On the Road US

The Magnificent Beasts of Burning Man 2023 and How Bone Caused the Rain Storm… Art 2

/ Curt Mekemson / 21 Comments
This handsome fellow is Chacc, the Mayan Rain God. Nice tongue. Peggy and I met him before when we were on our honeymoon in Mexico back in the early 90s. We spent the night in a motel next to the ancient Mayan ruins of Chichén Itzá and went out to visit him and other gods after all the tourists had left. They were carved in stone. According to legend, Chacc lived in a cenote next to the ruins. (Cenotes are natural wells created by the collapse of overlying limestone.) In times of drought, human sacrifices would be tossed into the well to appease whatever was irritating him and bring rain.
Here’s Chacc standing tall at Burning Man 2023. Miguel Guzman from Mexico City and lyvone Khoo from Singapore created the sculpture. Since there weren’t any cenotes around in the Black Rock Desert to throw human sacrifices into, we figured that the bowl on the stand in front was a substitute.
The ever curious (and mischievous) Bone decided to see if Chacc would accept him as a sacrifice.
Apparently, the answer was yes. Chacc grabbed Bone up quickly in his long, bony fingers. You know the rest of the story. It rained in the desert for three days and stuck 70,000 Burners in the mud— becoming world-wide news. The moral of this story is watch what you ask for. Bone has been very quiet about his role. Somewhere, maybe down in his cenote, Chacc is laughing. (Note: For those of you who aren’t familiar with Bone, I’m posting an updated interview done with him in the past in conjunction with today’s post.)
While we are on focusing on the gods of Ancient Mexico, I should also include this version of the Aztec god, Quetzalcóatl, the Feathered Serpent, by the Crescent Art Collective/Lisa Regan & Ley Brashka from Coahuila, Mexico & Tulsa, OK. Among his several roles, he was patron god of the Aztec Priesthood.
Here’s another great beast. An RV with legs perhaps? I’m thinking it would make a great off-road vehicle.
Getting in and out might be a little challenging.
The artist, Walker Babington from New Orleans, had more than a house on legs with his creation, however. From the front, his sculpture became a buffalo with the house serving as his torso. Both the house and the buffalo were made of materials repurposed from structures and trees that had been destroyed by hurricanes in New Orleans.
Babington titled his work “Burden of the Beast” and says his work “symbolizes the task of relocating one’s intrinsic understanding of ‘home.'” The forces of nature magnified by global warming will require more and more of us to pick up the pieces of our homes and lives and move on to higher and safer ground. Migration may become a way of life.
Meet Axototl Frequency, a 2023 Burning Man artwork created by Gio Mantis & Elana Novali from Mexico City.
Axolotl is modeled after an endangered salamander that can be only be found in one place, Lake Xochimilco near Mexico City. We think it’s cute. According to Mantis and Novali, “These art pieces aim to express the importance of protecting this endangered animal…” One thing that helps assure their continued existence is they are quite popular as pets. I want one.
One of my all time favorite group of artists at Burning Man is the Flaming Lotus Girls out of San Francisco who are known for their imaginative creatures that light up the night skies of Burning Man in strange and wonderful ways. This was one of several sculptures we found together on the Playa. We wondered if they were plants, animals or machines. The Flaming Lotus Girls claimed that they were a bit of all three, evolving. Unfortunately, due to the rain, we never got to see them flaming at night.
Leaves or wings? A flower head or an animal head?
Not a creature I would like to meet at night shooting out flames. (Actually, I would have.)
A photo I took of a dragon created by the Flaming Lotus Girls at Burning Man 2015.
Zea Narvaez from Portland, Oregon urged viewers to face and love their beasts in a series of sculptures arranged in a circle with each one different and with a mirror. Peggy caught this photo of me next to my favorite. “Damn,” I told Peggy when we were reviewing our photos after Burning Man, “the beast marked me.” I swear, it was the first and only time I noticed the claw marks on my chest! Reflected Playa dust on the mirror? Maybe.
Mainly we took selfies, as Peggy is here. If that isn’t a form of “Loving Thy Beast,” what is? Speaking of possible beasts, do you see that sculpture in the distance on the right in the far distance? We hopped on our bikes to check it out.
“Well, I have an idea what it might be,” I told Peggy.
“You are looking at it wrong,” Peggy told me. Oh. “Tip of the Iceberg” is what Melissa “Syn” Barron from Oakland & Big Sur, CA calls her sculpture. The comment was “Monumentalizing this misunderstood & mysterious piece of anatomy, we hope our sculpture will educate, empower, & honor its rightful place in biology.” Right.
You are looking at an ‘invisible Trojan Unicorn’ according to artists, Invisible Pink Unicorns from Los Angeles. It’s certainly pink and a unicorn. Here’s what the artists had to say, “Given the challenge of getting the tickets, we invited the easiest and cheapest way to get to Burning Man – inside the Trojan unicorn. Please come and check if it is open and if we successfully get out to the Playa and are not trapped inside (and help us get out if we are still in)!” My money would have been on Burning Man Org blocking free entry into the event. They are a lot tougher than the Trojans were! Grin. They even checked the bathroom in our trailer to make sure we weren’t trying to slip someone in! Little did they know about the trap door on our black water tank. Heh, heh. Just kidding.
I’ll conclude with this fun winged beast I couldn’t find any information on. Next up, I’ll feature a Hedge Hog from Ukraine made from tank traps and other fun animals including a giant bear and a bunny.

