Exploring The Great Plains • Part Two

~Exploring ND, SD, NE, KS, and OK Highest Peaks and Other Sites in The Great Plains~

~This trip is broken up into 3 parts. It was an epically long trip and therefore is an epically long blog.~

CLICK HERE FOR PART ONE

Travel log

September 6th • Day 8:

I couldn’t get consistently comfortable to sleep. I tried setting up a nice little nest for myself with all my things I had and it was comfortable at first, but throughout the night I discovered that it was uncomfortable to have my back on the spot where the seats connect. Also, It got down to go to 45°, so between the temp and the Princess and the Pea moments, it was a bit rough.

Once I showered the crazy night off of me, I went to Black Hills Bistro for breakfast…around noon. I was moving a bit slow. By 1, I was driving up the Needles Highway scenic drive in Custer State Park. I paid the $20 for my seven day pass. It’s a bit high, I thought, but it didn’t hit me so hard because I knew I would be back the next day to conquer Black Elk Mountain, the highest peak in South Dakota. Most of the time, I’m in a park for one day only, but not on this trip. This trip was all about slowing down and taking my time.

The needles are pretty impressive. I even got a little vertigo. I drove up so high, got out of the car and stood there looking up even higher to see these amazing needle-like granite formations and got a little dizzy. I thought it was really cool to be able to experience them up close on the ground and then, the next day see them from high above looking down. At one point you drive through the “Needle’s Eye” which is a tunnel made by wind, rain, freezing and thawing.

Afterwards, I went down the Wildlife Loop scenic road a ways because I still had some time, but didn’t see any wildlife because it was in the middle of the day. Typically the best times to see wildlife are at dusk or dawn. So, then I drove the Iron Mountain Road scenic drive out of the park to head to Crazy Horse.

Crazy House was a larger place than I thought it would be. As soon as I got out of the car, I noticed people lining up for a “bus tour”. I didn’t know what that was, but I went over to the ticket booth and the guy said that it was a $5.00 tour to the enormous sculpture of Crazy Horse that they are working on and will be working on for a very long time. The bus takes you as close as you can get to it and the next tour was in 2 minutes. So, I hopped on! A nice middle aged Lakota native greeted me as I got on. He was our tour guide. He told us stories of how they have been blasting and carving it and said that people work seven days a week; year around on this project. Wow!

So far, the entire head of Crazy Horse and the hand is done. There is a faint outline of where some of the other pieces that will emerge eventually from the mountain are going to be. Wow, I really wish I could see the entire thing completed, but it will never be done in my lifetime.

When we where we were the closest we could safely get to the work, they let us get off the bus to take photos of it being built right before our eyes. So, there we are piling off of the bus to our guide standing in front of the monument, still talking. The moment I stepped out, I raised my arms to take a photo, and…BAM...instantly get stung in the armpit by a bee. Hahahahaha!

I can’t make this shit up. So there I am standing there trying to act like I don’t feel the poison seeping into my body…oh, but I do. I decided that I needed to try to look at my armpit to make sure the stinger was out, but it’s really hard to do that nonchalantly, for one, for 2…I was starting to get some weird looks. I decided to just grin and bear it and let it go and for the rest of the talk before I was given the Indian name of Scratches at Armpit.

Speaking of names, Crazy Horse got his name from his father. It is traditional that they are given one name when they are born, but then take on their father’s name once they have proven themselves in battle (which he did at 18) or some other way. Then his father went back to his childhood name of Worm. Dang. He must have really loved his son to go back to Worm! I thought that was a really awesome tradition.

Our guide went on to talk frankly about the current state of our country a bit and was talking all about the Lakota Indians being ready to fight the government if need be. He said that white people should fight too. The way they see it is that we have two choices; fight or surrender to the corrupt government. He said, “Us Lakota are going to fight and other tribes make fun of us because we’re ready to fight saying we’re violent, but we’re not violent we just wanna protect what is ours!” However, the Lakota see it as a better option than surrendering and losing their freedoms. He also talked about bloodlines and how they don’t really matter to them. They care less less about your actual bloodline, and more with the fact that you were just born there. He said that his own mom had yellow hair and Crazy Horse had light curly hair. In fact, his nic-name before Crazy Horse was Curly or Light Hair by his mom because his light curly hair resembled her own.

At one point our guide broke down in tears when he was talking about a name the Crow tribe had for the Lakota. It shocked us all. I don’t remember the insult (I wish I did), but it hit him hard thinking about being called it as a kid. Remembering the word didn’t matter as much as seeing the impact it had on him still as an adult. Sad. I wanted to give him a hug and I should have, but I was just kind of frozen. Different Indian tribes fight amongst themselves just as much as people of other races or religions fight against each other, at times.

After saying, “bye” to our awesome bus guide, I wandered around the museums and gift shop until I remembered at 4:30 they were going to have dancers doing a show outside. When I went out, I saw the very end of a solo hoop dancer as I was walking towards the stage. I watched her sell some of her handmade jewelry and explain what every stone was in them for those who wanted to know. I got a seat right up front and center and eagerly awaited. I kind of wished I would have gotten there a bit earlier to catch her act too, but I knew I’d be there well after dark for the laser show and I really didn’t know how much there was going to be to do there. Well, it turns out that there was a ton going on that day because I completely lucked out and just happened to be there on the 75th year anniversary of the Crazy Horse monument being built!!! Whaaaaat!? I was excited!

The dancers were welcomed on stage by a couple men speaking a little beforehand about the big 75th year anniversary. I looked to my right to see a colorful sea of feathers and fringe headed my way. They jingled with bells up to the stage. They were a beautiful Apache family of 6 of dancers and storytellers from Arizona. The wife was originally from Alberta. They met while dancing at an event. Aww! The father of the family gave us a brief introduction to his family and told us in between each act what we were about to see. The stories were adorable. Their masks were great. The father’s flute playing was soothing and the hoop dancing was super cool! I was watching to see how many of the moves I use in my performances and there were quite a few…that is until they kept adding more and more hoops. Ha! I love the animal shapes they made with them. It was about an hour and a half show and I enjoyed every single minute of it! They were all great, but the littlest one was by far the cutest thing ever to me.

When their show was over they mentioned that they had a couple of flute CD’s for sale and that they would be available to chat and take photos with people. Since I was in the front row, I was one of the first people to jump up and get a photo with the brightly colored family. They all laughed at me when I attempted a selfie with them, but I LOVE the genuine smiles that I got and I just love how willing they were to do that! They were fun! When we were all dying laughing at the selfies, a stranger asked me if I would like her to take a photo for me. I thanked her and accepted the offer, but honestly, prefer the selfie in hindsight. It was much more fun to take! I love that my antics had them sharing a laugh with me. Good times for sure. Unfortunately, the mom was not in any of the photos because she was selling the CD’s and talking to people about their music. Bummer, but, I’m glad they were selling some.

I just wanted to hang out with them the rest of the evening, but I had more things to see. I walked around the rest of museums that I didn’t see beforehand. There was a spot that had a sign saying to take a rock from the blasting of the monument, so I picked out the one rock with the most reddish tones in it. It’s a cool rock. It stood out. The rest of the rocks were a light cream color.

Then, I wanted to see if the restaurant was still open, but it was being used for a VIP event for the 75th year anniversary of Crazy Horse. They did have a mini snack bar and I figured that was better than nothing. I got some nachos and cheese, combos, and a mini box of red wine. Carbs, rubber cheese, and chemicals, Oh my! Strange dinner, I know, but that was the best thing I could find to eat there. It was mostly hotdogs. Blech. I sat down at a table that was not roped off by the big wigs and I listened in to some of their speakers in suits. It was mostly dull and boring. As I was sitting there eating, I saw the dancing family slowly change out of their regalia and into street clothes. One by one they would pass by the cafe windows to a place to change. They hung out afterwards and enjoyed the festivities.

