Back from the Black Hills

Our quick trip out and back is through. We filled the time we were there by visiting family, friends, and special sites with lots of food thrown in here and there.

On our first full day there we had to go to the clinic as Mom had a painful reaction in her hand/arm after driving some on the way out. She began and ended the trip driving, and while she wore a brace on her hand when she got to Hill City she had pain shooting up her arm and swollen joints. We went to a clinic in Custer, SD and she got a cortizone shot and he made a form fitting splint on her forearm to emobilize it. The clinic was near our cousin/niece Linda Ball, we had plans to visit her when we planned the trip, so all worked for the best. Linda will have her 59th birthday next week. She is blind and unable to move, except for one hand, but she recognized our voices and told us some jokes and we shared some stories and a song. We got a kick out of the fact she called Dad, Uncle Kelly. Kelly was what my Grandma called Dad, her Kelly Boy.

My Aunt Carol and Uncle Wes live south of Hill City on Reno Gulch Road. Here is a photo of Mom and Dad and Carol and Wes in the summer kitchen Wes Built Carol. It has a cook stove and serving window and lots of treasurers. She has it decorated so cute.

I made a photo and music video about Linda for my Aunt Carol and she in turn made me this quilt in thanks. We just had to cuddle under it to treasure the moment.

Saturday we went out to my Cousin Bill and his wife Tina's log cabin. They built the cabin entirely themselves and it is really a site to see snuggled back in the hills. The huge logs fit together so tight. We listed to stories again about the building process, truly amazing! On this trip they also had a grandchild to show off. Riley and his Mom, Kim joined us for a morning of relaxing, reminising and catching up. Riley amazed us all with his sign language skills, ball throwing with the dog and ability to entertain a crowd of adults without too much trouble.

We didn't make it up to the faces on this trip, but a trip to the Hills wouldn't be complete without a visit to the Crazy Horse Monument. It began 61 years ago by Korczak Ziolkowski. I actually met the man when I went to the monument on the band trip in 1972 and paid him for his autograph on a sheet of paper with the poem that is on the smaller carving in the lookout/viewing gallery. So I can say I was hooked at age 13 on the carving...! I'll have to dig out some old photos to compare the progress in the carving. A friend who used to live in Sioux Falls has an antique store across the road from the monument so we had to stop and visit with Boyd too.

Heading to the north end of The Hills, We visited with the Whitcher side of the family. I missed getting my camera in action but we toured Uncle Dales new home and then went to Blackhawk where my Cousin Greg and wife Nancy have a home. We grilled hamburgers and had more treats there with more cousins and generations as well as the Uncles and Aunt Carol.

On the way home we stopped in Mitchell, SD (the home of the world famous Corn Palace) to visit with Friends. This time Diane did almost all of the driving with Dad giving me a little relief in the middle of the trip.