Dixie’s Road Trip Notes from the Road

South Dakota – Day 6

Badlands

GALLERY
http://dixiesroadtrip.smugmug.com/gallery/3242514

South Dakota – Day 5

Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse

GALLERY
http://www.dixiesroadtrip.smugmug.com/gallery/3242525
http://dixiesroadtrip.smugmug.com/gallery/3242530

Time: 9:30 AM
Mileage:

I woke early, made myself an excellent breakfast and prepared for the day. Another great day with the top down. We, you and I as taxpayers, have really invested some serious tax dollars in the Shrine of Democracy. The complex for the Rushmore Monument is nothing like most national parks I've been to. Beautiful marble and granite columns, walkways, a huge amphitheater and plenty of corporate funding projects to boot.

The trail to the monument takes you right underneath so you can quite literally look up the nose of any of the presidents. I think Teddie was the most intriguing to me right now. He was the outdoorsman and was really the founding father of the national park system.

From Rushmore, I diverted from plan and followed Route 16A. What a find. A road choked with corkscrew turns, tunnels and unique spots where the road splits into one lane sections and turnouts with long distance views of Rushmore.

I split onto a national forest road 783 and cut through to the Needles HWY. At first I was disappointed in it. The timber cuts made the view more like a messy child's work of art. However, it eventually closed in around and I was driving among the granite needles. One of the tunnels was barely more than a crack in the mountain.

I learned the most on this trip from Crazy Horse and I took a few inspiring quotes with me. "Storytelling in stone" and I paraphrase..."Let me create something that can only be destroyed by wind and rain". I am close but not exact.

I was surprised to learn that Crazy Horse has been under construction since the 1940's. The sculptor spent the first five years doing the work on his own. He died in the 80's and now his family continues the project. They adamantly reject any offers of federal support. It means there is no way to tell when it will be complete but it seems somehow right to me. If they took money from the government, then it would be a grotesque hypocrisy.

Tonight, I will return to Rushmore for the evening lighting. It's my final night and thankfully the skies are clear. Tomorrow I am off to IL to see Addie and Mandy ... by way of the Badlands.

South Dakota – Day 4

I am in Hill City for breakfast. Today, I head to Devil's Tower, Deadwood, Sturgis and will take a scenic route. I will head west from here to CR 318 that should take me through old mining towns like Castleton and Mystic.

GALLERY
http://dixiesroadtrip.smugmug.com/gallery/2810896

Time: 9:00 AM
Mileage: 13695

This proved to be the best road of the trip so far. Some gravel and four wheel travel and most of it followed the Mickelson Trail, a 110 mile rails to trails trailway. I started making a list of the top places I have visited and would like to live that aren't in Texas.

The requirements for a place to make the list:

1. Cool winding roads
2. Small population
3. River, creek or lake access
4. Mountain Scenery

Here's a short list in no particular order:

• Cordelene, ID
• Moscow, ID
• anywhere between Hill City, SD & Spearfish, SD (preferably with a view of the Mickelson Trail)
• North of Sundance, WY
• Medicine Park, OK
• Flat Head Lake MT
• Near Jackson Hole, WY
• Polebridge, MT
• And a more than few towns in NM

This is the list so far. I hope to add to it as I travel more extensively.

The Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway was also a treat. Spearfish is a good size town. I probably should have gone on up to Belle Forche but I decided to skip it and head straight to Devil's Tower.

Devil's Tower
GALLERY
http://dixiesroadtrip.smugmug.com/gallery/3242521

Time:1:07 MT
Mileage: 14,341

What an extraordinary natural wonder. It towers up from what seems like nothing. It's grown up to become this strong, geological wonder standing alone. It makes perfect sense that it is and has been for centuries a spiritual mecca for native people. I was especially drawn to the Lakota story for how it came to be and in fact, I have always loved indian legends and folklore. One of my poems, The Moon and Me, was written after I heard a woman tell the story of the origin of the phases of the moon.

The weather is finally cooperating. I took the top down while in the devil's tower park and keep it down for the ride home. Deadwood and Sturgis were in my path home but neither was especially captivating. I stopped and had a beer in Sturgis because it seemed wrong not to. Then I moved on to Deadwood, found Mt Moriah Cemetary (which wasn't easy). I visited the graves of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane. It sits on a hill (understatement) above Deadwood that would have even the most dedicated marathoner crying like a baby. Most of the graves are on steep slopes. Once you are up there though, you can see the entire town and valley below.

South Dakota – Day 2

GALLERY: http://dixiesroadtrip.smugmug.com/gallery/2810896

CHANGE OF GAME PLAN
Time: 9:50 am
Mileage: 13,678

I waited about an hour to see what the weather was planning for the day. Instead of continuing north on 281 to O'Neill and then west on HWY 20, I decided on HWY 2 which headed northwest hoping to avoid the storm they were predicting in Central NE. I noticed that the hail last night gave me a crack in the windshield. I could find any other dings but Rubi's dirty. I'll have to look later.

It was another incredibly stressful day. I spent most of it trying to stay ahead or slow down to avoid catching up to storms ahead of me. There were occasional spots of sunshine but few and far between. I stopped for gas in Thedford, NE. Just outside of town, I encountered hail again. Since I powered through it last night, I did the same today. Poor Rubi is getting hammered.

MOUNTAIN TIME
Time: 1:07pm c / 12:07pm m
Mileage:

I dont think I've ever been so stressed about the weather for such a sustained period of time. Two days now and each minute has been filled with some sort of dread. It's exhausting.

