Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Cleveland and the End of our Journey!

On my way to Minnesota I decided to visit Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. I have seen the carved faces in the Mountains many times on pictures but actually experiencing the rock formation in short distance was just grandiose. I kept asking myself the question " How did Gutzon Borglum the sculptor know how the faces would look in the distance?" He either was a fantastic runner or a great visionary artist. His plan was to carve out the hole body's of the four US Presidents but before finishing he died and his son started to continue but insufficient funding forced the sculpturing to end. The whole idea of 60 foot (18m) faces of US Presidents looking down the valley was not really accepted and appreciated by Lakota and Sioux Native Americans. So I had mixed feelings about the scenery and just focused on the artistic value.
Not far from Mount Rushmore is another sculpture of Chief Crazy Horse who fought for his land.
His answer after being asked by a white man. "Where are your lands now" he replied. "My lands are where my dead lie buried."
I left Mount Rushmore and followed my nose towards Minnesota / St. Peter where I decided to visit friends from Cleveland.
After saying good bye I kind of planned to ride from St. Peter to Chicago and maybe soak up some art and architecture but I was brutally caught like a fly in a spiderweb in Chicago's traffic jams.
And since it was again Friday and everyone wanted to get home...... I decided to stay legal and not to try to squeeze myself between cars. So I easily inhaled smoke worth of one pack of cigarettes by just waiting and the orangy brown color picked to show the surrounding of Chicago on my map was just realistic. It was already way to late to explore the art scene and I decided to find a quiet Motel outside of Chicago.
In the morning freshly recovered and in perfect weather conditions I hopped on my bike for the last 4, 5 hours of the voyage and I missed the remoteness of the west as I was riding towards east and getting annoyed by the lack of driving skills. And please can someone explain to me the strong urge and need to drive slow on the left lane!!!???? Is there maybe some kind of hierarchy power associated with the lanes which may go way back to our ancestors ??? It is a mystery and it will never be solved.

I am in Cleveland now and our almost three month traveling on the bike tour has reached the end. I will miss the easily accessible connection and way of communication on the blog.
I want to THANK EVERY ONE who followed our path and supported us through our travels. It was a wonderful experience and the memories will live a long time.

And now my dear friends it is again time ..........

....to say good bye

Zennure

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amazing how quickly three month past by…
We the audience is the one’s that should be thankful that you shared your journey with us; you did a terrific job of painting a picture of your adventures!!!! I look forward to seeing you & till, drinking a pint and listening to more road stories.

miguel

Anonymous said...

missing you two now more than ever, can't wait to see you again soon.

ak

Anonymous said...

habe soeben deine letzte geschichte gelesen.... ich kann nur wunderschön sagen!

vermisse dich!

dein bruder yasin

George Monney said...

Ja Hallo Zenni und Till,

hat ein wenig länger gedauert, bis ich eure Seite mal im Internet besucht habe. Zwischenzeitlich habe ich es einfach wieder vergessen. Ich habe mir aber mit Freude eure Canada-Bilder angeschaut. Hat mich sehr an meinen Canada-Besuch erinnert. Tolles Land! Ich habe auch gesehen, daß Deine (Till) Haare ziemlich kurz sind. Du wirst doch nicht etwa älter?
Aber es scheint Euch gut zu gehen, und das ist die Hauptsache. Ich hoffe, wir sehen uns, wenn ihr das nächste Mal in Deutschland seid.
Meldet Euch
Bis dann und alles Liebe
George

Mary und Harald said...

Dear Zenni,

If you get this message, please give us a call, we are planning to visit friends in Cleveland over Labor Day and would love to see you.

Please call us at:

484-888-5324

Liebe Gruesse, Mary und Harald