The Drive, Day 3, Sun, 8-30, Spirit Mound, Porter Sculpture Garden, Wall SD...

We were on the road by 8:45CT. We were driving the prairie. Rain was falling but not on us. We could watch the clouds moving in the distance. Again, my word for this is 'vast'. 

Claude was happy because the Interstate now had an 80mph speed limit. He is a guy after all!

As we drove through Sioux City, Iowa, we saw the monument to Sgt. Floyd. He was the only member of the Corps of Discovery to die on this entire journey. It is believed he suffered from an appendix attack. 

Our site to see was Spirit Mound outside of Vermillion, South Dakota. This was a spot where Lewis & Clark set foot for sure. 

Spirit Mound is sacred to the Native Americans who live here even today. They will make the trek to the top and leave offerings. You are asked to be respectful as you make your journey. Lewis & Clark had been told about the Can O' ti la, or 'little people' who inhabited Spirit Mound. Persons who encountered them could be wounded by their arrows. This could lead to death. Yike! 

You park in a parking area a good distance from Spirit Mount. You must walk to the mound. The path leads around the Mound as it moves up the Mound. We found two benches and made use of each of them to drink water before moving on. The temperature that day was in the high 90's. There are NO trees, so NO shade. We made it to the opposite side of Spirit Mound from this picture where a large rock provided a place to sit and drink the last of our water. We discussed the views we have seen around Spirit Mound and determined we were happy with our views. We mutually determined we should head back to the Buick, turn on the A/C, drink a lot more water and then proceed on our journey.

As I look at my pictures, I realize I didn't take one picture from Spirit Mound. I am sure that was because of dealing with the heat. Ugh! For Lewis & Clark, this was the first siting of buffalo herds, elk, badgers and coyotes. This is the map draw by Capt. Clark of Spirit Mound or "Hill of Little Devils".

In 1921 the local DAR Chapter had this boulder with a bronze plaque set atop Spirit Mound to mark the site of Lewis & Clark for posterity. Virgil McDonald, a local farmer, hauled this 2-ton monument to the top of Spirit Mound with a team of horses. It remained there for 80 years until the plaque was stolen in 2001 leaving the boulder. In 2004 the National Park Service duplicated the plaque and moved the monument to its current location near the beginning to the trail Spirit Mound. 

Once completely rehydrated and cooled off in our car, we were ready to drive to our next adventure. Claude saw a post on Facebook about a drive to see sculptures made of scrap metal. I put it on the grid for our trip. When checking it out, I realized it was as 30 minute drive from the Interstate south with these sculptures along the way. We could then have taken a road west a bit and driving another 30 miles north to get back to the Interstate. Hmmm... I happened upon another place called Porter Sculpture Park that was right off the Interstate. It was a third of a mile loop with over 60 sculptures. Time wise, this was the better deal. We opted to visit Porter Sculpture Park.

You have to drive a dirt road a quarter of a mile off I-90. It is worth it. As you get close, you immediately start to see Wayne Porter's creations. 

You park on a grassy area near the loop trail. Please not in the lower left of the picture. You will see a prairie dog sitting outside his hole. He and I were having a little conversation as I took his picture. Cool

If you have ever seen the movie "Michael", this sign harks back to that idea, the World's Largest Ball of Twine. Except this one is invisible. Clearly Wayne has a twisted sense of humor.

We were still a bit worn out form our hiking at Spirit Mound in extreme heat. Wayne was kind enough to loan us his golf cart to drive the loop. I pointed to my gray hair and assured him we fit the age requirement for borrowing his golf cart. Claude love to drive a golf cart and was very happy to be behind this wheel.

A little of Wayne Porter's history is helpful. His father was a blacksmith and he grew up working with his dad where he learned the art of welding. He created his first sculpture at age 10, he graduated college, went to ranching sheep and creating sculptures in his spare time. He bought land near I-90 to display his work. The self-guided loop of sculptures is 3/4 of a mile long. There are over 60 sculptures in this loop. You pay $10 per person to visit. 

Wayne writes poetry and many of his poems he has painted on signs throughout the loop. This is one about tourists.

This was one of my favorites. It is a goldfish bowl. 

This is not a sculpture. It is a very old piece of farm equipment. I believe it is a tiller. Claude remembers these and told me about it. 

This is another Wayne Porter piece of poetry. It is about his father and it is bit sad. 

Here is a bit of prairie history. The sign explains the next picture of a rock. Cool.

This horse is HUGE! Claude is standing under him for perspective. 

This is three dancers. They are all nude. Not sure why. The guy in the middle is playing the music they dance to.

Hard to tell but there are two monks in red robes walking up the hill toward the bull. It is titled Irish Monks.

This is the masterpiece. It is a representation of the extinct bulls from Egypt. It stands as tall as the heads on Mt. Rushmore. 

There are several of these guys guarding the bull.

On the back side, you could go inside the bull. That is Claude standing inside the bull. This sign explains the artform used to make this bull. Each spike driven in represents a prayer for healing and justice. Inside the bull, Wayne has driven spikes into the Creature of The Black Lagoon. Basically, this is Wayne's depiction of his prayer to end all suffering.

Let's go inside the bull and see what things we can find.

This sculpture was a young woman longing to be a ballerina. She was the cleaning woman and when others left her alone in the evenings to clean she would practice being a ballerina hoping for the day it might happen.

Did you ever dissect a front in school? I did. Still gives me chills.

Wayne Porter is a very nice man. We returned his golf cart and thanked him for a wonderful experience. 

Now it was time to complete the drive for today. At 80mph Claude sped us toward Wall, South Dakota. Along the way we saw rolling hills, Lake Francis, fields and fields of sunflowers, metal art of western scenes in the fields and...we knew we were in Wall when we found the gigantic rabbit!

We checked into our hotel for the next two night. Then we found Badlands Saloon & Grill and settled in for nice bison burgers for dinner. 

Gas this day was $3.89 in Vermillion and $4.27 in Wall. We left the Central Time Zone and entered Mountain Time Zone. The nice thing about going west is you get an extra hour in your day every now and then.