Minnesota to South Dakota

Hi ZiggyZags! Yesterday's trip started at Pipestone National Memorial as you saw in yesterday's photos. The pictures, I think, told most of the story of the visit but we were able to speak to two of the artisans who are quarrying there and are making pipes to sell to the public. One of the men in particular is highly thought of and well known. His name is Travis Erickson--his mother is Native and taught him to make pipes when he was 10 or so. I recognized him from the video we were shown but did not realize just how much of a recognized artist he is. As we were checking out of the gift shop the lady told us that he had pipes in the Smithsonian and that he'd been on How It's Made on Discovery Channel. I had already spent a great deal of time talking to him about the stone and the disc pipe he was working on. He showed me how the pipestone at the center had a slight white tone to its top and that the surrounding stone as he used a file on it would be a darker red. He'd carved a dragonfly from the center and when finished and polished it would be a white dragon fly on a dark red disc. Fascinating. When I went back to ask him to sign the book I bought in which his grandfather and uncle were pictured working a quarry I mentioned how wonderful it was that he'd been on Discovery and in the Smithsonian. I congratulated him. He blushed with pleasure, which is always interesting in a big muscular man. He told me he'd been on PBS as well and showed me a magazine in which he was the subject of the main article. Then, shyly, he told me he'd soon be going to accept this year's award as the Best Artist of the Year for South Dakota this month, Well, I looked him up on the net--even sharing what he did--there is much more to his reknown. https://www.bing.com/search?q=travis+Erickson+pipemaker&src=IE-TopResult&FORM=IETR02&conversationid=&pc=EUPP_ This is a better link....http://www.historynet.com/travis-erickson.htm The lady on the register is his cousin and the young man also working on pipes and with whom we also spoke at length is her son. Barb bought earrings made by Travis' mother and I bought a pair made by another cousin. We left Minnesota soon afterwards and traveled I 93 until on the horizon we saw a very large bull head surmounting a hillside on the opposite side of the road. Curious, we got off and discovered another artist--Wayne Porter sculpture garden, It was incredibly hot but we chose to walk the 3/4 mile loop rather than use a golf cart. When we got back to Wayne's little shed he allowed Bambino free and we sat and chatted in the shade as I cooled down. ( We later found that the temps had gotten into the 90's again). Wayne was curious about the political situation in Vermont, the fact that most of the gov't officers from NH are women, the scenery of the Northeast. He told us he was a Poli/Sci/History major in College. Once more we found that this talented man, like Travis Erickson was modest and dispossessing. Not a bit of ego in either of them and a total delight and in retrospect an honor to have sat and chatted with them as though with old friends. I think this link can tell you more than I about this delightful young man, with a sense of humor and whimsy, http://portersculpturepark.com/about/ By this time, it was almost 4:30 and we still had about 60 miles to go to our motel. So, a quick drive into Mitchell, around the Corn Palace, where if you look closely you can see the various types of corn and grasses used to create the murals that will remain on the outside of the building until this time next year. It serves as a food source for the birds, who start pecking out the grains almost as soon as the ears are adhered to the walls. Then a U-turn and out of town again.https://cornpalace.com/149/Corn-Palace-History By the time we reached Chamberlain it was getting dark and we were tired. So we decided to do Dignity tomorrow, which is today. But I'll take a breather and let you have one, too. Later, BarbZig and KatZag