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

September 27, 2023September 27, 2023 / 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

September 18, 2023September 18, 2023 / 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.

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.

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

September 9, 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.

Stuck in the Mud with 70,000 + People: Burning Man 2023 or Mudopolis

September 4, 2023September 4, 2023 / Curt Mekemson / 55 Comments

Photo of mud sticking to the shoes of Curt Mekemson at Burning Man 2013. — When it rains at Burning Man, everything comes to a halt! You are looking at the reason why. Thick mud that sticks to your feet makes it extremely difficult to walk. It’s impossible to bike. And driving is an absolute no-no. These are my shoes. It felt like they weighed 20 pounds each!

Peggy and I have been going to Burning Man off and on since 2004. We definitely aren’t virgins, which is what Burners call newbies. In fact it’s hard to be much more veteran than we are although there are old timers around who have been going since its San Francisco beginning in the mid-80s. Over the past 19 years, we’ve seen everything the Black Rock Desert has to throw at people who come to this unique event north of Reno, Nevada. The worst is usually high heat, strong winds, and blinding dust storms where dust rules your universe. The only thing you can do is put on your goggles, wrap your bandana around your face like a bandit, and proceed. If it’s a white out, you hunker down until you can see where you are going. Not doing so is a recipe for disaster.

Rain has been relatively rare compared to dust storm and requires a different response. The Burning Man Organization (BM Org) shuts everything down until the rain stops and the Playa dries out. It’s quite dramatic. There is no driving except for emergency vehicles. Driving tears up the desert floor and getting stuck is almost guaranteed. Since Burners are required to park their vehicles when in camp (except for mutant vehicles), it isn’t much of an issue unless you are driving in or out. That happened to us once when we were coming in and we had to wait for three hours— along with the thousand or so other vehicles entering at the time. It turned into a party. Typical Burning Man.

This time it was different, as you have undoubtedly seen or heard about on the news or through social media. It just kept on raining. What was normally a 2-3 hour wait went on for three days. Burning Man was featured in headlines around the nation and around the world. 70,000 people were literally stuck in the mud. Even the President was briefed on the situation. We managed to escape yesterday. Our story is best told in photos. All of these are taken by either Peggy or me.

We were happily sitting in Serafina, our 22 foot travel trailer, and sipping a glass of wine when the rain started. We had an ‘impressionistic’ view out our window as the rain made its way through the ever-present dust. “Great,” we thought, “it will cool things down and dampen the dust.” But the rain had something else in mind…

We leisurely wrapped up our cocktail hour and checked outside. As expected, Burning Man had shut down all driving. Clouds were threatening more rain! This is Jackalope Road, BTW. We lived at Jackalope and 5:30, out on the edge of Black Rock City. We had come in on Monday and sites closer in were all taken.

An hour or so later, we heard yelling and quickly looked out to see what was happening. An impressive double rainbow was stretched over Black Rock City and Burners were celebrating the beauty. On the bad news side, rain was beginning to cover the playa.

We took lots of photos! This is looking east.

The colors were incredible. But was there a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow?

We turned around and took photos to the west where the sun was busy setting. What would Saturday morning bring?

The extent of the problem became apparent when we got up. It was clear the nobody was going anywhere.

Or, if they were, it was on foot. I walked out on Jackalope Road to take photos.

Peggy took photos of my progress. The photo at the top was from my brief journey!

While I was busy doing something else, I turned around and Peggy was trying to scrape the mud off my crocks. What a woman!

There ia a solution to the mud stuck to your shoes challenge. Wear garbage bags. The mud doesn’t stick to them. Peggy held hers up with Bungee cords. I told her she was a fashion statement, ready for Vogue.

A group walked in back of our camp. It was obvious that they weren’t wearing their garbage bags!

As the day wore on, conditions did not improve. A few people ignored Burning Man’s no-travel restrictions and escaped Black Rock City. Most ended up stuck in the mud. What a surprise. It became apparent that the Man would not burn on its traditional Saturday night. There would be no great party out on the Playa. We resigned ourselves to hanging out at our trailer and reading some of the good books we were carrying. It was also important that we had a more than adequate supply of beer and wine.

This large RV slid off of Jackalope Road, getting stuck and almost hitting cars parked beside the road.

Street conditions had worsened considerably by Sunday morning, the traditional day when about half of the people leave Burning Man. BM Org still had a no-drive rule in effect, however. It was a rule that more and more people were choosing to ignore.

We watched a pickup slide up the road. At first I was irritated. On the other hand, BRC radio was predicting more rain, which would mean more mud, which would mean more delays. Maybe we would get out on Monday, maybe we wouldn’t. We had a slight window of opportunity on Sunday Morning, however. Would we take it?

