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The South Dakota license plates say it all, "Great Faces, Great Places." With the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, Needles Highway, The Minuteman Missle National Historic Site and the Badlands National Park, there are no doubt some great places that we visited while in lower of the two Dakotas. The "great faces" I am guessing refers to those of the four presidents carved in the granite of Mt Rushmore, and after my last diatribe on monuments, let me just say the same goes for chiseling giant heads in the beautiful rock formations of the Black Hills. It is an impressive work of art. I can't say the same for Crazy Horse, as it won't be done for another 10 to 15 years according to the visitors center there, but a herculean effort nonetheless, and not surprisingly, promises to be bigger than Rushmore. Ahh, we always seem to be keeping up with the Joneses... or in this case, the Borglums. Gutzon and his son Lincoln Borglum were the master sculptors behind the Mt. Rushmore project. But the marvels that nature created in the landscapes still impresses me more than those created by human hands. And while the decades it took to complete the four faces may seem like a long time, it pales in comparison to the millions of years nature took to create the granite spires of the Black Hills where the faces were carved or the giant sandcastle structures of the Badlands. But there was one man-made site in South Dakota that was really thought-provoking for me and one that I wanted the kids to see. That was the Minuteman Missle site. I prepped them for the visit by having them watch the movie "War Games" at Sars and Lola's in Idaho. As a kid growing up during the Cold War, the idea of a nuclear armageddon has always been part of my world. It was often on the forefront of political rhetoric and well represented in the movies of the 80's. But as the Berlin Wall fell, the threat of nuclear war seemed to be a thing of the past. While I am glad my children don't have to worry about the "duck and cover" drills of the past or live in fear of being bombed by the Russians, I know they still have lockdown drills to prepare for fears that I did not face as a schoolboy of decades gone by. It is good to know that hundreds of ICBMs buried in the South Dakota plains have been disarmed and mostly removed. It seems to be a step in the right direction, and a step towards a more peaceful future.... a future I would want for my kids. I think a lot was lost on CJ and Anna at this national historic site, which I guess is good, because I would rather they be reflecting on the happier things we have seen and done...like Anna earning her Cowgirl Certificate after riding Scout on a trail through the Black Hills. And the only scary thing she would have to think about was her dad yelling "Whoa" to his horse Pronto as he galloped off the trail behind her after being spooked by an unexpected fleece sweater vest. But that is another story.
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