Gone, gone, gone.

My brothers went back to South Dakota on Sunday.

We went to the Will Rogers Shrine to the Sun while they were here. Interesting. Very veritical. Very much way up the mountain.

The shrine is fronted by a pair of white marble Chinese temple dogs, each about four feet high, on granite pedestals. The shrine itself is built like a castle tower, square, slits for windows, multiple balconies. There’s a chapel at the base of the shrine with the remains of the Penroses, one of the city’s “founding couples” and the builders of the Broadmoor hotel and a lot of railroad track. Funders. Backers. World-travelers. Philanthropists. That sort of folk.

You know the type.

The interior of the shrine is partly covered with a mural depicting scenes from the life of Will Rogers, or so saith the information at the tourist stop at the bottom of the shrine. There were lots of railroads and, uh, g-strung Native Americans.

I spent a lot of time hanging onto Ray as if her life depended on it (huh) and daydreaming about windswept castles watching over valleys below…