After eating my garbage dinner, I headed to my car to charge my phone for a few minutes and warm up for the drone and laser show at 8:30! Apparently they have never done a drone and laser show on the same night before! Since this is the big 75th anniversary, they were testing out using some drone guy for the nighttime show to see if they wanted to switch from a laser show to drone only! At least that’s what I overheard. Either way, I picked a great time to come!!!!

I saw some more fun museum things on the way through the building to head back out back to the nighttime show…

When I lived in Alaska for a couple of years, I worked at an art gallery briefly. I got to see the best artwork that Alaska had to offer and much of it was native art. My favorite tribal art was usually from the Tlingit (the T is pronounced like a K) tribe. When I passed the display case (below), I knew immediately that it was from the Tlingit and I was ecstatic to see it. Love…

I was walking back towards the stage when I heard someone singing the national anthem for the veterans. I had overheard that they were planning on doing that and it sounded great. I don’t know what else they did, if anything, to honor them because I was taking my break in the car, but It was amazing. I had no idea it was gonna be so patriotic.

It was 61° at 8:30 when it was about to start, but it was dropping quickly. It felt much, much colder with the wind and the low temperature for the night was to be 45°. Meh. I had a fleece lined jacket on and I was still kind of cold. Hood was up, but I was kicking myself for not grabbing my gloves and very warm beanie hat. I was not about to lose my awesome seat I got in the second row to go get them that’s for sure. There were so many people there for the show. All the VIP’s were done with their boring talks and were all outside then along with a bunch of others that seemed to come out of no where. There were a bunch of people standing behind the few rows of seats they had, so I was happy I was able to squeeze my little butt in a seat. See? Another benefit of traveling alone. I noticed that workers kept bringing out single chairs for people in the back. Probably some VIP’s. The photos I took are awful quality, but you get an idea of how epic and grand it all was.

The drone show was first and then they started the laser show. I hands down preferred the drone one. I definitely think they should tell the drone guy he’s got the job. It was so much crisper and brighter. It was hard to take photos of the laser show because my camera and phone wouldn’t focus, but the drone lights were easier to focus on. I took a few photos with my cell phone. I thought it was really cool that they projected the show right on the huge mountain that is being carved. It was a really powerful and moving show especially with patriotic music blasting, some words from the sculptor himself and other dialogue. They played a tiny movie in the beginning projected onto the rock as well. It was really special and I couldn’t be happier that I got to experience it all.

The final laser image was what the sculpture is going to look like when it’s completely finished. It was projected right at the exact spot, so we could visualize how gigantic and amazing it will be. Sadly, none of us that were there will see its completion, but the sculptor himself saw even less. Korczak Ziolkowski, the sculptor, died on October 20th, 1982 at age 74. He dedicated his last 36 years of life to the project. His sons helped him blast his own tomb in a rock outcropping a the base of the mountain. He even wrote his own epitaph for the door. He cut the letters into a steel plate that read: “KORCZAK Storyteller in Stone. May His Remains Be Left Unknown”. His wife and kids continue where he left off.

When it is completed, it will be the largest sculpture in the world.

As soon as it was over, I went back to my campsite 12 minutes away and set up my hammock. I also set up a space in the backseat to try to sleep in case the hammock situation didn’t work out for me again. My hammock was still damp at the head end from the storm a couple days before, but it was too far up to bother me…at first.

By by 10:30, I got comfy … not in my hammock and fell asleep.

I’ll end this day with a great quote from The Crazy Horse Light show that I can’t get out of my mind, “Their only book was nature and they knew all of the pages.”

Charles M. Russell

September 7 • Day 9:

I was awake for the final time around 6 AM. From the front seat of my car where I ended up attempting to sleep in the middle of the night, I saw the sunrise over the mountains in front of me. Amazing. I believe I slept more than I did the night before but it wasn’t great sleep because I kept waking up. I decided that I was going to put my hammock under the car foot heater and try to dry it off so I could sleep in that again, because that still seems to be my best choice for sleeping in this particular car. I miss my Saturn. That back seat was made for sleeping, man!

Since I was awake so early, I was debating whether or not to climb the Black Elk mountain. I originally decided that I would get a cabin for the night, so I could actually stretch out and get some good sleep before doing the hike the following day. BUT, I ultimately decided that I was ready to do it and I was feeling up for it! It took me a while to make a decision while I was lounging in my car, but as soon as I did, I jumped up, showered quickly, and went to get breakfast back at the place I did the day before.

At Black Hills Bistro, I got the same breakfast… Avocado toast, with eggs on it plus a side of potatoes. However, I got 2 extra eggs because I knew that I would need the protein. So I loaded up and immediately headed to the trailhead.

I was on the trail head by 10 AM, but I totally could’ve been there earlier if I didn’t take so long debating what I wanted to do for the day. I figured if I do Black Elk early enough then I could still probably do Mount Rushmore after. A two for one exciting day!

I lightened my bag a little bit in the parking lot then set off on the trail. It was a beautiful sunny Sunday day with a high in the 70’s. I saw people starting on the trail carrying nearly nothing and other ones carrying very little. Upon seeing this, I started reevaluating what all I was bringing. I took out my rain pants and an extra bottle of water and a bunch of other little things out that I knew I didn’t need i n order to lighten the load. I only had one very large bottle of water, and I was planning on bringing two of them.

Shortly after getting on the trail, I noticed some other people. It’s definitely a popular destination. Honestly, I was extremely happy to see people. After doing so many high peaks alone where I haven’t seen one single soul, it was nice to have a few fellow hikers around. It feels safer. Safety in numbers kind of thing. It was nice to have the option to pass people when I wanted or to stay and chat with others when I wanted. I loved having that choice! And some people that I would pass, I would see again when I stopped to take photos or drink water. It was not overcrowded by any means. It was the perfect amount of people! It felt homey and I reveled in being around fellow hikers this time around. Sometimes, I love the solitude, but this was just perfect for me this day on this mountain. I didn’t feel so alone. But also, I really had amazing conversations with everyone I met. It felt like I was hanging out with old friends.

I first met this 30-something couple with a sweet, black-and-white dog, named Nina. We walked together for quite a while before they decided to take a water break for Nina and them. I kept going. But with my several stops to take photos and drink water myself, they eventually caught up with me. Nina’s mom, Laurie said that as soon as I walked away, and they weren’t following me that Nina started whimpering. She said that Nina thought I was part of the group now and she was very concerned that I was leaving without them. Aww babyyyyy!!

So we continued on together again for a while, meeting other groups coming down the mountain, meeting others coming up at different speeds. They asked me about my High Pointing adventures. I love talking about that to everyone that shows an interest. I thoroughly enjoy entertaining people with my antics. People seem so interested to hear my stories and always want to ask me about my favorite, most dangerous or the highest one of ever done etc. This couple asked me about my favorite. I told them that when I did them, Vermont and Maine’s highest peaks had the best views at the summit. Mt Katahdin (Maine’s Highest peak) was my first one and is still my all-time favorite. I love storytelling, so we had lots to chat about and it made the miles pass quicker.

We got separated again closer to the summit. I don’t remember why, but they stopped for some reason and I told them I would see them at the summit! I hoped that they would make it! I started to wonder if they turned around and headed back down because I didn’t see them behind me for a while after that.

