Spirit of South Dakota

Had to add one more entry for South Dakota to tell you about the wonderful Clark family. We caught up with the Clarks over coffee in Rapid City, South Dakota. Karline Clark was a 2006 ThanksUSA scholarship recipient. Her husband, Mike, is active duty Air Force. We met two of their children, Acadia, just starting 3rd grade, and Zachary, just starting 5th grade.

Karline used her scholarship to go back to school to obtain her teaching degree as part of a program in South Dakota to train and recruit highly qualified individuals to teach. In a fifteen minute conversation, you know she is going to be an excellent teacher, both in how she related to her own children and to Rachel and Kelsi.

All the Clarks were interested in our trip and they related how they have used trips to help history come alive for their own children. We encouraged them to play the ThanksUSA American History Treasure Hunt game to test their knowledge.

Before leaving South Dakota we stopped at the Wild Horse Sanctuary outside Hot Springs. This 11,000 acre sanctuary has more than 550 wild horses. The sanctuary also has a rich past, and we enjoyed not only seeing the beautiful horses with many healthy foals at their side, but also learning more about the history of the Sioux Indians as well as the homesteaders who lived in a still existing cave while they built their cabins. We also saw the site of the Sioux Sundance Ceremony that takes place each year. (This land was also the set for the movie, "Crazy Horse" and for scenes from the movie, "Hidalgo.")

Next, we start heading east through Nebraska and Iowa en route to Chicago. It looks like all the storms have blown out ahead of us although we can see water along the side of the roads and in the fields.