Today is Mount Rushmore

I have no idea what day of the week it is or day of the month. I am sitting in a lawn chair watching three wifi bars come and go on the iPad and thinking that I must take advantage of the connection and so I will. What other reason was there for waking up at 6 a.m. 

The weather has gotten very warm and it is delightful to be sitting outside in the cool of the morning listening to the babble of a small creek behind me. The only thing that would make it better would be a skinny vanilla latte. Dreamer.

Two days ago Ruth and I did a quick tour of Butte, Montana before hitting the open road to catch up with Ken. Butte is home to an incredibly large mining pit which one local called an ecological disaster. Oh what we did not know in years gone by. The historical district is a plethora of brick buildings of a former era. Many boast painted signage that has not weathered as well as the bricks. 

The city has numerous mining towers dotting the landscape and at night I they are outlined with red lights. It was a striking nightscape. And in the morning light it was a city that acknowledges that history and is going forward. 

Heading east again we encountered the plains and the national historic site of Custer's last stand.  My three years of American schooling knew that this was significant and we turned off the interstate. The plan was to do the drive around and get back on the highway but this was not easy to do. The road through the battlefields where the Plains Indians defended their land and their heritage, is dotted with small white tombstones... that bear an inscription identifying by name a young person who had "fallen near here". The dates were all the same.. June 25th. Other signage described the position of the troops, etc. It was disturbing and yet surreal to be standing on a battlefield and I am reminded of visiting Gettysburg a long time ago. One lady we passed said I feel as if I am in church. It was well worth the time to visit and it was perhaps a little more poignant because we were there on June 25, the anniversary of the battle that was Custer's last.