ON THE ROAD AGAIN

6/16-17/2018

Hey there Campers;

Well the Brandy’s are on the traveling trail again this year. I spent 5 days at the Young Living Convention in Salt Lake City, UT with Sharelle and friends. It was a great time learning more info about essential oils. I also learned a technique on how to be patient. You count 5-4-3-2-1 and then respond. This is SUPPOSE to give one time to think. Well, this summer I am going to test it to see if it really works. 

Lo, Alex and the girls met us there on the weekend. We spent a wonderful morning celebrating Father's Day at the Cracker Barrel. Yep, if you have not eaten there you don’t know what you are missing. Food is down home COUNTRY. PSST! Did you know they are finally putting one in Fresno this year???? I hear road trip!!! We left Sharelle and Alex in SLC and with the girls we headed to South Dakota in the Hilton 4 (our RV rig). Every RVer has a name for their rig. In the fall I will be working with at Pleasant Hill Adventist Academy again, with the 5 & 6 graders. Since the history/social studies will be on the States of the US, the teacher asked to have a postcard from every state we hit. On the post card we were to put facts about the state. If you are traveling in the US or would like to send a card from your home state with fun facts, we would appreciate you helping us. Send your card to Aimee Veness, PHAA 5 / 6 Grade, 796 Grayson Rd, Pleasant Hill, CA 94523. 

We traveled through the Black Hills. It is still recovering from a major fire 10 years ago. We went to the Crazy Horse Monument. We were not prepared for the rain since it is usually hot in South Dakota. We put the girls in our rain coats and proceed on. This is a beautiful place. However it was foggy and we could not see the monument. We did see great Native American artifacts and antiques. Did you know that the Native Americans leaders came to sculptor Korzak Ziolkowski to ask him to carve the Crazy Horse statute? They knew he had worked on Mt. Rushmore. The sculptor and his wife Ruth had 10 kids. Each of them has worked and continues on the site today to fulfill the dad's promise to finish the project. The US a Government was willing to donate 10 million to the cause. The Native Americans said thank you but no thank you. They had learned from dealing with the government they could not be trusted to not take over. Smart people. Per a quote by Chief Red Cloud, “They made us many promises, more than I can remember. They never kept but one. They promised to take our land, and they did.” Wow. That was very profound. It seems like nothing has changed. The sculpture and future facilities will be awesome. Did you know they opened the Indian University of North America in 2010? We were treated to great pow-wow dancing by a nation/worldwide championship Lakota family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We journeyed on to Mt Rushmore. Again the fog was not our friend. We only saw the base of the statutes. While Lo and I have been here before, we had been talking to the girls about the beauty and symbol of what each person gave to contribute to our society. We spent time at the movie which explains how and why the sculptor was able to pick what face went where. We decided it was time for the girls to get their own National Park Passport book. It was fun to stamp our books together. We decided to call it a day at a rest stop near a Vivian, SD. Well campers, see you at our next stop.

 

Lo & Bren