From Mythical Winged Creatures to Void Bunnies…The Art of Burning Man 2023 Part 1

/ Curt Mekemson / 13 Comments

Reaching toward the sky, this beautiful winged creature rises above the Playa of Burning Man 2023. The Man, with his red pants, can be seen in the background.

“Burning Man is unique in the world. Hard to describe how incredible it is for those who have never been. Best art on Earth.” –Elon Musk

Elon Musk came to Burning Man this year along with a number of other luminaries. I don’t agree with him on a number of things, but I do admire his creativity and willingness to think big. We were more than happy to use Starlink on our remote property in Oregon. And I think that his description of Burning Man is relatively accurate. I’ve been arguing for years that it features some of the world’s best art being produced now. My first venture out to the event in Nevada’s Black Desert was in 2004. I’ve been back 12 times since and Peggy has been with me 9 of those times. Art is the primary reason we return.

Our time to explore the Playa and Black Rock City was limited this year. We came in on Monday afternoon, a day after Burning Man opened, and saw everything shut down on Friday because of the rain. We were left with just over 3 days to hike and bike our way through the art. Peggy and I photographed over 50 pieces that I will share with you over our next 5-6 posts. Sadly, that left a lot of art we didn’t see. My apology to the artists.

“Touch the Sky” was created by Martin Taylor and Chromaforms out of Oakland, CA. He describes it as “a sculpture of a mythical winged creature with the head of a human preparing to take flight.” He also notes, it “serves as a visual metaphor for taking leaps of faith to achieve our dreams and fly.”
This photo provides a comparison between “Touch the Sky” in the day with the sculpture at night.
A close up of “Touch the Sky.” Taylor noted that the sculpture “is outlined by geometric tattoo-like perforations that accentuate the shape of the body and emit light at night.”
I’m featuring metallic art from Burning Man 2023 in this post. Meet Anya of “Anya and the Void Bunnies.” The artist is Steffin Griswold from Minneapolis, MN. Griswold’s description is “Visiting dignitaries from beyond space and time receive a gift from the heart of fire.” Anya is a fire goddess. While we didn’t get a photo of her at night, flames emerge from her hands.
Here are the void bunnies from outer space, waiting patiently for their gift of fire. Sorry guys, you will have to wait until dark.
A close up of a void bunny with his bunny ears and bunny tail.
A frontal shot of Anya. The dark spots on her hands and heart are what emit the flames. You can see the tubes leading from her heart that connect to a propane tank.
And finally, Anya and the void bunnies together. She’s got a pretty good tail and ears of her own! The Temple of Babel, which I will feature later, can be seen in the background.
This handsome turtle sculpture by Mark Dill from Fleming Island, FL is titled “Journey of the Aquatic.”
Here’s the underside. Mark says the sculpture is “5 times life size of a loggerhead turtle. It is meant to express the joy and wonder of seeing turtles in the ocean. As well as the fragility of the turtles’ lives and the dangers to their existence. I was snorkeling once on the island of Hawaii and came on a sea turtle that I started to follow. My ‘joy and wonder’ were so strong that I ran head on into a fishing boat!”
You may have noticed the flying horse, or Pegasus, behind the first turtle picture. Titled “Wings of Glory,” this is his second trip to Burning Man. He is a magnificent creature that runs and flies slowly on his pedestal above the Playa. The artist, Adrian Landon, hails from Reno, Nevada, so Pegasus had a short flight to get back to the Black Rock Desert. Peggy and I watched him strut his stuff, a truly magical creature, a myth come to life.
Wings down, Pegasus continues to fly.
My first thought was of strange but attractive looking nuts piled on top of each other when I first saw this sculpture by the L’Attitude Collective from Petaluma, CA. Imagine my surprise when I learned it was a Complexahedron. A ‘what’ you say. Here’s how the artists described it: A shrine to commemorate the moment when unicellular eukaryotes began to aggregate and become one. Now you know, right. Grin. Petaluma, BTW, is home to a number of Burning Man’s top artists creating impressive works year after year.
Bicycling around it, I discovered it had a face. And the sculpture in front holding what I assume is a smaller Complexahedron. I took a closeup.
A muscular woman is holding the Complexahedron up in the air, like Atlas, or possibly giving birth to it out of her head/brain, creating early life.
Wizard, and I’ll assume that is his Burning Man name (I’m Outlaw), hails from Oakland, California. He describes it as looking like “a 12 foot silver donut.” This was our day for dust storms on the Playa.
Stainless steel, curved tubes wrap around each other and form the body of the donut.
Here is OHM at night.
While I couldn’t find the name of the artist who created this piece, I’ve always liked mobile art ever since I was introduced to the work of Alexander Calder. I’ll wrap up this post here. Next art post: The Fantastic Beasts of Burning Man 2023.