Should we go or not? Since Animalia was the Burning Man theme for the year, the stress brought out the werewolf in me…

I felt like I was in the middle of a 40s era black and white horror film. It was a hair raising, nail biting situation.

To relieve our stress, Peggy and I decided to walk down to the port-a-potties, 2 1/2 blocks away on 5:30. The path the people followed had been walked over enough times that garbage bag shoes weren’t required. Maybe the road the escapees were taking would be similar.

But 5:30 did not look promising. How would you like to be in the RV coming up the road with thoughts of getting through this mess. The green building on the right are the port-a-pots. Looking down the road, the Man stands out on the Playa, undoubtably laughing.

The port-a-potties were not pretty. I took a photo of the mud covered floor. Actually, it was quite nice compared to the toilet itself. The sewer trucks could not run and the toilet was close to the, um, full. Unfortunately, our trailer’s tank was getting there as well. Hanging around much longer was looking worse and worse.

I distracted myself while doing my thing by reading the comics that some Burner had posted on the door.

And another… which I felt was somewhat appropriate for for the situation.

Walking back, we noticed a skeleton about to grab unsuspecting Burners.” It’s time to get out of here, Peggy.” I exclaimed. A Burning Man official was directing what traffic that was choosing to leave. I stopped to chat. “If you have four wheel drive, you should be able to make it,” he told me. Not only did my F-150 come with 4-wheel drive, it came with special gears to handle deep mud and ruts. When we got back to the trailer, Black Rock radio was reporting there might be severe thunderstorms later in the morning with high winds and heavy showers. We were packed and out of there in 20 minutes. Just as we left, a large RV jack-knifed across the intersection of 5:30 and Jackalope. I took off cross country to the next street over.

This is a different RV that had got stuck in the mud while trying to escape. Imagine the cost of getting a tow truck to haul it out.

I’m sorry we don’t have more photos of our journey back to the paved road but we were a bit otherwise occupied. Slipping and sliding, we crossed over several mud holes and two streams and made it out in just over 30 minutes, which beat my previous record by almost an hour.

As of today, some 64,000 people were still at Black Rock City and I am pleased to report that the weather is behaving itself. At 1:00 PM, Burning Man told everyone that the road was open. I suspect that it is a slow journey out. Many have even chosen to stay. BM has said the Man will burn tonight and I expect the sewer trucks are out in full force.

We truly enjoyed our trip to Burning Man, even the weather. It was an adventure! And the art was great, which will be the subject of our next several posts.

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

July 9, 2023July 9, 2023 / 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

July 3, 2023July 2, 2023 / 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.

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.

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:

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.

Sometimes, You Just Have to Be a Tourist: The Pyramids and Sphinx of Giza

June 27, 2023June 26, 2023 / Curt Mekemson / 36 Comments

He caught me at a weak moment. Peggy and I had just re-entered the world of the living from our trip deep under the pyramid of Khafre at Giza and I was feeling a bit giddy. I’m not a fan of small, narrow, dark spaces. “You will look quite handsome in an Arab headdress,” the vendor told me. I looked at the white cloth and thought, to myself, “Ha, I can assessorize. It will match my beard.” He took our photo as Peggy and I did the tourist thing, using our hands to outline the Great Pyramid.

If you have ever been to Cairo, the odds are you have visited the pyramids and Great Sphinx at Giza. Over fourteen million people do every year. Located just outside the city, it’s an easy trip (depending on traffic) of just over 12 miles. Your journey back in time is a bit longer, some 4500 years. Of the three large pyramids, the Great Pyramid is the most famous. Considered one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, it was built some 2000 years before any of the other six. And, it has outlasted all of its younger siblings. Its longevity alone should earn its claim to fame, but consider this: Standing at 481 ft, (146.5 m.), it was the tallest human-built structure in the world for 4,000 years! That’s mind boggling. Or was that aliens who built it? Grin.

Seeing the pyramids is a must-do if you are visiting Cairo. They are located just a short distance from the city center. Cairo traffic may slow down your trip a bit, however…

Here they are from left to right: The Great Pyramid, the pyramid of Khafre, and the pyramid of Menkaure. Perspective makes the pyramid of Khafre appear larger than the Great Pyramid in this photo. Cairo provides the backdrop. The tall buildings of downtown are barely visible through the smog.

The Great Pyramid. One of the two entries can be seen on the right. People walking along the road on the left provide some perspective on size.