Then as I was sitting down enjoying the view and eating a granola bar near the summit, I saw Nina coming around the bend up the steps that leads to the fire tower. I was on a ledge leading up to the fire tower summit. I screamed, “Yay! There you guys are! You made it!” Jared, Laurie’s boyfriend, came right up to me and said, “Another high peak for you! Congrats” and gave me an enthusiastic high five. Aww! I don’t think I’ve ever been given a high five for making it to a summit. Again…usually there is no one around for that to happen. As I loved on Nina more, he asked me how this summit ranked and if it was a number three favorite now. I told him that I thought it was! It was definitely up there!! They were so nice and Nina and I were happy to see each other again.

They continued up to the fire tower while I finished my snack. I was not far behind. So many people were there taking their time while eating snacks, chatting and enjoying the view and exploring the stone fire tower. It had a creepy, dark basement, upstairs and middle area. I could live there! It looked like a mini old castle! While chatting, more and more people kept making it up to the summit while we were there. PARTY AT THE PEAK!

As we were all taking photos of each other in front of the gorgeous view and the fire tower, people started checking their phones for the weather because it looked like black clouds were rolling in. None of our apps said that it was supposed to rain at all, so we kinda brushed it off. That is until it started to pour hard minutes later. Um…that wasn’t supposed to happen. We were all shocked.

So there we were all huddled into the fire tower together to stay out of the rain when many were scattered everywhere on the balcony and steps moments before. Others kept making to the top and running for the shelter already completely drenched. We were so lucky, I thought, to make it to the summit before the rain started.

After awhile, the tower started to fill up like a clown car. It was totally awesome! We were all talking to each other finding out where everyone was from and, of course, everyone made friends with Nina. It was so natural and friendly. During our conversations, Nina took the opportunity to lay down next to me and take a little nap, but not before getting cashew treats from me. Most of us were eating something at that point. The camaraderie was great! Their were no wet blankets, only wet people.

The rain started around 12:30 PM and I figured we hung out at least 20 minutes chit-chatting until the first brave souls ventured out on their descent. There had to have been over 20 of us in various parts of that tower. When the rain seemed to stop for good, the majority started putting their backpacks on and getting ready to descend, I decided to run down to the basement and check that out at that time because I hadn’t yet. I was too busy chatting, snacking and loving on Nina. When I came back up, it was a ghost town, so I threw on my backpack and quickly left to catch up.

It didn’t take me long at all to meet up to another one of main couples I was chatting with. I got into a great rhythm of walking and talking with a lady named Judy hiking with her husband. We are both fast walkers and fast talkers. It was a wonderful conversation and pace, but she had to keep stopping to let her husband catch up a bit. I was OK with the breaks even though I wanted to get off of the mountain before being struck by lightning. Because just when we thought that the rain was over for good and that we could have a dry decent, rumbling thunder turned into hard rain again. We didn’t get very far Haha! I quickly dropped my backpack and threw on the rain cover. I thought about grabbing my rain jacket that I had with me, but at that point, I was already soaked, and it didn’t matter. I was not cold. The fast pace and the rain kept me at the perfect temperature.

We then came up on Nina and her parents sitting huddled under a dense tree area. They were trying to get out of the rain as much as they could, but they were clearly soaked as well. They wanted to let the thunderstorm blow over, but saw that that it didn’t look like that was going to happen anytime in the near future. We chatted for a bit then they got up and joined us as we carried on in the pouring rain together the 6 of us.

The lightning and thunder was very close many times and it was making me pretty uncomfortable to be on the highest peak of South Dakota during one hell of a thunderstorm. The rain is one thing, but I needed the lightning to stop. It was soooo close and the thunder was so loud. Every time lightning would strike. I would speed up a just a little bit more. It was Judy and I in the lead chatting our heads off and it helped keep my mind off of the storm. This was the point where she told me her name. She said that she felt like she should tell me her name and needed to know mine if she were to continue asking a bunch of personal questions haha. Nothing she asked was too personal and I enjoyed sharing my hiking stories. Judy was older than me, but together we were keeping up a fast pace and leaving everyone in the dust. We got so caught up in our awesome conversation and were just flying down the mountain.

Once we realized that we were far ahead of the rest of the group, so we stopped and turned around and saw no one. She started to go look for her husband and I was calling for Nina. We wanted to make sure everyone was still OK. Judy’s partner appeared first and said that he wanted to take a rest on the bench that was up ahead and drink some water. I decided that that was not a bad idea and parked it with them. Nina and them showed up a few minutes after. Nina’s mama told me that she was not whimpering and wasn’t worried about me because she could still hear my voice up ahead, but she wanted to keep up a good pace. Haha It’s a good thing I’m so loud. From that point on, Nina seem to like me leading the pack and would wait for me to go ahead, but then other times she wanted to go ahead and lead, but it was mostly me. The few times that she was ahead of me, she so cutely, kept turning around to check on us in the back. She did it so much. I think that’s why she liked me being ahead more, so she could keep track of her pack better. When she kept turning around, I joked that she’s like a marine, “leave no man behind.”

On the entire descent, it started and stopped raining a few times. Each time it stopped, I thought that it was done for good. Just when I took my rain cover off, it started raining again within minutes. Minutes! It was comical. Sigh…so of course I just left it on the last time until I was back at the car.

Once at our cars, I gave my business cards to my new friend Judy and I meant to give one to Laurie and Jared, but sadly they were already gone. I put everything away and was trying to figure out how to get to Mount Rushmore from where I was. I knew it was very close, but I had no cell service at the parking lot. So I went down the mountain a bit trying to get some bars and I stopped at a different parking lot. Still no service, but as fate would have it Lo and behold I saw Nina and her parents! I rolled down my window, and said to Jared, “I think you guys are following me?” Haha! I got out and talked to him and gave him a couple of my business cards then. He thanked me for that because he said that he and his girlfriend kept repeating the name of my website over and over again to each other, so they wouldn’t forget it. That worked out well. I only saw Nina and Jared because she was inside using the bathroom. That was the reason for their stop there. He told me that they were heading to the winery in town to get some food. I told him that sounded great and that I was ready to eat myself. I saw flyers and billboards for that place and would have loved to join however, I wanted to get to Mount Rushmore and spend the rest of my day there. I hoped that they had food there and he said that he was pretty sure they did.

While there was a lull in the rain, I took the opportunity to take off my wet shoes and change into dry sandals. I was trying to dig for a shirt to put on, but it started raining again! Ahh! So I closed everything up, got back on my car, said goodbye to them again as I drove by and left.

I headed in the direction I thought Mount Rushmore was without still not having cell service at all for awhile. Then by the time I saw signs for it, I had cell service again. I was happy that I was going in the right direction. The area was definitely getting more familiar to me. From the mountain, I drove straight there… sweaty, wet with rain, starving and probably stinky. That’s how I do…

The Mount Rushmore park is much larger than I ever imagined! They had an enormous parking area as well. I paid my $10 parking fee and headed on in. Once there, I checked out a couple of gift shops and I got a cute little pocket constitution to stick in my purse. Then I headed towards food. There only appeared to be one cafeteria type place and an ice cream parlor. I got a veggie burger and fries and headed outside with my tray to sit on the patio even though they had a large dinning room area. I sat facing the Mount Rushmore monument while I ate. That was a great view to have while eating and what a perfect setting and a nice day in the sun. I was hoping to dry out some more. The veggie burger was not very good, but I was hungry, so I ate it. I couldn’t believe I was finally there. I had been wanting to explore all these places in that area for many years and it was surreal to be sitting there looking at this large monument that I had longed to see forever. I soaked it all in.