The Man, the Temple— and an Orientation: Burning Man 2023

/ Curt Mekemson / 33 Comments
Photo of Man at Burning Man 2023 by Curt Mekemson.
The Man has served as the symbol for Burning Man since its very beginning in 1986 when Larry Harvey and Jerry James built a stick man to celebrate the summer solstice at Baker Beach in San Francisco. His fate was preordained. He would burn. And, like the Phoenix, he rose again the next year and has been doing so ever since. Here, the 2023 version of the Man is emerging from a dust storm, which is much more common than the rain that captured the world’s attention this past week.

Burning Man always opens at 12 AM on Sunday morning in late August to begin its weeklong celebration of art, music, and lots of other things and ends on Labor Day Weekend. Peggy and I have never joined the midnight madness but we usually do make it in at a more reasonable hour on Sunday. This year we were busy in Sacramento catching up with family and friends so we went in on Monday. The result was that we ended up out in the boondocks of Black Rock City at 5:30 and J street, or Jackalope as J was named this year. Only one street was beyond us, Kraken.

Each year, the powers that be at Burning Man pick a theme for the year that serves as the base for the street names and much of the art. This year it was Animalia, representing the “animal world and our place in it.” The photo below shows the street names.

I took this photo from the map of Burning Man we were given when we entered. The small blue numbers off to the right are the distance from the Man. We were at 5800 feet, over a mile away! The white numbers in black represent art installations. I knew what Jackalope, Kraken and Bigfoot were. My memory of Dingbat was what Archie called his wife in the TV series All in the Family. I had to look the rest up. How about you? The Esplanade is Black Rock City’s Main Street and retains its name every year. It separates Black Rock City from the open Playa.
This is the official map of Burning Man 2023, which was home to over 70,000 people. On the top left side, you will see a blue triangle that I added. That was where we lived on Jackalope. The Man is at the center of the map. The small circle south of it is the Temple. Note all of the art installations! The city is organized on a grid pattern with the streets heading toward the Man numbered clockwise and the intersecting streets organized by alphabet and name. Not shown here, is the extent of the Playa that extends much farther to the south.

Our focus today is on the Man and the Temple, which are two locations that almost all Burners visit. But first I want to post one more photo of our ‘escape’ from Black Rock City on Sunday which we found after our last post. Unknown to us, a photo/video was taken of us exiting Burning Man that ended up being shown on NBC 26 news out of Green Bay, Wisconsin (and I suspect other media outlets.) This was the last stream we crossed just before reaching the paved road. It gives a new meaning to ‘streaming media.’ I’m glad I couldn’t see us doing this in real time— and even more glad that Peggy couldn’t. LOL. 

Peggy found this photo of us escaping from Burning Man 2023 posted on the ImagineMKE17 Trailer Facebook page.

One of the first things we do when we arrive at Burning Man is head out to see the Man and Temple. Usually it’s by bike. But the crank on my rented bike was being cranky, so we walked. The following photos represent our journey. They were all taken by either Peggy or me.

The Man was surrounded by a beehive-like structure that was in line with the Animalia theme. This photo also places the Man in his dramatic backdrop of the Black Rock Desert.
A close up of the beehive with the Man in the background. Note the object dangling from the beehive.
It served as Burning Man’s concept of a wind chime. Grin.
The ground level of the beehive included xylophones that people could play!

Leaving the Man we hiked out another half mile to the Temple. We’d revisit the Man at night. Our hike out to the temple was delayed:

By this dust storm. No kidding, this is what a Burning Man dust storm looks like. The wisest thing to do is just hunker down and wait for it to blow over. Not doing so will get you lost. Peggy and I once spent over two hours along with at least a thousand other Burners trying to find our way home when we had been to an event way out by the fence on the outer edge of the Playa. When we could finally see the the Man, we discovered that we had walked in a huge circle. Thankfully, Burning Man keeps a fence around the area. Otherwise, we might still be wandering. Or worse.
The Temple finally began to emerge from the dust storm.
The Temple is a special, sacred site for Burning Man participants. Thousands leave messages to loved ones, friends, and even pets who have passed on. Several are shown on the front here. When the Temple burns at the end of the event, the messages are released to the sky, giving a degree of closure to those who left the messages.
Year after year the Burning Man organization and volunteers design and build beautiful temples, each one unique.