This photo of the base of the Great Pyramid with the entry above, shows people walking along an established pathway. Peggy is one of them. People used to be able to climb the pyramids. Doing so now will get you a fine of somewhere between $639 and $6,390. I wonder if the amount is determined by how high you reach?

Peggy, standing along the trail at the base of the Great Pyramid, provides a perspective on how massive the stone blocks used to build it are. It’s estimated that some 2,300,000 of these granite and limestone blocks were used in building the Great Pyramid with each block weighing an average 2.5 tons (2.3 metric tons). One of the all time great mysteries is how the ancient Egyptians moved the blocks into place. Answers have ranged from aliens (Twilight Zone music here), to greased ramps with hundreds of people pulling on ropes. More recent guesses have included ropes, pulleys and levers— simple machines to aid in the extensive human and possible animal power required.

Another photo to capture the massive feel of the Great Pyramid. The pyramid was built in the early 26th Century BCE and took some 27 years to construct for the pharaoh Khufu. You might think that the Great Pyramid has given up most of its secrets by now, but on March 3rd of this year, scientists announced that they had discovered a new 30-foot hidden passage way using infrared thermography, 3D simulations and cosmic-ray imaging to peer inside the structure. The passage may very well be filled with ancient treasures. (Since I was celebrating my 80th birthday up the Nile near Aswan on the 3rd, I considered the discovery a birthday present.)

The pyramid of the pharaoh Khafre is easily recognizable by the lime rock casing on top. All of the pyramids were once encased in lime polished to bright white. Seeing it at high noon must have been incredible. Blinding is another word. Over the millennia, the casing was repurposed/borrowed/stolen. Like the Great Pyramid and pyramid of Menkaure, Khafre’s pyramid was built during Egypt’s Fourth Dynasty (c. 2613 to 2494 BCE), which was considered the Golden Age of the Old Kingdom. We have several other photos of Khafre’s pyramid but the folding chair amused me. Not to mention the woman in black who seems to be hovering off the ground in a Flying Nun pose, and the herd of rent-a-camels waiting for customers. The blocks in the right foreground were once part of a temple associated with the pyramid.

Peggy makes her way along the narrow passage under the pyramid of Khafre. Considering half of our journey into the depths was spent bent over avoiding rock/head collisions, this was actually roomy— until you met visitors coming from the other direction. Skinny was okay, but not so skinny could be similar to meeting an 18-wheeler going the wrong way on a one way street. The fuzzy state of the photo reflected my feelings about being under *4,880,000 tons* of rock with the ghosts of a long dead pharaoh and possibly servants who had been killed to serve him in the afterlife. Can’t have the pharaoh fare for himself, right? If this practice was still in vogue at the time, it’s hard to imagine bumping into happy servant ghosts.

And finally, we come to the Pyramid of Menkaure, the smallest of the three. It’s thought that the three smaller pyramids were for the pharaoh’s queens/wives/half sisters. If you look closely at the shadow side of the pyramid, you see a slice cutting down through it. There’s an interesting story. In 1196 CE, Saladin’s son, Al-Aziz Uthman, who was the Sultan of Egypt, recruited workmen to demolish the pyramids starting with Menkaure’s. Their challenge was they could only break up a couple of rocks per day. It was a slow process. After eight months, all they had accomplished was the slice featured above and they gave up. Apparently, the pyramids were as tough to tear down as they were to build, for which we can be thankful.

Certainly one of the best known statues in the world, the Great Sphinx was built during the same time frame as the pyramids around 2500 BCE. Having the body of a lion and the head of a man, it was carved out of the bedrock where it now stands. Photos of it are often taken in conjunction with one or more of the pyramids. This one is the Great Pyramid. The missing nose was once attributed to Napoleon’s soldiers using it for target practice. Now it is felt that the nose was broken much earlier, possibly as early at the 3rd Century CE.

Seen here in its entirety, the Sphinx was built in a direct line from west to east. It is 240 feet (73 m) long measured from its front paws to its tail and 66 feet tall (19 m) from the top of its head to its base. The Great Pyramid can be seen peeking out from behind the Sphinx’s head.

And now for a Curt and Peggy special! Millions if not billions of photos have been taken of the Great Sphinx’s head, often with a pyramid thrown in for good measure. But how often do you find a picture of its tail with a pyramid. Classy, huh? 🤔

And now on to what 62.5 % of you have been waiting for: Camels.

Pink tongue. Check out the symbol on the camel’s neck. Each camel, as far as I could tell, had its own unique tattoo. This one also had face decorations.

“Getting down,” camel style. Again, note the neck decorations.