Right after eating I walked around more. I was seriously regretting bringing my heavy ass purse right after carrying a heavy back back up and down a mountain. Ugh! I came across a group of young people trying to take a selfie. Haha! It was funny to watch because I’ve been there, just recently even, with the Indian family. I asked them if they wanted me to take the photo for them. They were happy for the help. A girl handed me an old-school type Polaroid camera. Whoa! They were really grateful and returned the favor and took a photo of me with mount Rushmore in the background as well.

I headed toward the amphitheater where I knew they were going to have the lighting ceremony at 7:30 PM. Well, they play patriotic music at 7:30 and the actual event starts at eight. But there was more to see in that area than just the amphitheater and it was pretty early still. I just wanted to make sure I knew where to be when the time came. So then I wandered around into a theater and watched a movie about the making of the monument, I went into the visitor center/gift shop, and then back to the amphitheater to find a seat early.

I sat next to a really nice couple that was a bit older than I. We all started chatting right away. I explained to them that I was shivering because I was still wet and frozen to the bone, after the sunset, from being rained out on Black Elk. I was fine until the sun set and that wind picked up. Brrr! Of course that spawned the typical questions about why I came all the way from Ohio by myself. Did I have family there? etc. Turns out they are from Virginia. They said that they were glamping with their RV in Deadwood which is funny because I just came from that area! I showed them pictures from the highest mountain in their state of Virginia and told them they don’t have to go very far up the mountain to see the wild ponies. Maybe a mile or 2 max is all. I then showed them the view from the mountain that I just came down from. They thought my goal was really interesting and asked me a bunch of questions. As usual, I happily answered all of them.

So, I just assumed The Lighting Ceremony was going to be similar to what I saw at the Crazy Horse monument where they project lights onto the monument itself and tell a story. This was very different! To start, ranger Dave came up to the microphone and introduced himself “Hi I’m ranger, Dave“ and many people chimed back, “Hi, ranger Dave!”. Ranger Dave was stoic and unfazed which I found to be hilarious. He went on to tell us what was in store for us… Some patriotic music in the beginning, a talk from him, a short movie that I think it was titled “America’s freedom”, the lighting up of Mount Rushmore (I still didn’t know what that meant), and then all of the veterans in the crowd come to be honored on stage.

As more people started coming and sitting down, ranger, Dave gave the same spiel again. This time when he announced that he was Ranger Dave more people got on board and screamed back, “HI RANGER DAVE!”. This time we got a little giggle out of him. Winning.

So, let’s talk about his talk. I was very impressed. He spoke very slowly and clearly it was a little emotion, but what he said, elicited a lot of responses from the audience. He spoke about freedom of speech, and how the people commemorated in the rocks above felt about our rights. He did not tell his opinion about where our rights stand currently, but the audience certainly had something to say about that. He spoke very matter-of-factly, and yet he got a rise out of the people. He didn’t insert any of his opinions, but just spoke facts which elicited responses. It was like a low-key rally speech. I really wish I would’ve recorded the entire thing, but I didn’t think it was gonna be that good, honestly. After he started making some really good points, and I was impressed with him, I then grabbed my camera and recorded of the rest of it. I like ranger Dave. Calm, cool, collected and patriotic definitely describes him.

Then onto the movie. They had a huge screen out there! The movie talked about the founding fathers and their vision for America and why were they were chosen specifically to be etched in stone forever. It was a very interesting movie. I thoroughly enjoyed it even though I was shivering. I was wishing I would have brought my blanket like others did. At the very end of the movie the last line was punctuated with the lighting of Mount Rushmore. BAM! It was powerful the way it was perfectly orchestrated. Everyone gasped. Damn, I love some good theatrics! So, instead of them projecting onto the monument itself like Crazy Horse, they just had these perfectly placed giant floodlights. These bright white lights lit up the faces in the black sky. The contrast was gorgeous. You could see the rays of light beams reflecting off the mountain. It was beautiful. At that moment, Ranger Dave had everyone stand up to sing the Star-Spangled Banner together. It was an amazing sense of unity that words can’t describe. It was emotional. Wow. Just wow.

Then, as promised, Ranger Dave had all the veterans come up on stage. It was shocking how many were there. They all filtered down and stood there to be honored. They did the lowering of the flag and folded it up. Ranger Dave said that this is probably the only time these men would be honored like this, so give them another round of applause and we did. It’s sad, but true.

Before departing, I gave the couple that I’d been talking to for two hours my business cards. They said that they would follow my blog. I was back at my car around 9 PM and started blasting the heat. I was so cold with the intense wind. I never fully warmed up after being chilled to the bone from the rain on the mountain. I don’t think my clothes were still fully dried either. I got warmed up and pulled away…

Earlier in the day I decided to stay at a cheap motel for the night. I found one that was $65 and I was sold. I needed to stretch out and lay in a real bed for the first time on the trip which apparently I had been on for nine days already. I wanted to get warm.

As I was driving, I thought about the amount of people that were at Mount Rushmore. I was really surprised by how many people were there on a workday and after all the kids have gone back to school too. It’s crazy how much traffic they get there! I love Southwestern South Dakota, but would I want to live there in a highly populated tourist location? Na…maybe in a tiny town away from the main attractions.

The Econo Lodge was 6 minutes away, but with the Rushmore traffic, it took a bit longer to get there. I ate a snack and relaxed. It felt great to sprawl out in the bed…

September 8 • Day 10:

Even though I had a very comfortable bed sleeping at the Royal Inn / Econolodge last night, I was still awake off and on. I was so cold when I checked in that I cranked up the heat too high that I woke up a couple times way too hot. Sigh…I screwed myself over with my overcompensation. I dragged myself up to check out the continental breakfast (7-9am) in hopes of eating a couple of bananas for the potassium, but they literally didn’t have any fruit available whatsoever and what they did offer was pretty limited. Sugary cereals, sugary muffins, toast (carbs turn into sugar), and coffee. I got some coffee. I then quickly filed my nails since they were getting chipped from my travels, showered and got out around 10 AM.

My next item on the agenda was visiting Wall, S.D., but on the way I saw a detour that I just had to take! I saw a huge sign that said it was the town movie set for Dances with Wolves. I LOVE that movie and I’ve already seen other places where they did filming in Belle Fourche, so I had to stop! It was a cute town, all laid out like the old west. The moment I got out of the car, a sweet older man in a cowboy hat greeted me and kept telling me “not to be bashful and ask questions”. I was content to just wander around by myself, but every time he would see me seemly interested in something, he was eager to show me how it worked. It was very sweet and I loved his enthusiasm. He showed me how they used to make ropes with this old rusty equipment. In another shop he showed me the old way they used to smoosh pennies with some cool old rusty equipment. I got one of those of course. I collect them from all over and I had been getting so many more for my penny passport on this trip. He just followed me around and kept eagerly telling me information. So sweet. I loved it! He asked me about what brought me there alone and I shared. He told me that had done Black Elk peak every year for his b-day. How fun!

Further down the “street”, I went into a building where some scenes were shot and made it into the film. They had QR codes to YouTube videos that showed the scenes that were shot there. Some ended up being cut out, but others made it in such as the scene where Kevin Costner walked into the office of his commanding officer. The yellow tape on the ground marked exactly where he stood to talk to him. Now I have to make a point to re-watch that movie sometime. It’s been many years. I spent about an hour and a half total in the little city movie set. That was not planned at all, and I totally could’ve spent so much longer there, but I had to get moving.