As I mentioned above, Peggy and I revisited the Man at night. In addition to being a symbol of the event, the Man serves as a beacon for Burners. As shown on the map above, three major routes that are lined with lamp posts lead out to the Man from Black Rock City . During dust storms Peggy and I tend to stay on the routes since the posts provide valuable landmarks.

The Man can be seen from anywhere on the Playa or Black Rock City. It is lit up at night and even more special than it is during the day.
The beehive begins to come into focus as we neared the Man. The bright square is the Xylophone.
A close up of the beehive that I thought was pretty cool.
These lit steps provided a pathway into the structure under the Man. They turned red when someone stepped on them.
A final view of the 2023 Man for this post. Our next blog will begin featuring the great art from this year. You won’t want to miss it.

A Stroll through an Egyptian Market Place, Burning Man, and a Break from Blogging

/ Curt Mekemson / 28 Comments

St. Cloud, Minnesota: Right now, Peggy and I are on one of our wandering adventures, rambling across North America, rarely knowing where we will be the next day. Long experience with a nomadic lifestyle has taught me that one gathers a lot of blog material when out on the open road. It has also taught me that there isn’t a lot of time to blog. (There are reasons why nomadic societies rarely create great civilizations.) So rather than try to pound the proverbial round peg into a square hole (which is what I usually do), I’ve decided to take a break from blogging for a couple of months. Peggy and I will be back in September with tales of our trip to Burning Man 2023. The tickets are in the mail!

“Hello Curtis Mekemson!

We are excited to let you know that your Burning Man 2023 Animalia tickets were shipped…”

Oh boy, we get to go be animals— we are excited as well! It’s been a while since we have been to the mind bending experience that takes place in a remote Nevada Desert the last week in August. Expect some fun posts. In the meantime, we will sign off WP today with a walk through the Aswan, Egypt market.

We started our visit to the market with a stop at an exotic spice market…
Where they served us Jasmine tea and bread…
Along with a selection of their spices to sample.
Out in the market place, spices were being sold in a less formal (and less expensive) form. The dark spices on top are Jasmine buds. Want spicy hot? The small red peppers up front will provide it!
Not so hot, but good. I’m a big fan of yams. Yum. Peggy isn’t.
Since the market is only a couple of blocks away from where riverboats are docked, tourist items featuring Ancient Egyptian themes could be expected.
But there were also more African based themes such as these masks. Aswan marks the beginning of Nubia, much of which was drowned out by the Aswan Dam and Lake Nasser.
African sculptures were available as well. They remind me of what peddlers would bring by my house when I was a Peace Corp Volunteer in Liberia, West Africa.
The Bush Devil that I brought home with me from West Africa and featured on the front cover of my book is an example. If you are missing me over the next two months (grin), you can download my book and read it. The book will take you from the craziness of UC Berkeley and the student revolution of the 60s to the jungles of West Africa. Just Google “The Bush Devil Ate Sam” and various sources will be listed.
Most of the items were to meet the needs of the local population, however. Like these chicken cages, for example.
Looks like a serious sewing machine to me. Does your sole need to be saved?
Or do you need a new robe? Had this man not been standing while being fitted for a robe, I would have thought we were looking at a butcher market complete with a butcher block. Maybe it had been repurposed…
Women in Aswan are likely to be dressed in the traditional Muslem garb featured for sale here. Third from the left represents the most conservative.
But we also found a pair of teenage girls strolling through the market on the Nile who were a reminder of the ubiquitous nature of modern culture, right down to cell phones.

That does it for today. As always, Peggy and I appreciate your following Wandering through Time and Place and truly enjoy the friendships we have made along the way and the great blogs you share. We will see you in September!

Since we’ve been posting on Egypt, here’s a sign for The Elvis Wedding Chapel at Burning Man 2014. We will return to our Egypt and National Park posts in September as well as blogging about Burning Man where I have gone 13 times and Peggy 10.

Curt and Peggy

Big Foot’s Big Foot… South Dakota Wrap-up

/ Curt Mekemson / 25 Comments

There is lots to see and do in western South Dakota. I have written about it in ten posts over the past few months. We visited there last fall starting with Badlands National Park. I’m doing a wrap-up today with a few of the things we saw that didn’t fit in my other posts. Let’s start with Big Foot. All photos in this post were taken by either Peggy or me.

