So I am looking at the map for tomorrow and my goal is to get to the Tetons/Yellowstone. But I wanted to see Little Big Horn. That adds 3 hours. Need to noodle on that.
And I have been relatively dissappointed with the quality of the cowboy souvenirs and especially the native american art. Poor.
I did stop at an “antique” store and was pretty pleased with some of the stuff. Bought a rodeo poster.
I’m hoping it gets better tomorrow.
Oh. Saw a Ford Focus on the side of the freeway abandoned. I am highly confident this thing T-Boned a cow or something….it was not an auto crash. Wish I had gotten a picture.
Now that I am blogging again, i will try and get some things more esoteric.
So today was eventful. I saw 4 Presidents, an Indian Chief, a biker mecca, a cowboy shootout and an alien landing zone.
What is Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Sturgiss, Deadwood, Devils Tower.
Fun Fact: You can buy liquor in SD and WY at a gas station.
From Rapid City across to Devils Tower is the Black Hills. Once past Devils Tower the plains are back. I cant imagine being a settler crossing months of plains then facing the Black Hills Mountain range. It wasn’t the Rockies and bigger mountains are to come, but it must have been a sight.
The plains are just so vast. The corn fields of Missouri and Iowa diquise it now, but back then it would have extend from basically the Mississippi River all the way to what is now western Wyoming…or Denver further south.
Oh books. I listened to Glory Road by Robert Heinlein. And now I’m Stranger In A Strange Land…also by Heinlein. Will discuss later.
As I was coming into Gillette, I started to see oil wells. Those of you that have travelled out west know what I am talking about. I will try and snap some pictures. Basically, there probably 100s of thousands or small self contained oil wells on private lands throughout the west. The homeowners get some of the proceeds from these wells. I am well clear of the Bakken oil fields but it is intersting to see.
Oh, Sturgis. Those of you that dont know, Sturgis is the site of a HUGE biker (think Harley) rally/meetup. I stopped in Sturgis and they are already starting to setup. Here is the line up that i captured on the drive in.
PS My photos dont/cant do justice to the amazing landscapes that are hear. From the corn, to the plains, to the canyons, mountain passes, gullies. ITs just so amazing.
Couple points about this trip. I just went, very little planning but i have been pleasantly surprised.
Hotels have been cheap…even at the last minute. I’m averaging about $80 per stay and they have all been decent. And traffic has been pretty good. Chalk all that up to Covid. I dont think that I have tapped my brakes for traffic since I left Tennessee.
So woke up in Wall, SD and decided to drive to The Badlands. From what I have gathered, they are volcanic based with various layers of rock and sediment of different colors. Think a pyschedelic mini Grand Canyon.
I also decided to ride my bike for the first time in a few weeks. It was hot with NO shade and some decent hills. Saw tons of Ram, Deer (antelope?) and thousands and thousands of prairie dog. Decided not to hike down into some of the gullies after the ride, but i bet they are pretty cool given the geologic changes.
All in all, a short day. Rapid City was an interesting town. Pretty small, as most of the cities have been since I passed Kansas City. Diners, cowboy goods, etc.
Another note. the roads have been FANTASTIC. High quality, no pot holes, smooth. Big difference from NYC for sure, but even from NC.
So I have been negligent in writing here….mostly because I enjoy keeping track of things that I see and what I am thinking. So I will fill in the gap as we go, but figured I would just start with this past week or so.
I left the Nantahala Outdoor Center in western NC on July 18th. I had been there for a week taking a Wilderness EMT Class…more on that later.
For many years, I had wanted to drive across the United States again…I had done so several times as a kid (I was a passenger) when my family lived in California). But I had not done it as an adult.
As an adult, I had travelled all over the US for business in planes trains and automobiles, and to the west on ski trips…but it wasnt the same.
So after some second thoughts, I took the plunge that morning on July 18 and headed west.
The first day and second days were relatively long since they were what I consider basically the same as the eastern US. I decided to lay on the miles and get up to South Dakota where I would take a more leisurely pace.
Day 1: Western NC to Cape Girardeau, MO Nothing much to speak of…but western TN starts with corn country and that extends into MO for sure.
Day 2: Cape Girardeau MO to Sioux City, Iowa Corn and….Corn. Ironically, the first two days of the trip i was listening to the book The Omnivores Dilemna by Michael Pollan. I highly recommend this book. Some of you may say this is a “lefty” or “vegetarian advocacy” book. Not so. In any case, the first 20% of the book is about corn and its impact on the American diet.
I guess it was past Omaha at about 6pm in the evening, that I started to get the sense of moving from what is basically the entire eastern seaboard to the plains.
(Lets face it…from about Jacksonville to Boston and over to St Louis looks BASICALLY the same…it really doesnt look that different. Only into upper New England and into Southern Florida does it look different. Yes!! there are pockets near the coasts…but freeway driving….not much. I look foward to your comments. As if.)
Day 3: Sioux City, Iowa to Wall, SD
Corn and then….
So up to about Kennebec, SD it was still all CORN (see book ref above). And then the plains began and it was grass. My first real diversion from just driving was to visit the Fort Pierre National Grassland (FPNG). Wow! I can see some of you rolling your eyes. I truly believe the Great Plains of the US should be a wonder of the world. Even after having been settled. The FPNG is a sight to behold.
I pulled off the highway and took some pictures. But more important than the sights, in a way, was the smell. It smelled like spices. Not freshly cut grass, but wild grass (not to be an ass, but read the book i referenced…it talks about cattle raised on GRASS vs CORN….sorry…it was just ironic that i read (listened) to that book as I took this trip).
The fact is that this grassland was one of the main reasons i took the trip. The Great Plains.
I stayed in the night in Wall, SD which is just north of The Bandlands.
Boat duty is pretty strenuous, especially being out in the sun during the dives. New respect for the Captains and deck hands of the boats I have dived from in the past.
