Kyle the Crocodile

Archive for November, 2008

28
Nov

Thanksgiving

Posted in Carlyle, Katie, Kirby, Kyle | 26 Comments »

Katie, Carlyle, Kirby and I spent Thanksgiving with Mr. Clobridge. We have so much to be thankful for this year. We’re thankful for our family and friends, for our great school, and for having the opportunities to go on so many fun and exciting adventures with our friends. We can’t wait to see what the next year brings!

A few photos from Thanksgiving:

Katie, Carlyle, Kirby, and Kyle Getting Ready for Thanksgiving Dinner

Carlyle Getting Hungry

First we had homemade vegetable soup, and then we ate a traditional Thanksgiving meal with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and carrots.

Time for Soup

Yum!

Kirby helped Mr. Clobridge carve the turkey.

Mr. Clobridge and Kirby

After dinner, we rested in front of the fire.

Kirby in front of the fire

Kirby, Katie, and Kyle in front of the fire

The next morning, we were still full from dinner the night before, but we managed to eat french toast. And then Carlyle had another nap!

Breakfast in front of the fire

Carlyle takes a nap

It was a fun day, and it was important for us to think about what we’re each thankful for. Most importantly, we’re thankful for our family and friends.

What did all of you do for Thanksgiving?

Tags: family, holidays, Thanksgiving, The Croc Family

26
Nov

Spearfish Canyon and Wyoming

Posted in Katie | 3 Comments »

Today I went to Spearfish Canyon. That is in the northwestern corner of South Dakota. I made a new friend. His name is Rocky and he looks just like the real bears that live in this area. Today it snowed. Rocky and I liked looking at the snow from inside a warm room. Crocodiles just aren’t used to cold weather and snow.

Katie and Rocky Looking at Snow

The snow didn’t last very long, so I could take a hike into the canyon. This river runs right through the canyon, and it is really beautiful. Hiking was fun, but I wouldn’t want to go into such cold water.

Waterfall in Spearfish Canyon

Today we drove into Wyoming, which is the state just west of South Dakota. Can you find it on a map? We went to see Devil’s Tower, which was named the first national monument by President Teddy Roosevelt in 1906.

Wyoming

Devil’s Tower is really big and very old. Geologists think it was created 50-million years ago. At that time there were volcanoes in this area.

Devil's Tower

These are prairie dogs. There are hundreds of them living together in a colony right next to Devil’s Tower. They dig underground passageways, and when you look at the field, you can see lots of prairie dogs popping up out of the ground.

Prairie Dogs

Isn’t Devil’s Tower amazing? The tower was formed from molten rock. When it cooled, it cracked, and those cracks are the lines you see on the tower. Devil’s Tower is also famous for another reason. It was shown in a famous movie called Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Maybe you can see it when you are older.

Devil's Tower

(Note from Kyle: Can you find Katie in the photo above? She’s in there!)

The Lakota Indians have their own name for Devil’s Tower. They call it Mato Tipila or Grizzly Bear Lodge. This place is sacred to the Lakotas.

Mato Tipila or Grizzly Bear Lodge

That’s it for my trip to South Dakota and Wyoming. I had a wonderful time.

See Ya in a While, Crocodile!

Tags: bears, South Dakota, Wyoming

24
Nov

Crazy Horse

Posted in Katie | 1 Comment »

In South Dakota there is a gigantic sculpture of a famous Sioux warrior named Crazy Horse. It is not finished yet, but when it is completed, it will be 536 feet tall. The memorial is being built because Chief Henry Standing Bear decided that people everywhere should know about this Native American hero. The Chief asked a man named Korczak Ziolkowski to create the memorial. Work started 60 years ago, and you can see that only the face of Crazy Horse is finished after all this time. When it is complete, you will be able to see Crazy Horse sitting on his horse. That will take a long time; you will be grown-ups with children of your own before the memorial is finished.

When Mr. Ziolkowski started the memorial, the first thing that he had to do was build a ladder from the bottom of the mountain to the top. The ladder had 741 steps. How many steps are there from the first floor of Sycamore Creek to the second floor? Imagine how long it would take to climb 741 steps. Mr. Z. was using a very old machine to help him dig. Sometimes that machine would stop working just as soon as Mr. Z. climbed up to the top of the ladder. One day he to climb up and down seven times because of that old generator. Today Mr. Ziolkowski’s widow, sons and grandsons are still hard at work on the memorial.

Crazy Horse Memorial

Look at this model of the Crazy Horse Memorial. It tells you what the sculpture will look like when it is finished. When you look up on the mountain, you can see a big hole. This hole was made so trucks can go from one side of the mountain to the other side. When the memorial is finished, the hole will be part of the big space under Crazy Horse’s arm.

Model of Crazy Horse

This is another model of the Crazy Horse Memorial – but it is made out of metal. Can you see the white drawing of the horse’s head on the side of the mountain?

Another Model of Crazy Horse

This is a close-up of Crazy Horse’s face. There will be a stone feather on top of his head, but that will be the very last thing the workers make.

Close-Up of Crazy Horse

There is one day every year when people are allowed to hike to the top of the Crazy Horse Memorial. This picture was taken last year during that hike or Volksmarch. (I wasn’t there.) You can see how big the memorial is compared to the people.

Volksmarch

This is a bison decorated in Sioux colors. It is in the Indian Museum of North America at Crazy Horse.