First up, is the World’s Largest Bigfoot, which is located in the small town of Keystone, South Dakota, located 4 miles away from Mt. Rushmore. It’s one of a number of interesting carvings at Dahl’s Chainsaw Art.
As you probably know, Peggy and I have a thing for Bigfoot. The world’s only Bigfoot trap was located about 3 miles from where we lived in Oregon. We found this fellow in Custer, South Dakota. Judging from the look, it appears that Bigfoot has a thing for Peggy as well. Should I be jealous? But what about the creature on top of his head? Your guess is as good as mine, but I think I don’t have to be worried about a guy who walks around with an octopus as his hat.
Here’s the big fellow in Dahl’s Chainsaw Art yard.
He looks friendly. Big smile, crinkly eyes. And the beard would make a fabulous nest for a very large bird. But the question here is how big is Bigfoot’s foot? I came across a fresh print once about 18 inches long and three inches deep that had me thinking, “Bigfoot running.” It was blurry, however. Most things Bigfoot are.
Nothing blurry about this…
Bigfoot children were also found at Dahl’s playing on a carousel. There is a good chance that Bigfoot kids are born with beards, including girls.
Not Bigfoot. But hey, it’s the 4th of July weekend and what’s more patriotic than a motorcycle carved as an eagle? Just ask a biker. A bald eagle and a flag are shown in the background just in case there’s any question. Happy Fourth! This bike is symbolic of an even more important event to Bikers: The Sturgis Rally, South Dakota’s top tourist event and one of the largest motorcycle rallies in the world. Sturgis is just 50 miles away from Keystone. I’ve never been to a rally, but it is just quirky enough, I would be tempted if I were around in August.
While we are on “BIG,” this is reported to be the World’s largest Smokey the Bear. Also made by the Dahl brothers, it is located in Hill City, South Dakota. My favorite model demonstrates the size.
Close up of Smokey Bear’s face.
Hill City also housed the Museum of the Black hills Institute that Peggy and I did a post on. Not surprisingly, it had a pterodactyl on top.
We also found this beautiful horse sculpture in Hill City. It reminded Peggy and me of similar sculptures at Burning Man, where we will be in two months.

And finally, to conclude:

A girly girl squirrel/prairie dog…
A buff, boy buffalo…
And Peggy with her new alien friend that we found at Devil’s tower.

Next Monday’s post will take us back to Egypt and our journey up the Nile where we find ourselves in Luxor at the Temple of Karnak.

The Ghost of Crazy Horse

/ Curt Mekemson / 43 Comments

The Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota is a huge sculpture carved out of granite that is about 1/3 finished after 75 years of work. We visited it last fall on our three month trip around the US. All photos in this post are taken by either Peggy or me unless otherwise noted.

I was taking a reflection shot of the Crazy Horse Memorial in the window of the Laughing Water Restaurant when I got this interesting double reflection. I decided to call it Crazy Horse’s Ghost.

If you are visiting Mt. Rushmore, a trip over to the Crazy Horse Memorial is also worth doing. It’s not far— a distance of 17 miles that shouldn’t take more than 30 minutes to drive. In ways, the memorial was built as an answer to the presidential monuments. As the Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear noted when he contacted the sculpture, Korczak Ziolkowski, “My fellow chiefs and I would like the white man to know that the red man has great heroes, too.”

Standing Bear also believed that the Black Hills were an appropriate place to build the memorial because they are a sacred area to American Indians. I first became aware of this perspective several years ago when I read the book, Black Elk Speaks. Written by the poet and writer John G. Neihardt, as told to him by the Ogalala Lakota medicine man Nicholas Black, the book captures Black Elk’s vision of the unity of humankind and the earth.  The book takes the reader back in time to the vanishing culture of American Indians, but also contains a powerful message for people today. It has sold over one million copies. As Black Elk completed his story to Neihardt, he pointed to Harney Peak and identified it as where his vision took place. Harney Peak, located between Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial, has now been renamed Black Elk Peak.

As for Crazy Horse, he definitely fits the definition of being one of the great heroes of American Indians and is recognized alongside other well-known leaders such as Geronimo, Red Cloud, Tecumseh, Sitting Bull and Cochise. Born in 1842 near present day Rapid City, his father was also an Oglala Lakota medicine man. His mother was a Brule Lakota and the sister of Spotted Tail, a noted war chief who later became a statesman traveling to Washington several times on behalf of the Lakota.

Crazy Horse was raised at a time when white treasure hunters had discovered gold in the Black Hills and were invading the area, breaking treaties that had ceded the land to the Lakota/Sioux. It was also a time when the once abundant buffalo herds were being methodically wiped out and the various tribes being forced on to reservations, threatening both their freedom and way of life. Not surprisingly, the Indians fought back, and Crazy Horse played a key role in this resistance, eventually leading up to and including the Battle of Little Bighorn. 

As a young man, he went on a vision quest where he had a dream of a rider in a storm with long flowing hair who instructed him that he was not to wear a war bonnet or take scalps in battle. As the storm faded, a red backed hawk flew over the head of the rider. His father interpreted the dream to mean that Crazy Horse would be a great leader in battle, which turned out to be true. He died in a scuffle when he was being led to a stockade and a soldier bayoneted him on September 5th, 1877.

