Today I took flight to South Dakota for the beginning of a number of adventures, some planned and…. as I was about to discover….some complete surprises.
In the planned department, after landing at the Rapid City Airport, I drove to Custer State Park, located in the Black Hills. This is South Dakota's largest and first state park, named after Lt. Colonel George Armstrong Custer.
My purpose for this stop was two-fold. First, to pick up my media credentials for the park’s Buffalo Roundup happening the next day, and which I am going to attend and write about. Second, I wanted to explore the art festival that partners with the roundup as an annual park tourist attraction.
The festival is defined by rows of white tents housing artisans who craft paintings, jewelry, candles, metal work and sculptures, wood carvings and furniture, stained glass, pottery, paper art, leather goods and felt and knit handiwork .
It’s a laid back atmosphere with country and folk music drifting across the grounds from live performances happening throughtout the festival.
Also as you miight expect at the Buffalo Roundup and Art Festival, there are Buffalos for sale, of every shape and forml to take home as mementos.
I had a great time wandering the festival grounds, admiring the wide-ranging artists and chatting with them about their crafts.
Invariably, our chats evolved into a give-and-take that ended in conversation about my part in the South Dakota Festival of Books. Our creative passions immediately became common bonds that allowed us to engage on very personal levels.
After working my way through the festival grounds, there was one particular artist to whose tent I returned. It was filled with hand crafted glass jewelry, each piece more beautiful then the next.
When I first stopped at the tent I lingered long enough over a display of horse jewelry that the owner wandered over. Introducing herself as Jill, owner of Wyoming Silvers, she explanined the technique she used in creating the gorgeous jewelry—-more out of pride in her artistry than trying to make a sale. I told her about the horses my family once owned and from there we were trading stories like old friends.
When we got to conversation about my book, Jill gave me one of her business cards with her address.. She said she wanted to buy a copy of Beauty & Grace and asked that I mail it to her. I told her I wanted to buy some of her jewelry and suggested we work out a book-for-jewelry trade. Without hesitating, she agreed.
As we finished the details of our big business transaction, we began talking about our plans for the remainder of the weekend. Jill said she was going to the Volksmarch at the Crazy Horse Memorial, a mountain monument under construction on privately held land in Custer County that one day will depict the Oglala Lakota Warrior, Crazy Horse. She explained it as an annual 5-mile hike up to the arm area of the unfinished sculpture. She’d done it once before and thought I would enjoy it.
u
This is where the first surprising adventure of my South Dakota trip comes in.
Jill then asked if I wanted to go on the hike together. Without hesitating, I agreed.
So early Sunday morning a jeweler and a writer will share an adventure based on a conversation about their passions and the immediate bond that conversation created.
And so my South Dakota adventure begins….