Bison Decorated in Sioux Colors at the Indian Museum of North America

Tags: bison, Crazy Horse Memorial, museums, South Dakota, Volksmarch

23
Nov

Custer State Park & Needles

Posted in Katie | 1 Comment »

From Mt. Rushmore, I went Custer State Park. This park has hills, pine forests and tall granite spires. The granite rocks are so pointy that this area of the park is called the Needles. Do you remember that I told you about Mr. Robinson, the man who thought up the idea of carving giant statues? Well, the Needles is where he originally wanted those statues to be — not at Mt. Rushmore.

Needles

When Mr. Borglum came to visit, he found out that these rocks were too soft to carve. I think they are really beautiful just the way they are — without any faces.

Katie at Needles

See the hole in the rock? That was caused by wind and rain. No wonder Mr. Borglum couldn’t carve the Presidents’ faces here.

Hole in the Rock

People carved this tunnel through the Needles’ rocks. The space is just wide enough for cars if the drivers are very careful.

Car in the Rock!

Next, I went to Custer State Park. There are so many different kinds of animals in the park. (I’m not sure what this is – antelope?) They are used to seeing people and cars, so it’s easy to take their picture.

Antelope

These animals are bison – or American buffalo. There are 1,500 of them in the park. They weigh between 900 and 2200 pounds – and all they eat is grass. They like living here because there are miles and miles of prairies filled with sweet grass. When they are in a corral, the park rangers feed the bison hay.

Katie and the Buffalo

This is the corral where the park rangers bring the bison once a year to count them:

Buffalo

There are also wild donkeys in the park. These two came right onto the road to visit with me. They would have liked some food, but it’s never a good idea to feed wild animals.

Donkey

This bison is wearing his shaggy dark brown coat because winter is coming. In the summer, his coat is lighter weight and light brown color. The red tag means this one has been counted by the park rangers.

Buffalo

Bison eat in the morning and in the evening, and they sleep during the afternoon. They look quiet here, but they can run really fast when they want to.

Buffalo

My next photos will be of the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Tags: buffalo, Custer State Park, Needles, South Dakota

20
Nov

Katie’s Travels to South Dakota

Posted in Katie | 2 Comments »

Hi everyone! After some delays because of snow, I finally made it to Mt. Rushmore and South Dakota.

It’s a long way from Raleigh to South Dakota. I had to take two airplanes — one from Raleigh to Chicago, Illinois, and then a second plane to Rapid City, South Dakota. Rapid City is in the western part of South Dakota, on the edge of the Black Hills. The hills are really dark green because they are covered by Ponderosa Pine forests, which look black from a distance.

Rapid City is called the City of Presidents because there are life-size bronze statues of the Presidents of the United States on downtown street corners. There are four statues at an intersection. This statue is of President John F. Kennedy, 44th President, and his son John. It was fun to have my picture taken with them.

At the same intersection, there are statues of Andrew Jackson, our 7th President; Martin Van Buren, our 8th President; and James Polk, our 11th President. Did you know that Pres. Polk was born in North Carolina?

I found this sign just outside of Rapid City. Reptile Gardens has the world’s largest collection of snakes, lizards and crocodiles.

Because it gets very cold in South Dakota in the winter, the reptiles all live under a gigantic walk-through skydome.

I loved visiting Mt. Rushmore National Monument! Aren’t these the biggest statues you’ve ever seen? In 1924, a man named Doane Robinson wanted to be sure lots of people visited South Dakota. He thought that if there were enormous statues of famous people from the Wild West, visitors would come to visit his state. He imagined giant sculptures of Lewis and Clark, Buffalo Bill Cody, and the great Sioux warriors. He wrote a letter to a sculptor named Gutzon Borglum, who was busy designing a giant sculpture at Stone Mountain, Georgia. Has anyone seen the sculpture at Stone Mountain?

Mr. Borglum decided that it

would be a better idea to carve sculptures of four of our presidents. He chose George Washington to be a symbol of the birth of the United States, Thomas Jefferson who expanded the country through the Louisiana Purchase, Abraham Lincoln who preserved the Union, and Theodore Roosevelt who built the Panama Canal and visited the Black Hills many times. President Coolidge helped dedicate the beginning of work on the monument in 1927, and it took 14 years for the crew to drill, blast and chisel the faces in the mountain. The flag of every state is on this walkway to Mt. Rushmore. Can you find North Carolina’s flag?

I found it – even though the wind was blowing hard and wrapped the flag around its pole.

This is the base for our state’s flag. It tells when North Carolina became a state. Did you know that North Carolina was the 12th colony to become a state?

You can see the faces of our presidents here. Thomas Jefferson was supposed to be carved on the left side of President Washington. The workers started Jefferson’s face there, but when they were almost finished, they found out the rock was too soft to carve his lips. That’s why President Jefferson is on President Washington’s right side.

Starting from the left, you can see President Washington, President Jefferson, President Roosevelt and President Lincoln:

This is Gutzon Borglum, the sculptor who designed the monument. He died before the monument was finished, but his son Lincoln finished the job – and he also carved this sculpture of his father.

Mt. Rushmore is so beautiful. I hope you can visit it someday.

These sheep help cut the lawn at Mt. Rushmore. They came to South Dakota from Canada. Their coats are really warm. That’s a good thing because it’s very cold here in the winter.

At night, there are lights on the monument.

In my next post, I will tell you all about Custer State Park!

Tags: Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota

Archive for November, 2008

Thanksgiving

Spearfish Canyon and Wyoming

Crazy Horse

Custer State Park & Needles

Katie’s Travels to South Dakota

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