There are no known photos of Chief Crazy Horse who worried that a photograph might capture his spirit. This wood carving was done by Korczak Ziolkowski from descriptions given to him by people who had fought beside Crazy Horse.
This photo at the Crazy Horse Memorial is from a 1948 reunion of the survivors of the 1876 Battle of Little Bighorn. They would have fought alongside Chief Crazy Horse. Seated from left to right in the photo, they are Little Warrior, Pemmican, Little Soldier, Dewey Beard, John Sitting Bull, High Eagle, Iron Hawk, and Comes Again. (Photograph by Bill Groethe.)

When Chief Standing Bear contacted the sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski in the early 1940s on behalf of the Lakota chiefs, Ziolkowski agreed to take on the project. He moved to the Black Hills in 1947 to locate an appropriate place for the monument and kicked off the carving in 1948. It is still on-going today, 75 years later. Ziolkowski continued the work until he died in 1982 when the project was taken over by his wife, Ruth. When she passed on, her children and grandchildren continued building the monument. Today the effort is overseen by the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation. As of now, only the face has been completed and stands at 87 feet tall. His outstretched arm, which is presently being worked on, is 263 feet long. His finger will be 29 feet long. The horse will stand 219 feet high, the mane 62 feet high, and the ears 54 feet long. 

This painting of Korczak Ziolkowski is located at the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Feelings among the Lakota are mixed. Many see it as the memorial it was meant to be, celebrating Crazy Horse and American Indians. Some, however, believe it does not recognize Crazy Horse’s humility and is as much, or more, a memorial to Ziolkowski and his family. Whatever the conclusion, it has kept the Ziolkowski family gainfully employed down through the decades and generations.

Peggy and I camped out at a small but gorgeous campground no more the a half mile away from the Crazy Horse Memorial. This shot provides a distant view from the campground road. The hole is located under what will be Crazy Horse’s arm. The horses head can be seen in a dim outline on the lower front.
This close up which includes workers beneath Crazy Horse’s head provides a perspective on size.
This working model of the memorial by Korczak Ziolkowski is located outside of the museum and gift store.
A side view of the working model.
And a bronze model, also by Korczak Ziolkowski.
A museum included as part of the memorial includes numerous Indian works of art and artifacts. I was intrigued (and amused) by this piece from Alaska.
I’ll conclude with this painting of Ziolkowski at work on the Memorial. The painting is located in the Memorial’s museum.

Next Monday it’s back to Egypt and the pyramids, sphinx and camels of Giza.

There Be Monsters Out There…

/ Curt Mekemson / 28 Comments

And no, I’m not talking about the two legged type so prominent in today’s world. They’re too scary for this blog. I’m talking about the behemoths that wandered the world between 65 and 245 million years ago. The small display area of Black Hills Institute in Hill City, South Dakota is packed full of them. If you have children, be sure to take them there. They will love it. Heck, if you don’t have kids, take yourself! Peggy and I visited as part of our three month road trip last fall.

Can you imagine any more dinosaurs or replicas being packed into a small display area?

Peggy and I didn’t know what to expect when we visited the small dinosaur museum in Hill City, South Dakota. It’s located maybe 30 minutes away from Mt. Rushmore and not much more from Custer State Park. We had some time to kill, so why not. What we found was an absolute delight. Normally I take museums seriously, carefully noting what I am seeing and photographing. Not this time. While the museum is worthy of such attention, it was so crammed full I wouldn’t have known where to start. So Peggy and I just wandered around admiring big teeth and taking photos. Following are the results. Enjoy.

Definitely not taking dinosaurs as seriously as one should. I included this photo of Peggy shoving her head in a T-Rex’s mouth in an earlier post. We made sure no museum personnel were in the room or T-Rexes were hurt, but it’s probably on surveillance tape.
This would have been a good scene for the “Night at the Museum” movies. Imagine them all coming alive. It would be great for a nightmare as well.
My, what big fangs you have. Okay, I get how these chompers might frighten a potential dinner to death, but how good are they when it comes to eating the meal?
These would be better for chewing. The head looks like you could hit it with a baseball bat and not do much damage. Run!
And check out how these teeth lean backward. Once you were in this mouth, it was a one way street. There was no way out except through the stomach.
And one certainly wouldn’t want to face these teeth! Has me thinking about Sobek, the crocodile god of Egypt.
Maybe smaller teeth work if you have lots of them with a serrated edge— and cool armor. But enough on toothy set. Now on to some of the marvelous creations of nature that prefer eating green things.
Even if you were a vegetarian, you would want protection from those who weren’t.
A good old-fashioned goring might do the trick.
Or possibly just looking weird and being hard to digest would suffice.
A final shot of flying, leaping and running! It’s no wonder our small precursor mammals were good at hiding and waited for a ‘miracle’ meteor to wipe out the competition.

That does it for today. Next Monday we will be back in Egypt visiting one of Egypt’s first pyramids.

