). And finally, to be recognized officially as Black Hills Gold, the product must have been crafted in the Black Hills.

REASONS NEWS: Sculptor Gutzon Borglum designed and oversaw construction of Mount Rushmore, the internationally celebrated sculpture in Keystone, South Dakota. He had reasons for what he chose as location and subject. The project was originally the brain-child of South Dakota historian Doane Robinson, who envisioned heroic figures of the West – Lewis and Clark, Buffalo Bill Cody, or John C. Freemont – carved high into weathered rock formations in the Black Hills known as the Needles. After paying them a visit, Borglum rejected the Needles as too weathered and unstable for something truly grand. He rejected Robinson’s heroes as too regional. Born to Danish immigrant-pioneers, Borglum was deeply patriotic. He wanted to carve a bigger national celebration into the South Dakota hills. He chose a monolithic peak known by the name Mount Rushmore. It was of solid granite constitution worthy of monumental art. It was high above and separated from other peaks, making it inaccessible to potential vandals. And it faced southeast, assuring it would receive full sunlight during viewing hours of the day. Viewed with awe and admiration by nearly three million visitors a year, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln (from left to right), were chosen by Borglum as iconic leaders worthy of representing four distinct phases of US history: foundation (Washington), expansion (Jefferson), unification (Roosevelt), and preservation (Lincoln).

FLAG NEWS: Continuing the symbolism of the development of the United States at Mount Rushmore is the Avenue of Flags. In alphabetical order as guests approach Mount Rushmore are the flags of fifty states, one district, three territories, and two commonwealths – 56 in all.

(Unlike selfies, these are not about me, but about travel discoveries I think you’d like to know about.)

Wall DRUG. It’s a passenger thing. Can’t say I have much ability for its appreciation from the outside, but presumably, all things South Dakota and beyond are in there, including (and maybe most importantly) the 5-cent coffee.

Quote Of The Day samples

“Hence, let us place there carved high, as close to the heavens as we can, the words of our leaders, their faces, to show posterity what manner of men they were. Then breathe a prayer that these records will endure until wind and rain alone shall wear them away.” – Gutzon Borglum

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” – Theodore Roosevelt