SOUTH DAKOTA FINALLY
Time: 3:00pm c/2:00 m
Mileage: 13,982

I stopped for gas in Martin, SD. Back skies masked my path forward. Just outside of town, I again found hail. Like some cosmic joke. I am now paranoid about stopping for gas. Hail three times in two days. Rubi's going to rebel any minute and make me face the hail without her protective cover. I'll be shocked if the only damage is the crack in the windshield.

I found a brief reprieve from rain near Wounded Knee. I drove up to the monument. It is surrounded by an ugly fence. I am disappointed that I didn't ask the folks to stand back so I could take a shot of the entrance. I also should have shot the historical marker. You can see where a small plaque of the word massacre was mounted over another word which I can only guess said "battle" or something like that used to indicated it was somehow a fair fight.

When I hit Oglala, SD the radio announces that Martin, SD is now under the threat of a tornado. I am beginning to feel like tornados are now stalking me personally. My first stretch of HWY 18/385 was a solid, soaking rain and finally I am not scared. This rain feels good, cleansing even.

Hot Springs was interesting. A town that follows a river. I would like to visit it again. The rest of my trip was soothing. Everything was wet but the trees were hugging me and the winding road with all its switchbacks and rugged walls that surrounded me were calming.

I am finally relaxing.

CAMPGROUND IN HILLS CITY
Time: 6:00pm m
Mileage: 14,173

The Black Hills are really black like Oklahoma Red Dirt is red. I settled into the campground. This cabin's not as nice as the one in Grand Island but the view and surroundings are much better. I have a creek right behind my cabin.

After dinner, I went on out to Mount Rushmore. It is lighted at night. From my vantage point, it looked smaller then I thought it would. Coming in from the other direction, you get a better view from the road. There's a turn out where you can see a profile view. It's of Washington. I took some shots but with my meager knowledge of photography and an inability to hold the camera still (a tripod would help), I didn't get much. I did however, manage to capture the extraordinary sky. It's that rare blue that you can only see just between dusk and dark and only after it rains. It was so gorgeous, I took what was all around me.

South Dakota – Day 1

GALLERY: http://dixiesroadtrip.smugmug.com/gallery/2810896

Day 1 - May 4, 2007
Time: 8:45am
Mileage: 12,918

HOMETOWN

The day started relatively uneventful. I was about an hour behind schedule having decided to give myself an extra 45 minutes of sleep and a quick stop at hayseed's house to say goodbye.

About 7 miles south of Bellevue on 287, I spotted a sign for Hopewell Cemetery. I wonder if this is where Walt got the picture for his cd cover.

I crossed the Red River close to noon (11:41am). Signs told me that OK is celebrating its centennial, 100 years as a state. I stopped to visit my grandparents at the Fort Sill cemetery (Dixie, Bill). I finally exited 281 on a familiar stretch of highway that used to take me home to Elgin. It is weird to think that all those years I lived there that all I would have had to do was step out my front door to a highway that could take me all the way south to the border of Mexico or north to Canada.

The tiny little smoke shop just off the exit and before Porter Hill where all my friends in high school would go to get cheap cigarettes is still there. It's now the tiniest casino on what must be the tiniest Indian reservation. And, Dolese is still there changing the landscape; mining rocks and crushing sand.

The old house looks worse each year. I drove along the lakeside, looking at the back of the house. I am surprised to see the porch still stands. I followed the dirt road down to the water. The lake has changed so much that there is no longer water in the part of lake that I would wake up and see every morning. The spot where my grandfather would put me on his shoulders to walk us through the water to the island where we would fish is now bone dry.

I stopped in next town, Apache, for an indian taco. One of these days I'll learn to make fry bread so I can make them for myself. Then I will not have to wait to have one once every ten years...about as often as I get back there.

OTHER TIDBITS: Binger, OK is the home of Johnny Bench. In 5th grade, my softball coach nicknamed a a teammate, Vickie, Johnny Bench because she was catcher and he called me Pete Rose because of my head first slides. I need to look up Red Rock Canyon in Hinton, OK.

KANSAS SUCKS - Kansas state line
Time: 4:21pm
Mileage:

My evening turned really thrilling as I closed in on the NE state line. By the time I hit Smith Center, I was in the middle of storms threatening tornados. Thanks to a kind citizen who, unbeknownst to him, lent me his metal car port allowed me to avoid the hail though it would find me later.

Unable to find a way around or a safe place to stop, I decided to continue northeast. The route took me toward the storm I'd just let pass but another one behind was threatening more tornados. I drove as slow as possible so I wouldn't catch the hail and severe weather but the storm was also slow. By the time I reached Lebanon, KS, I had caught the storm again. Now going north toward Red Cloud NE, I found myself in the hail. I turned back around to wait it out at a county road further back. The radio was calling out a tornado in Riverton, 20 miles west of Red Cloud. I knew I had to keep moving forward if I wanted to stay ahead of the tornado filled storm. A trail of storm chasers past by so I tucked in behind them reasoning that they were racing to a storm but would not be putting themselves in a direct path. It didn't keep me out of the hail but it did get me past the storm. The hail was good for the mere fact that I got mad and forgot to be scared.

NEBRASKA STATE LINE
Time: 9:14pm
Mileage: 13,606

I reached the campground just after 10:00pm and happy to have a sturdy structure to ride out the storms as they caught up to me. I like the little cabin.