In-Spiring Rocks Stand Tall; Narrow Tunnels Squeeze…The Needles Highway of Custer SP

/ Curt Mekemson / 35 Comments

It’s impossible not to feel awe when traveling through the towering Cathedral Spires of South Dakota’s Custer State Park. They so impressed Peter Norbeck, the governor of the state from 1917-21, that he personally scoped out a route on foot and horseback that would feature the best views. Known as the Needles Highway, it’s also famous for its narrow tunnels hewn out from the granite rock. We visited Custer State Park on our RV trip around North America last fall. All photos in the blog are taken by either Peggy or me unless otherwise noted.

They tower above Custer State Park, silent sentinels made of granite. Once they were chosen as the site for the presidential carvings that dominate the nearby Mt. Rushmore, but the granite lacked the solid mass that was needed. It may have been a gift, given their outstanding beauty. While I like Mt. Rushmore, I prefer these rocks au naturel.
Photo along the Needles Highway of Custer State Park by photographer Peggy Mekemson.
Visitors to the Cathedral Spires of Custer State Park wind their way through the granite pillars on a narrow, curvy road that barely accommodates two larger vehicles on sections.
The road provides up close and personal views of the granite monuments.
Every spire has its own personality.
Towering spires like this gave the Needles Highway its name.
Rock garden with breaching whale?
Rock climbers look for challenging rock faces to scramble up in the Cathedral Spires. Peggy and I just looked for faces.
Our active imaginations have no problem finding them… The nose, small mouth below it, eyes above, and baseball cap gave away this fellow. (There’s a chance he had a duck billed platypus on his head instead of a cap.)
This photo illustrates just how narrow tunnels are along the Needles Highway of South Dakota's Custer State Park.
Part of the fun of the Needles Highway is maneuvering along the narrow, curvy road. The tunnels bordered on scary. This sign announced that one tunnel was 8 feet, zero inches across. Our truck is 8 feet, zero inches across! Fortunately, our mirrors folded in by 7 inches on each side. I had 14 inches to squeeze our large F-150 through. Woohoo! I almost peed my pants. My normally talkative driving advisor was strangely silent. She may have been praying.
Beware, all ye who enter here! Once you start, there is no backing out.
The ‘light at the end of the tunnel.’ The road snaked off to the left.
Even this larger square tunnel seemed skinny.
I thought this photo was interesting. I didn’t spot the colorful abstract until I was processing our photos. It’s a reflection off the hood of our truck showing the exit and road of the square tunnel. At least that’s what I assumed it was. Maybe it was a gateway to another world with a monster bird hoping to dine on Curt and Peggy a la carte.
I’ll conclude today with two more photos. This one with its gnarly old dead tree…
And a closer view of the ‘Cathedral Spires.’

Next Monday, May 15, Peggy and I will be back in Egypt with a trip out to the ancient city of Memphis, near Cairo, where we will visit the colossal statue of Ramses II lying down, and then return to Cairo for a tour of the Museum of Egypt, which was out the back door from our hotel. There will be more of the history of Ancient Egypt, some treasures from the tomb of King Tutankhamen, a cow goddess, and much more. (So much that I may turn it into two posts.)

The Monday after that, May 22, we will take you on a tour of even more colossal monuments than Egypt has, the presidents on Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota. It’s located 10-15 miles north of today’s post on the Needles Highway.

Custer City… Where the Buffalo Roam in Town

/ Curt Mekemson / 47 Comments

Given that 2,000 buffalo roam on the outskirts of Custer City, South Dakota, it’s not surprising that the town has a buffalo fixation. We found one on every corner!

Photo of colorful buffalo sculpture in Custer City, SD was taken by photographer Peggy Mekemson.
This colorful creature was one of many buffalo sculptures we found in Custer City.

Over the past several years, Peggy and I have been in a number of communities that feature sculptures of animals. Several have been buffalo, but we have also seen bears, cows, horses, elk, and sandhill cranes. I’ve little doubt that other communities feature dogs, cats, pigs and rhinos. Rhinos? Apparently you can find a hundred of them in Cape Town, South Africa. We love the unique, colorful, sculptures. Like murals, they are attractive to locals and visitors alike, and encourage both community pride and tourism.

