Fort Meade experience

Pad's experience in the Blackhills of South Dakota during the stay at Fort Meade SD.

Monday, June 05, 2006

Hi,
Happy Birthday Judy.
I had a nice hike yesterday to the arm of Crazy Horse. It was only 10K or 6.5miles instread of 20 K.I started the hike local time about 10:30AM.It was a pleasant morning, temprature was just about right. While I was waiting for the bus to take us to the registration area one of the guys from the VAMC was there and talked to me and was s aying to his wife that they needn't worry because the Doc is here. This was heard by a family practitioner who was hiking with his 3 daughter. At the registration area he said I hear you are a doctor and introduced himself as Tom Groeger,from Deadwood. We exchanged pleasantries and started to hike together. He is a family Doc,one of 11(or so) children and his father is a Family Doc also,now in Colorado.He practiced Allergy in Texas and finally moved back to Colorado as the children started to get back there(Colorado). We talked about my retirement and working a s alocum tenen and that is how his father became the topic,he could not give up medicine and he downsized to Allergy from full fledged family practice. Tom graduated from Univ of COlorado Med school in Denver, did residency at Casper, Wyoming. He worked as a contractor( part of group practice) for the Mining company in Deadwood and it folded in 2000, and now he is solo, and has several PAs who cover the ER. His wife is Elizabeth a Nurse anesthetist. They have 4 children, 3 adopted and one of their own,all girls. Two of the children are from China. He says his wife wants them to go to China and work there for a year or two at the western hospital. The anesthetists at the VAMC know the couple- Bob Rilley CRNA says Dr Groeger saved his life, shocked him 5-6 times when he had the heart attack.
It was good to be hiking with the children they used to Lallygag around and run up ahead, stop and rest etc, that made me go slow ,stop and rest up frequently. It was harder than hiking at home because of the elevation about 6000ft. I am not used to the elevation change, I dont think the mountains at the Appalchian trail are that high, only 2-3000ft. the first part was through the wooded area menadering and when we came to the toher side of the mountain it was like dirt road with lot of large gravel and many switchbacks.

The wiew from the top was great, clear view. I was next to the finished face of Crazy Horse, it is huge,much larger than the Mount Rushmore faces. the whole monument will be 561 ft, taller than Washington monument. They say the four face of the Mount Rushmore will fit on the side of Crazy Horse's face.The Volks Mrchh,was well publicized and it has been going on for about 22 years, they estimated over 10,000 people took part. It was on the news both days. The picture of Tom and the kids- are from left to rt Emily,Tom,Lauren and Carolyn.
After the hike I spent the afternoon at the visitor center. Ate Tatanka (Buffalo in Latoka language) stew at The Laughing Water restaurant. I bought a Bead work Bolo Tie, made by one of the Latoka ladies,sold at the visitor center. It depicts Lakota Flag she said.
I wore the tie to work today, it started a lot of discussion. People here dont like the Sioux indians,and say they are /were killers. I got a history lesson from Mark Blum aboiut the indians--Sioux.Sioux menas Enemy!! according to some other tribe language. The scouts for the US miltary were the remaining indians of the other tirbal indians. He said the Sioux killed anybody/anthing in their way,they were chased out of Minnesotta,and they were not native Balck hills indians. The Indians killed more Buffaloes than the white man, they just drove them off the cliffs.He also said that if Crazy horse was alive today he would be jailed as a terrorist. Then there was a discussion about terrorism, one said the Irish were the earliest terrorists, also talked about Wallace the Braveheart, Suyama said the japanese were the earliest terrorists. The Indians are not taking care of themselves, they want the government to bail them out, and they are lazy dirnk too much destroy everything. Any one coming from the east loves the indians and their plight and after a few weeks they will learn!!! not to like them. I dont know if that is prejudice or racism/discrimination.

After the visit to the Crazy horse ,on the way back I went through a part of the Custer State Park- Needles Highway, beautiful drive. Saw some Buffalos resting under the trees. I have some pictures(140) of the hike and Needles on the Snapfish, check it out. I could not post them on the Flickr,I have used up more than 50% of monthly allotment with only 6 pictures.

I am looking forward to Mom coming. Hope ypou all had a nice Birthday celebration!!!.
Love to all
Tata

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