We left Mitchell, SD in beautiful bright weather, greatly refreshed after our hot weather ordeal.
Little Did We Know.
I decided I want to learn how to tesseract to the next place you see. Anyone have any information on that?
We passed through "Philip" (look, Phil--one "l"!) and yes, I admit it, we did stop at the Corn Palace and I went in for about 5 minutes. Very sad when you looked at a picture of the original, which was all made of corncobs and really LOOKED like a palace, with swirly towers and sudden lurches of building lines. The new one is an unhallowed cross between Disney and Barbie.
We PASSED Wall Drug. Been there, done it, 15 years ago.
SD I-90 had billboards, unlike ND I-94 (except going into Fargo, of course). They were really a pain--stunts as tourism.
The wind picked up and we remembered that the KOA folks had told us about a semi being overturned the night before. And on and on...
At the Black Hills gas resumed its usual expensiveness.
We cruised into Wyoming and my big excitement: Devil's Tower!
It was hot and sunny as we turned off and drove through the hills, no other cars in sight. Suddenly there it was, peeking out, and not mashed potatoes neither. As we came down into it, though, we saw more, and suddenly, at the base, a circus of craziness: a KOA (of course), a store for tourists, and about a zillion other concessions and crap. Well, everyone has to make a living, but Native Americans aren't happy about it all.
We looked and left. Things got more barren. We saw oil wells. And, in the distance, hope--the Bighorn Mountains. We had planned to go camp in there, but we were really wiped out and yes, once again, we went to a KOA. Oh big mistake!
KOA from Hell
OK, first off, the usual right next to the freeway thing. Fine. Relatively cheap (though not SP cheap). Fine. Cute little rabbits hopping around. Yeah.
(You might be able to see the bunny hiding behind the grill's post.)A zillion people. The most ferocious mosquitoes encountered yet, but stifling heat. Wifi horrible. I end up in the laundry room on my computer, listening to two women talk about how Obama isn't really a citizen and all their freedoms are being taken away and how sad it was that Obama had really had a chance to do something for black people and had blown it. One told the other to read "1984," a really good book about it. As I'm leaving, I finally lose it. "Ladies," I stated in a nasty rage, "George Orwell was a dedicated socialist. Just check it out."
They promptly asked me if my rights weren't being taken away and then where I was from. Mentioning Seattle obviously wasn't helpful. At that point Scott, who had shown up, helped hustle me out, telling me all the while how unclear I had been and that they hadn't understood a thing I said. I had to go sulk for a while and then snap out of it. It's no good coming at folks that way, and I felt bad about it. It would have been more interesting to ask them how they got to those beliefs.
We slept badly, itching all over. This includes T-Lou.
Corn Palace! Patrick told me about that... you weren't too far from where he's living (and he would love to have seen you). They actually built a small "Corn Palace" one summer on the National Mall in DC as part of the Festival of American Folklife that the Smithsonian does; it was neat watching it being built.
ReplyDeleteI'm envious of your seeing Devil's Tower - I've wanted to see it since I was a kid (yes, even before "Close Encounters of the Third Kind!). I have a snippet of a memory of our drive with Mom and Dad in the summer of '65 - they dismissed a visit to it because it involved a considerable side-trip off the main highway.
Cool (even chilly) here, still. Miss you both!