Horse or camel? The foot print might prove a clue. Don’t you just love it when I post scat photos? That’s the nature boy in me.

How a camel driver rides camels. Note the legs.

Remember the old saying, “Two ships passing in the night?” These are two camels passing in the day. Did you know that camels are often called ships of the desert because they carry cargo across long distances in the desert just like ships carry cargo across the ocean. They are uniquely fit for their role. For one, they can carry up to 400 pounds for 25 miles a day. They can go for several days without water and up to two weeks without food. Their leathery lips and mouth allows them to chomp down on delicacies such cactus and other spiny desert plants. Eyes, ears and noses are designed to withstand sand storms. Large feet help keep them from sinking in the sand. Wearing a size 14 shoe, I know something about the latter.

Remember back when I posted my introduction to our Egypt trip and had a camel photo bomb me. Here he is to conclude my blog on the pyramids, Great Sphinx and camels of Giza.

Next post: Big Foot’s Big Foot and my wrap up on South Dakota.As you read this post, Peggy and I are off on another adventure, starting today (Monday, June 25). Once again, we are on a three month trip exploring North America with Serafina the trailer, Iorek the truck, Bone and Eeyore. We’ll keep you posted.

The Ghost of Crazy Horse

June 19, 2023June 11, 2023 / 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 5^th, 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.

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.

Djoser, Imhotep and Egypt’s First Pyramid… Six Tombs on Top of Each Other

June 12, 2023June 11, 2023 / Curt Mekemson / 40 Comments

The ancient stone monument, the Pharaoh Djoser’s Step Pyramid, was built by the pharaoh’s vizier, Imhotep.

Whenever people think of ancient Egypt, one of the first thoughts that pops into to their minds is the three pyramids of Giza: The Great Pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Menkaure, along with the Great Sphinx. They were in built Egypt’s early history during the Fourth Dynasty of the Old Kingdom between 2600 and 2500 BC and are the main focus of my next Egypt post— along with camels.

But today, I want to go back to their precursor, the Step Pyramid of the Pharoah Djoser, located in the Saqqara necropolis outside of Memphis. Built in the 27th Century BCE (2700-2600) during Egypt’s Third Dynasty, it is the oldest, complete stone building complex known in history. Its architect was Djoser’s brilliant vizier, Imhotep. If you ever watched the Mummy movie series, he was cast as the bad guy, intent on world domination and allergic to cats. But to ancient Egyptians he was a good guy, so good that he was eventually (with eventually being 2000 years Egypt time) given the status of a god complete with a portfolio that included major medical responsibilities.

Imhotep’s first layer of the pyramid was based on a mastaba, or eternal house, an ancient Egyptian tomb that was built as a one story, rectangular mud brick building with inward sloping sides where royalty from Egypt’s Early Dynastic and Old Kingdom period were buried. He then proceeded to build a series of five mastaba-like structures on top of the first one with each being smaller, thus creating the pyramid concept. The structure stands at 203 feet tall with a base of 410 by 357 feet. A maze like series of tunnels run under the pyramid that were used for the burial of Djoser, royal family members, and grave goods from royal ancestors. The latter included over 40,000 vessels.

This statue of King Djoser, found in a sealed room in the Step Pyramid, is made of limestone. He looks like one serious dude— not someone to cross. It now resides in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. It is known as the oldest life-size statue in Egyptian History. It would have been created to contain his ka, or life force after he died. The room contained small holes so the ka could wander over to the room where food offerings were kept and feast— if the priests hadn’t already eaten them.

The Step Pyramid complex covers over one square mile and, in addition to the pyramid, incudes temples, colonnades, and a wall.

And I should add pushy sales people who refuse to take “no” for an answer and often resort to trickery to bamboozle tourists. They come in droves around the pyramids and other major attractions. On the one hand, I recognize that these people are just trying to make a living off of people who can afford it. On the other, they can be obnoxious on a level of 10 out of 10. They are best ignored unless you really want to buy something. Given the slightest sign of interest, they’ll be on you like a tick on a dog.

This beautiful temple was part of the Step Pyramid complex at Saqqara.

It reached out toward Djoser’s Step Pyramid.

The walkway through the temple was covered with stone columns that resembled log rafters.

I’ll conclude with this photo of Peggy and me in front of the Step Pyramid that was taken by our fellow traveler and friend, Steve Jones. I rendered it in black and white to give it an old-time feeling.

Next Post: We will travel back to South Dakota and the incredibly ambitious stone carving of Chief Crazy Horse. After 75 years, it may be a quarter finished.

There Be Monsters Out There…

June 5, 2023 / 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.