Since the hotel “breakfast” was all sugar, I stopped at a Pizza Ranch down the street for a personal pineapple pizza for $14. It was a choice between pizza or jalapeño poppers from Arby’s. Either way I was going to be killing my healthy diet. Unfortunately, I had to wait forever for my pizza to be made. I haven’t eaten pizza in something like a year and a half. Hindsight, I probably should’ve just gotten a couple orders of jalapeño poppers and went on my way while eating them in the car. It was far too long of a stop. There is just too much to see and do that I enjoy in SW South Dakota.

Moving on…about 35 to 40 minutes away from Wall Drug, you start to see signs like every 2 feet it seems. “Will it live up to all of the hype?”, I think. Well, I make it to Wall Drug store but at this point, I’m going into a full pizza coma (I don’t eat many processed carbs nowadays) on top of a couple of days of sleep deprivation. I tired really hard to fight it, but I couldn’t anymore. Barely making it to the parking lot, I grabbed my pillow and crashed…or at least I rested my eyes. For far too long, I might add. I’d been seeing and doing so much that I think my brain and my body just needed a break to do nothing. The plan was to make my way through Wall, the Badlands and onto Nebraska by nightfall Bahahahahahahaha! I know now that that was crazy thinking (Oooh another good Indian name for me). After spending over 2 hours chilling in my car, I realized that I was going to have to stay the night in Wall after I checked it out because it was already after 4pm.

I ended up spending too much time walking Wall Drug store. Especially since every store was like Groundhog Day! So, the name is a little misleading. It’s not just one store. It’s like a mall of 1,000 stores with mostly similar items. Meh… been there done that but now I can say I have been there and I never have to go back. My fear of missing out made me spend so, so much time walking around looking at all the crap so I could say I did it that by the time I was done it was 6 PM.

I left the parking lot, but then realized that I had no place to go. Ha! So, I pulled off of the road on the border of town to call some places. The Badlands were on the day’s plans before and that nap really messed me up. I had to frantically look for a place to stay for the night, because I knew there was nothing in between Wall and the Badlands, but mostly Lakota Indian reservations. I looked before when I was planing the day. Since it was a Friday night, there were no campsites to be found and a lot of motels were already booked. Luckily, I found a little place called Sunshine Inn right right down the street from Wall Drug Store. Joy. I had heard that a bad storm was rolling in anyway, so a room for the night instead of camping was a much better option! All I wanted to do after I checked-in was eat my apple and almond butter and relax. I watched the stormy sun set behind the town from my balcony on the second floor. The wind was picking up. Goodnight world…

September 9th • Day 11:

I finally slept well again! I still woke up a couple of times, but I felt much better than I did the day before. My calves, however, were so tight and sore. I had the second day pain going on from Black Elk. It is always worse than the first day. I was happy that just my calves and ankles were sore and nothing else.
Since I woke up at 7 AM, I checked my notifications on my phone leisurely before moving.

After my shower, I headed out to the Stomping Grounds Café a minute down the road. It’s a tiny, tiny log cabin with a little outside area, but I kind of wanted to sit inside. Turns out, it was drive-through only for some reason then, so I ate my breakfast on the go. I got a Swiss cheese and egg English muffin and a black iced coffee. You know, you would think that a coffee shop would have excellent coffee, or at the very least…good coffee, but my coffee was so bitter and gross! In contrast, the sandwich was good although I could’ve eaten 3 of them. I probably would’ve been better off getting the 5¢ Wall drugstore coffee, however, their “free iced water” that they advertise everywhere was not iced and it tasted like actual pool water. Sometimes you get what you pay for; sometimes you’re screwed either way.

On my 2 and a half hour drive that I had till the Badlands, I still had at least one fly still annoying the shit out of me inside of my car. Just non-stop hitting me in my face and tickling my arms when I was trying to drive! I’m going to lose my mind with these flies!

About five minutes into the scenic Badlands loop, even before got to the Badlands National Park sign, I already saw a bunch of bison in a plains area and prairie dogs! They were all around the sign like a little bison welcoming committee. Once you pass the sign, there is a $30 fee to go further. It’s just so weird to me that you have to spend $30 to drive through a park and see nature and maybe hike a little. I don’t remember the fees for national parks being this expensive, but oh well…

Believe it or not all of those photos are just from my first 3 hours of my Badlands exploring! I knew that it was going to be my last day in South Dakota and I was starting to get sad about that. I knew that I’d miss the area, so I took a couple of hundred photos which included a ton of selfies because I wanted good pictures of me enjoying my last day ever in that gorgeous part of the state. Not sorry!

When I was walking back from another trek out on the rocks at another scenic stop, I heard someone screaming to get my attention. At first I was like, “There is no way I know anyone here…it’s not for me.” but when I turned to look, it was Tigo & Therese (pronounced Terez)!!!! This was the couple that I met and sat next to at the Mount Rushmore lighting ceremony! It was totally crazy to run into them in the middle of the Badlands! They told me when we were chatting at Mt. Rushmore that they would be “heading in the direction of the Badlands”, but it didn’t sound like it would be right away, but then again I spent the day before in Wall, SD and they went to Crazy Horse, so the fact that we ended up seeing each other again in a different part of the state was just too cool!

Therese said that she thought she recognized me when I was out a ways taking a picture. Then when she saw me walking back she said that was sure that it was me to Tigo. They came up to me and gave me a big hug. That was really cool. So I told them that we had to take a selfie together at that point and said that they’re gonna end up in my blog, for sure. I hope they read this and get a hold of me! They asked where I was heading next. I told them that I was sadly heading out of South Dakota that night and sleeping in Nebraska. They said that they would be staying in the area for a few more days before heading back home. There would be no more random run ins with them. Sad. I was hoping I’d see them more at different stops on the scenic drive, but no such luck. Meh…

At one point getting towards the middle to end of the scenic loop, I stopped at a picnic area to go to the bathroom. I then saw picnic tables and decided to park it and snack on one of my apples with almond butter while looking out at a beautiful view. There were a couple of families with the same idea. It was 3pm.

At 5:30, I found myself at the end of the scenic drive, finally. I spent all day in the park when the ranger at the gate told me the scenic loop would take about an hour for most people. Ha! Well, I am not most people! There was a visitor center and gift shop at the end, so I wandered in there because it was starting to sprinkle a bit and I wanted to try to let it blow over. I happily discovered a restaurant there. I made note of it to come back later to eat. I kept checking the weather and was deciding whether or not I wanted to do the Notch Trail that I had planned on doing. But the sun would be setting soon and I didn’t know if it would start pouring the moment I got out there. But, I went anyway…

By the time, I got out of the store and made it to the trail head, it was raining, windy and 6:15pm. It had pretty views, but no rattlesnakes still. Sigh… At one point on the trail, there is a rickety handmade ladder that went straight up a rock face. I didn’t mind the crazy ladder going up so much, but on the descent it was a little precarious. Lets just say it took me a while to come down. Haha! There was not a lot of space to put your foot an there is not much to hold onto unless you want to pinch your fingers. I only saw one other person on the trail. A solo young guy just standing on a large boulder enjoying the colorful sunset just starting to appear. It looked like a great spot, but I was hungry and wanted to head back. I did not want to battle that ladder in the pitch dark!

