Home Again in Tulsa

I last posted the first day we were in Custer, South Dakota....Friday.

I'll give a quick rundown of the rest of the trip:

Friday evening we watched "Elizabethtown" which is the movie that inspired Nancy and Gene to travel to his favorite spots to scatter some of his ashes.

Saturday--we drove to Spearfish Canyon and ate at a restaurant that Gene really liked. Nancy had wanted to hike down a trail to some falls behind the restaurant, but there was too much snow on the trail. In fact, it was snowing on us that day. Really weird snowflakes...we called them snow pellets because they looked and felt like soft hail. Really strange! We headed back, and we had great fun stopping by the side of the road for pictures of waterfalls and lakes and deer. It was a beautiful drive. We found a peaceful brook by the side of the road, so we pulled off and Nancy scattered some ashes there. When we arrived back at the hotel, we ended the evening watching a DVD of the history of the Crazy Horse monument which we were going to visit on Sunday morning.

Sunday--We were at the Crazy Horse monument at 9:30 a.m. We looked around in the museum and gift shop, and then we were driven to the top of the monument. If you don't know the story, here's the link: http://www.crazyhorse.org/ Nancy scattered some of Gene's ashes on the top of the monument, and we all gathered around her as she prayed thanking God for Gene and that we could be there together. It was very moving!

We ate lunch at a local winery and it was really good! Nancy, Tony, Bethany and I tasted some of their wines and Nancy ended up buying quite a few bottles for people. It was a fun experience, except not so much for Cody and Nataly who just waited in the car during the tasting. But hey, with cameras to take pictures of yourself and iPods to listen to.....

We then headed over to Mount Rushmore. We walked the trail and Tony, Cody and Nataly each scattered a handful of ashes at the base of the monument. We then saw a soaring bird which I just KNEW was an eagle, and told Tony so, but at that moment a park ranger happened to be walking by and said it was probably a turkey vulture. I'm still convinced it was an eagle....which made it a perfect moment! :)

We headed back to the hotel going through Custer State Park. We saw lots of deer, (mule deer and whitetail deer), buffalo, prairie dogs, and burros that came up and stuck their heads in the car. There was one buffalo that was completely in the middle of the road and we had to wait until it decided to move. We got some great pictures!

We ended Sunday night ordering pizza and watching TV. We were pretty tired. We got up Monday, got in the car, and 14 1/2 hours later (around midnight) we arrived home in Tulsa. We were all tired today, but the trip was definitely worth it!

It was in honor of Gene's memory that we visited his favorite places and left a little bit of his remains at each one. I wasn't sure what I thought about the whole idea, but frankly I found it very moving. I've been thinking about it a lot. In February we had an amazing funeral service for John Kilgore and we buried his body at a beautiful cemetery here in Tulsa. I know that as it gets warmer I'll be visiting his grave....not because I think he's there, just because I know I'll want to go sometimes. Then this experience of scattering Gene's ashes was very special as well. I've been thinking it might be nice to combine the two...having a service and a burial, but then taking a trek to favorite places and scattering something symbolic (like flower petals or something) at each place. Conversations Tony and I will be having in the future I'm sure.

If you're interested in looking at the many (almost 200) pictures we took on our trip, here's the link: http://s123.photobucket.com/albums/o307/tmbcn5/Nebraska%20and%20South%20Dakota%20Trip/

Melody