Photo of ghostly buffalo in Custer City, South Dakota by photographer Peggy Mekemson.
This ghostly buffalo…
Photo of side view of buffalo sculpture showing bones in Custer City, South Dakota by photographer Curt Mekemson.
Was a lesson in buffalo anatomy, as well as a possible Halloween treat. All of the buffalo featured ‘keep off the buffalo’ signs like the one beneath the buffalo’s chin. I could see tourists climbing on top or plopping their 5-year-old on top for photos.
Photo of white buffalo sculpture in Custer City, SD by photographer Peggy Mekemson.
Rare white buffalo were considered sacred by American Indians and played important roles in their legends.
Photo of horses featured on white buffalo sculpture in Custer City, SD taken by photographer Curt Mekemson.
One side of the white buffalo sculpture featured horses that were used by the Indians for hunting buffalo.
Photo of buffalo featuring local scenery in Custer City, SD by photographer Peggy Mekemson.
Several buffalo featured local scenery.
Photo of Buffalo sculpture in Custer City, South Dakota featuring a painted buffalo by photographer Curt Mekemson.
And buffalos, including a painting of a very colorful buffalo escaping from a forest fire.
Photograph of brown buffalo sculpture in Custer City, SD by photographer Curt Mekemson.
This large brown fellow featured another large brown buffalo and a buffalo herd. We really liked the way the buffalo’s shoulder provided a three dimensional effect for the painted buffalo.
Photo of buffalo hunting scene on a buffalo sculpture in Custer City, SD by photographer Curt Mekemson.
A more abstract painting on another sculpture featured a buffalo, horse, possible medicine man, mountains, desert, and a lightning storm.
A dramatic scene that featured a Native American with his dog and two lurking wolves.
Photo of buffalo sculpture in Custer City South Dakota featuring mountain goats by Photographer Peggy Mekemson.
The artist for this buffalo sculpture in Custer City featured mountain goats, including one romping on top of its head. Note the scene on the back…
Photo of buffalo sculpture in Custer City, SD featuring a scene from Custer State Park's scenic Needles Highway by photographer Curt Mekemson.
It’s a scene from along the Needles Highway in Custer State Park, which is named for its dramatic rock formations— a must-see of the park. Mountain goats live there. We will feature the narrow, curvy highway with its gorgeous scenery and tunnels our truck could barely fit through in our next South Dakota post two weeks from now.

Next Monday’s post will feature the Egyptian myth of Osiris and Isis plus the ancient Egyptian city of Memphis near Cairo.

Mt. Shasta, California and a Beautiful Lenticular Cloud…

/ Curt Mekemson / 36 Comments
Airplane photo of lenticular cloud over Mt. Shasta on April 10, 2023 by photographer Curt Mekemson.
Flying down from Seattle to Sacramento last Monday, Peggy and I were awed by Mt. Shasta and a lenticular cloud that was hanging above it.

On Monday, Peggy and I flew from Seattle, Washington to Sacramento California. It was cloudy through Washington and Northern Oregon, which was hardly a surprise given the weather in the West this year. In mid-Oregon, however, the clouds suddenly parted. We enjoyed great views of the Three Sister volcanoes and the iconic Crater Lake. 

As we crossed into California, I told Peggy to hold her breath. Mt. Shasta was coming. We would be flying to the East of it. We didn’t have a clue what the weather would be like. Shasta could be cloud covered, partially covered, or totally clear. What we got was a rare treat, a lenticular cloud was perched on top of the mountain. While Peggy oohed and awed, I grabbed my camera to snap a few photos. 

I love Mt. Shasta. It’s one of the most beautiful volcanic mountains in the world. I’ve been driving by it for decades as I made my way from California to Oregon and back. I even climbed the mountain in 1979 with my 75 year old friend, Orvis Agee, who’d been up it so many times that he was  known affectionately as ‘The Old Man of the Mountain.’ For my own 75th birthday in 2018, I had spent two weeks of my 750 mile backpack trek down the PCT enjoying spectacular views of the mountain as I made my way south from Mt. Ashland to Burney Falls.

It was my intention to slap up a quick post on our Monday fly-over but we were in Sacramento for a personal and sad reason. Peggy’s sister, Jane Hagedorn, and my friend of 50 years had unexpectedly passed away. We had come in from Virginia to attend a celebration of life memorial and help her children for a couple of weeks as they sort though things and prepare for the memorial. So, I put the post off. I actually forgot it.  

Until Saturday. I was reading a blog I follow by Bubba Suess, hikemtshasta.com, and he had photographed the same lenticular cloud and others from the ground. I suggest you jump over to his web site and click on his blog at the top. He had photos from both Sunday and Monday. They are amazing, especially the flying saucer lenticular cloud! They inspired me to put up my photos as well. 

Jane drove up to see us several times while Peggy and I were living in Oregon, sometimes with her husband, Jim, and sometimes by herself. She considered our home and property as a retreat. Along the way, she would pass by Mt. Shasta. She shared our awe of the mountain’s beauty. She was a faithful follower of my blog and I know she would love this post on Shasta. This one’s for her.

A distant view.
Closer… The squares are mainly cattle ranches.
Photo of lenticular cloud over Mt. Shasta by photographer Curt Mekemson.
And a final view.

My post on the buffalo sculptures of Custer City, South Dakota that I was going to run today will be posted next Monday. My post on the history and mythology of Egypt will be on the following Monday.