As planned, I went back to the visitor center for dinner and had an awesome salad. Yum! I’d been craving a good salad since the start of the trip and this is the first one I had found! I was pretty excited. I could have eaten 2! After eating, I asked the lady behind the store counter about a sign saying there was an amphitheater talk at 8PM. She told me that she didn’t know if they were still doing it because of the rain, but I told her that it was just a sprinkle really and was already done with. She directed me where to go to check it out. Sure enough, there were lots of other people filling up the parking lot already and I followed a group in the dark to the outdoor seated area in front of a stage. It was strange to be walking with so many people in the dark in the middle of The Badlands. There were tiny lights lining the walkway, but not much to speak of. The stage area was lit up more in the beginning, but that didn’t last long once everyone found a seat.

This is familiar, I thought…first Crazy Horse after dark, then Mt. Rushmore’s lighting ceremony. Finally, there I was in the Badlands after dark with only the light of the projector illuminating a very dark area. I was so happy that I was getting to experience everything these parks had to offer. The aforementioned I knew about from research beforehand, this one I just happened upon a small sign and asked about it. Woot!

The first part of the talk was about the reptiles in the park from eight to 8:30PM. Most people know about the mammals in the park, so I thought it was fun that they talked about the lesser known critters that you could see there. When they asked if anyone saw any frogs in the park, I didn’t have the heart to say that I did, because I’m not sure if I squished him for not. OK…what had happened was… It was literally on the way into the amphitheater area when I saw what appeared to be a frog hopping in my headlights. “What?! there isn’t any water here, there can’t be any frogs can there? That’s probably a leaf or somethi…Oh…I think that was a frog”. And that’s why I’ll never forget that the Badlands has frogs. BUT, there IS a chance that he went between my tires because I didn’t feel any sort of bump, but would you with a squishy frog? I’m going to say he’s still alive because it makes me feel better.

The second part of the hour talk was an astronomer park ranger that talked about the stars in one of the darkest night skies in the United States till 9 PM. However, even though it’s one of the darkest skies…like creepy dark, it was also a bit cloudy. We only saw a few stars because of it. Meh. The ranger even told us to not look at our phones, so our eyes would adjust to the darkness without any sort of light pollution. I was debating if I should even go to the talk because I had a 3 Hour drive ahead of me, but ultimately I’m glad I stayed for it. Just for the shear experience of sitting in the pitch black in the Badlands with a bunch of strangers. It was fun.

Some of the fun facts from the talk were:

• Prairie rattlesnakes are the only venomous snake in the park. They can only strike 3 feet away. Translation: don’t freak out if you are further than 3 feet from them!

• The Badlands have frogs.

• Alligators used to live in the Badlands.

• There were only 9 snake bites reported in the park last year. All men. No comment other than, “Hold my beer!”

• Mostly dry bites happen because they don’t want to waste their precious venom on you when they need to eat noms with that.

• In our universe, it’s only the stars that make the light. The sun is a star.

• The North Star is the 48th brightest star and not the brightest as we are always told. I wonder why that is…

I got to the park at 11 AM and stayed until after the nighttime talk at 9PM. Dang. Once back in my car, I was really wishing I could have found a place to stay closer, but there I was on a sleepy 3 hour tour. 3 hours and 21 minutes to be exact.

While driving through the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, I noticed that the street names that I saw were all named after wildlife. It made me wish that I would have paid attention to more of them. There were some that I took note of: Big Bear Road, Little Bear Road, Porcupine, Good Crow Road, Thunder Hawk Road, Buffalo Ridge Road and I went through Porcupine, South Dakota (cute name) which led to the Wounded Knee massacre site.

I got to my hotel around midnight. Much later than I would have liked, but I wanted to see the Badlands after dark. I’m bummed that I drove through the Lakota reservation, and I didn’t get to see any of it except for some Indian trading spot that I would love love love to have seen when it was open. Also, I’m kind of sad that I didn’t get to see the rest of South Dakota on the drive which was essentially all Lakota reservation. It was pitch black, the entire drive from the Badlands on. So I did not see anything that was not lit up well with lights. I was pretty bummed out until I got to my hotel room and did research on the area and The Wounded Knee Massacre site specifically. Turns out that it’s probably a good thing I didn’t go to because kids follow you everywhere and harass you to get paid to tell you stories, women try to sell you bead necklaces, and some scary reviews of shady things going down there. I actually thought about heading back there to see it in the daylight the following morning, but I lost all of the desire to do so after reading up on it.

Tripadvisor is full of reviews like this one written just one month before I drove by the area, “Wounded Knee was a must see on our trip to South Dakota. We drove into the parking lot where the monument is, and 30 seconds later a Native American woman jumps out of a car and approaches us and starts telling us about the massacre. We thought she was a tour guide. She kept asking us to help her out. We did give her money. My sister and I started to walk to the cemetery and a drunken man joins us…..and won’t leave. He too needs some help. This is getting scary. My sister and I are separated at this time and I see three men and a woman are circling her. All drunk and reek of alcohol. They all needed a donation. As we walked down the path to the truck, we observed that every car that stopped immediately got hit up for money. We would have liked to walk the grounds and spend time on the cemetery. It was very run down but fascinating. Many Native American war veterans. Is it safe to go to the monument? I think it is not.”

After reading a families review of the Pine Ridge Reservation itself, I was happy I did not stop anywhere, but I still drove through at night and with Ohio license plates screaming that I did not belong…

“Unbeknownst to us it was a high crime area that was not at all welcoming to white people, we stopped right 8n town at the gas station. There were some strange looks and the people were not at all welcoming, but still not rude or no problems for us. I would recommend doing your research before going. Definitely would not go in the evening/dark time.”

Alliance Hotel and Suites, where I was staying for the night, was 3 and a half hours from the Badlands, but 2 hours and 7 minutes back to the Wounded Knee Monument. It sounded not worth all that time backtracking, not worth being hassled, not safe, and being alone as a woman definitely played into my decision as well. It’s a sacred site for them and I would just feel weird being there, I think anyway.

September 10 • Day 12:

I’m glad I stayed at the Alliance Hotel and Suites last night because it was another rainy, chilly night. I ran out of windshield wiper fluid the night before, which sucked, but all that rain cleaned all the bugs off during the night. Yay! I woke up a few times, which is typical with my small bladder, so no big deal. What made me pissed was being roused way too early from the sounds of the 5 AM stupid breakfast buffet right next door to me!! People were super loud banging on the wall that was shared with my room! They were flinging the food containers open and just letting them fall against the wall right where my head was!!!! When I went in there eventually, I even saw a sign on the wall that urged people to be mindful of not letting the container lids flop open and hit the wall like that! Yeaaah. So I woke up irate about the noise and sleep deprived because of it. My tired eyes really hurt. Clearly, I was slow to get moving and it was a rainy day still, so that wasn’t helping. Sometimes everything is perfect while traveling and other days…well…start like this one…

However, my day quickly got better! When I finally got moving, I went to Ken and Dale’s restaurant for a wonderful breakfast of three cheese omelette and hash browns. It was so freaking fluffy and good. I needed that. I ate slowly waiting for the rain to pass by and it finally did around noon. Score! The sun actually started to come out too which was amazing because it was supposed to be cloudy all day. Double score!

My breakfast joint was only about six minutes away from Carhenge, my next stop on my epic adventure! That’s right…Carhenge…like Stonehenge, but made entirely with cars!!!! I mean, I had to see that! I found it super easy to find because it stood out among the miles of cornfields surrounding it. Nothing as far as you can see, but corn and Carhenge. Also, all the bug guts were back on my windshield already and I did all of 10 minutes of driving. Crap…it’s a constant battle between me and the bugs when I’m traveling, but at this point was was completely out of wiper fluid and I didn’t feel like bothering with getting more. I thought that I’d be fine with stops to clean it off when I got gas because the car windshield wiper fluid never works for them anyway!. Ha!

