John worked the second shift for Terry. I spent the day suffering an allergy attack (that darn pine pollen). There were threats of thunderstorms that I was hoping for but never appeared.
After John finished his shift, he came home to shower and we headed off for Crazy Horse to view one of their twice a year only night blast. The blast tonight was to celebrate the 83rd birthday of Ruth Ziolkowski (sculptor's wife and President/CEO of Crazy Horse Memorial) as well as to commemorate the 133rd anniversary of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. We were at the 132nd anniversary of the Battle of the Little Big Horn last year. The second night blast of the year occurs on September 6th in observance of the 1877 death of Lakota leader Crazy Horse and the 1908 birth of sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski. Admission tonight after 6 p.m. was a donation of 3 cans of food for the KOTA Care & Share Food Drive in lieu of the memorial’s regular admission fee which benefits everyone.
I had hoped to have an Indian Taco in the Memorial's Laughing Waters Restaurant but it closed early due to the ceremony festivities (should have checked their website first). Darn - we had to settle for a hot dog.
On the viewing deck, there was going to be a program around 8:45 p.m. We chose to sit outside of the Museum building with hundreds of our best friends. This really is a big deal and the locals come out in droves as well as the tourists. It got a little chilly sitting outside with only our coats on so I went in to the gift shop and bought a Crazy Horse Memorial blanket. We were very much appreciative that we had it for the next couple of hours! Once the program on the viewing deck was finished around 9:40 p.m., we were treated to their spectacular "Legends in Light" multimedia laser light show. The Crazy Horse carving really comes to life with laser lights and music that "illuminates our cultural diversity, celebrates our similarities, and encourages understanding and harmony among all people." Not exactly a bad message to try to get across. The light show is presented nightly through the summer and early fall.
Around 10 p.m. there was a spectacular night blast. The pyrotechnic displays were made up of a rapid-fire series of intense explosions that looked like giant candles but the sound was reminiscent of the sound of hundreds of drums playing on the mountain. It was quite the visual and audio experience.
Traffic out of the parking lot was a bit of a mess as it took us 30 minutes to get from the gravel parking lot to the paved parking lot. Once on the paved parking lot, it only took us twenty minutes to get home.
We didn't bother to take the camera as we felt the low light wouldn't make for good pictures. However, that didn't stop lots of others from taking pictures all around us. If we make it for the September blast, maybe we will try to take pictures then. Even if you can't make it to a night blast, the laser light show was well worth seeing.
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