Right when I got out of my car, I saw the cars standing up right in front of me from the gravel parking lot, but I went into the visitor center first. It looked like a tiny house converted into a store. I wondered if they lived upstairs. I smooshed a penny of Carhenge and looked around at all of the things they put the roadside oddity on: shirts, glasses, hats, mugs, etc. I was just happy with my penny, but surprised at how much merch they had for the place. The amount of roadside oddities and world’s largest items that I have seen is obscene at this point, but I love them! Hell, I’m an artist…I have the BFA to prove it! If I ever get to move to the country and have some land, perhaps I’ll make my own roadside oddity and retire because of my quirkiness. A girl can dream…

There were a couple of old men chatting around a picnic table outside. I’m thinking one of them might have been the creator of Carhenge, but I’m just guessing. Once I started walking the trail to see the various sculptures they had all around the main event of Carhenge, I was surprised at how many people were there. All of us decided, “Hey, wouldn’t it be fun to drive to the middle of nowhere Nebraska to see cars standing up in a field?” It’s like a meeting of the strange and unusual. Speaking of strange…or at least slightly unusual, I met a cat on a leash when I was walking amongst Carhenge. I saw them get out of their small RV with something small on a leash, but it wasn’t until they were closer that I could see that it was a cat! He walked so perfectly like a dog on the leash that I thought it could only be a small dog at first. Of course I had to go immediately up to them and get their story and more importantly, pet the kitty. His name is Riley and he’s four years old. His parents are from Arizona and they brought their cat all that way in a little travel RV just to see Carhenge. Bahahahahaha! It gets better…this is not their first pilgrimage to the sacred Carhenge. They have been there several times. I can’t make this shit up. Like I said…a meeting of the strange and unusual, man.

Back to Riley, he was all shiny black, silky, soft and sweet. He looked extremely comfortable walking around tethered to a leash. Everyone that was there was enthralled with watching this cat have the time of his life. He enjoyed climbing up the cars looking for the pigeons that he could hear coo and flap about doing whatever pigeons do in car art. However, howled when he got his feet wet in a puddle. He jumped down into one left over from all the rain. The howl was so sad. That just ruined him. Daddy had to go scoop him up and dry his widdle feets. According to dad, apparently water is his kryptonite, but he was cool with everything else. Such an adorable adventure cat! He seemed to love all the attention and pets he was getting. Aww! It made me wish I could bring my social baby, Gingi. I just couldn’t leave him alone all day when I’m on my longer hikes and he can’t go inside everywhere I want to go. I don’t have a camper van, sadly. Honestly though, I think as long as he was with his mommy, he would adapt very quickly. I just wouldn’t want to stress him out at all during the period of adjustment.

Carhenge was an interesting stop. Just a bunch of people hanging around a bunch of cars stacked up on each other next to seas of corn. Nothing to see here. Hell, that’s probably the closest I’ll get to the real Stonehenge, but honestly I think Carhenge was probably more fun from what I’ve heard. Several of us roadside weirdos wondered if it was made to the same scale and design of the original, but no one knew the answer. Something about all the cars standing up oddly in the middle of a field of corn, reminded me of a oddity in my home state of Ohio of corn in the middle of a field. Haha! It’s actually named, “Field of Corn” and it’s just that…plaster corns sprawled out in a field. 109 of them to be exact. What makes it even more crazy, is as I write this, I go to my photos to see if I can find a Field of Corn photo to include. And my phone had a reminder that stated one year ago today is when my group of friends went there. Whhhhat!? Synchronicity bitches!

Cargenge was made in 1987 and Field of Corn was made in 1994, so it’s back to you, Nebraska! Whatchu got?!

I roamed around the cars for a bit over an hour and then it was a bit over an hour till the next oddity on my list. By 1:30 I was heading toward the natural misfit of Chimney Rock. I was able to start seeing the tall rock formation from about 14 minutes away. It very obviously sticks out amongst the flat plains. I lollygaged around taking some photos before I even drove to the parking lot.

When I finally went in, It was already after 3. I paid the $8 to go to see the museum. Yes, another museum. It was another good one. I must have liked it because I spent an hour there. Then I walked around outside taking photos and walked over to the trail head to a path that gets you the closest to chimney rock as you can go. I decided not to do it because it’s 2 miles round-trip and I wanted to get going to do Panoramic Point, Nebraska’s highest peak still. So, I walked all the way back to my car and drove down the dirt road a bit further to see if I could drive closer. Thinking that would save me some time.

Get ready for a museum photo dump…

There is apparently a road that you can drive down to get closer to Chimney Rock and I needed to see if was open. The man at the front desk said that he thought the ranger was going to close the road because of all the rain. He said that unless I had 4-wheel-drive (I did not) that he wouldn’t suggest I try it because it was pretty bad from what he was told. Well, I wanted to see for myself. I know what my car can do. There were a few other cars right behind me doing the same thing and one by one they all turned away after seeing the badly muddied “road” by a cow pasture. Piss. They did, in fact, have the Road Closed sign up at that point. When I was out of my car thinking the about the logistics of going around said sign, I saw that the view of Chimney Rock was gorgeous from there. I was in awe. Partly dying sunflowers lined the road and framed the odd rock beautifully. After getting swept up in the moment and taking photos for a good 20 minutes, I decided that I should probably leave. I was bummed that I couldn’t get closer than I was at that moment.

Driving back towards the parking lot, I made the quick decision to pull back in and park…again. I just was not ready to leave. I sat there just regretting my decision to not hike it and contemplated doing it still. I thought things through a bit, and decided that if I didn’t get to Panoramic Point that day that it wouldn’t really matter much. Since I couldn’t drive closer, I decided to hike closer. Therefore, I got back out and walked back to the trail head again…this time to actually do the trail. I imagined I must have looked like a squirrel crossing a road to the guy in the museum. I was hoping he couldn’t see me from the window.

The trail was flat, super hot and uncovered once again, but it was also really magical. I have no regrets. I’m glad I went back and took that walk. It ended up being around 3 miles total instead of 2. Totally unexpected. 90% of the trail was lined with yellow tiny sunflowers and the sun was shining through them, making them glow. The excitement of possibly seeing a rattlesnake was cool however, I did not get to see one again. Every time I slightly changed locations during my walk, the rock looked slightly different with a variety of beautiful landscape elements to play with in my photos. There were two rusted metal bridges to cross, standing water, the sunflowers everywhere, grasses, and sunbeams. All amazing except I got destroyed by mosquitoes because of all of the pooled water from the rain. That was the only bad thing. A little bit of shade wouldn’t have hurt either. However, on the way back, I started getting clouds overhead. I’m glad I trusted my gut and did the hike. I just absolutely needed to. I didn’t want to get home and wish I had done something after the fact. I really enjoyed photographing Chimney Rock and I took a stupid amount of photos.

By the time I was walking back, I realized that it was already 5:30PM and there’s no way I was going to get to photograph Nebraska’s highest peak before dark seeing how it was 2 hours and 15 minutes away still. Dang. So, before I got back on the road, I started calling around for places to crash for the night right away. I found some thing that was a bit over an hour from where I was and an hour away from Panorama Point. I was trying to find something closer to Nebraska’s highest peak, but that was as good as it was going to get.

I stopped at two gas stations right before going to my hotel to clean off the bug juicy juice all over my windshield and to fill up, but neither one had windshield wiper fluid! Keep in mind, I had no wiper fluid in my car which really did not matter because that shit never works on bug guts anyway, lets be honest. It’s totally crazy that they didn’t offer wiper fluid seeing how the bugs are insane out there on the planes. I filled up at the one gas station, but they didn’t have any fluid, so I went across the street the second one, and they didn’t have any squeegees OR fluid available. Cool.

I got to my hotel room by peaking through a small spot in between the legs, wings, and guts. At this point I was spoiled with the hotel rooms and thought I’d stay at just a few more before going back to the cheap option of camping. I instantly got my bathroom stuff set-up again and chilled on the bed eating 2 apples with almond butter. I chatted with several friends that were asking me “Where are you now?” checking up on me. Then, I called my mom to tell her about my trip because she hadn’t texted me for many days, let alone call. Her daughter is just out traveling alone long distance…what is there to be concerned about?? My friends seemed much more interested and worried and kept in constant contact, so that was nice. I kept texting mom photos, in spite of her seemingly lack of care…

September 11 • Day 13:

I woke up in the Super 8 in Kimball at 5:15 AM. That was not my plan, but everyone in that small town apparently wakes up before the sun. Fortunately, for me, I was able to go back to sleep eventually after chugging some water. I was already in the shower a little after 9 AM and was checking out by 10:30AM. Wooo!

I went to the visitor center, which was two minutes down the street from my hotel and bought a Nebraska magnet that was calling my name and a shot glass that said Nebraska. I grab the coolest shot glass I can find in every US state that I explore and this was my first time to Nebraska! Weee! It’s been some time since I went to a state that I’d never been to before. I had been sitting at 45 out of 50 states road tripped for many years. Knocking off one of the five states I had left was exciting! I really need to get a custom made shot glass cabinet for them. I have some that are odd sizes like my Texas one has a huge tarantula on it. Some states I couldn’t decide on just one, so I got a couple, so yeah I need to lay them out and make some pallet shelf type thing for them allowing enough room for the crazy shaped ones.

Thus far in my Nebraska excursion, I’m seeing that it has seemingly endless plains just like north, and South Dakota. However, it seems a bit more hilly. There also seems to be more tiny towns closer to each other. Or maybe I’m just getting used to the void.

So, I asked the nice lady at the High Point welcome center about the conditions of the roads to Panorama Point because of all the rain. She showed me a way to get there that’s mostly paved roads and just a little bit of dirt…just in case. Turns out that was the way GPS wanted to take me anyway. While I was there, I also asked her about the Kansas high peak even though it’s 5 hours and 45 minutes away because they had Kansas information there too. I’ve heard about people getting stuck in the mud on the way to Kansas’s High Point if it’s been raining and it had been raining at night enough to close down the Chimney Rock road so far. So, I was a bit concerned about that. I don’t have an all-wheel-drive vehicle.

She knew about Kansas’s highest peak, but she said she’s never been to that one and she didn’t know anything about it. She gave me a Kansas Visitor Center book and said that I could probably contact someone from the welcome center there and ask them about the conditions. Spoiler alert: I didn’t.

Once, I left the visitor center, I went 2 minutes away to Nebraska Coffee for breakfast. The visitor center lady actually recommended it to me. Unfortunately, I got there right at 10:45 am and they said they were done with breakfast already by 10:30! Come on people! Remember when noon used to be the start of lunchtime?! Or at least brunchtime? I do! Sigh…I was looking forward to the yummy breakfast foods they had, but I settled for a salad and an espresso frappe. Mmmm! The salad was a bit small, but still good.

As soon as I was done eating, I headed an hour away to Nebraska’s highest peak, Panorama Point. I had no problems with the dirt roads driving there. In fact, the most concerning part of the trip, was passing the white sign out front that screams, “DANGER! Bison Area”. I knew the high point was in the middle of a working Bison ranch on private property, but seeing that in words when you are about to enter the area alone is a bit alarming. You are warned to use caution when getting out of your vehicle at the monument. Oh, I did! Thankfully, when I surveyed the area before leaving my car, all of the big babies were at a good distance away…like such a good distance away that I hardly thought about them anymore after that. Don’t get me wrong…I still kept my eyes on them as I jumped up and down off of the monument trying to get a photo within the 10 seconds I have with my self timer. Apple….Ima need another 10 seconds!

When I first got there, I noticed a old desk, the high pointing bench that appears at many high points, and the monument in the middle of a humongous field. In the desk you have the typical things, a sign-in book (which I always sign), business cards, stickers, and some other very random things that people leave for others to enjoy or take and then leave something themselves. I’ve started leaving my fire performance and sometimes my photography business cards at them for a while now and I meant to leave them here, but I forgot. I love leaving a little piece of me all across the country and I don’t just mean my pee. Haha!

I only spent a tiny bit over an hour enjoying the nothingness of Nebraska’s Highest peak which I imagine is far more time than normal people would spend alone in an active Bison farm. With the bright sun beating down on me making it hard to see my phone screen and only 10 second bursts of time to pose was what took up the majority of my time there. I repeatedly set up my mini cell phone tri-pod on top of my car, tried to get the monument all in the frame with space for me, hit the button, run and jump up on the metal frame around the monument (protecting it from Bison ambushes?), pose with the wind working against me, jump down, take my phone in my car to check the photos in the shade, see that I’m cut off or the wind blew my hair in my face or I didn’t make it up in time to pose, etc. REPEAT. Whew! What a work out that was!

In my photos at the monument, I noticed that I had the craziest tan going on. It started with all of my hiking in Theodore Roosevelt National Park, then the hot and uncovered North Dakota High Point, then South Dakota’s, then walking around the Badlands, then my 3 mile uncovered hike around Chimney Rock, then I got blasted with more sun taking photos at Panorama Point for an hour. You can see that my arms are incredibly dark as well as my feet from wearing sandals and my chest and upper back are reddish. Pretty much everything else is bright white. I was definitely oddly 2 toned. I don’t think my arms, shoulders and upper back had been that dark in a very long time.

After Nebraska’s high point, I went on a wild goose chase to find the tri-point of Wyoming, Colorado, and Nebraska. It took me a little over an hour to find it when it’s supposed to be right down the street from the high point…BUT I FOUND IT!!! Better directions need to be written because the dirt road that the high point is on, dead ends eventually and I did not see it on the road heading there…soooooo someone was on crack when they wrote that it’s down the street from the high point.

The actual GPS coordinates (if you have cell service at all) is GPS: 41.001651, -104.053169 for the Colorado – Nebraska – Wyoming Tri-state Marker. Or you can try to follow the directions my fellow high pointer friend, Stony gave me:

Directions
Leave Interstate 80 at exit #401 at Pine Bluffs, WY. Go N to 8th Street, then E on 8th Street for 0.6 mile to Beech Street. Go S on Beech 12 miles to the CO line. Turn E through a gate and drive 3/4 mile on a pasture road along the WY – CO border past a wind mill to the tri-State marker. In wet weather you may want to park prior to the windmill and walk the remaining 1/4 mil

So, those only work if you have cell service. I had zero cell service out there. I couldn’t GPS to a street that it was near and follow the directions from my friend to that point. And I couldn’t GPS to the actual tri-point coordinates. So, I looked at my phone map and followed my little blue dot onto endless probably-too-rough-for-my-Kia-dirt roads until it was on top center of the corner of all three states. It worked! I mean eventually. At one point I tried to go down a road that I thought would take me right to the spot, but I’m not sure it was really a “road”. It appeared to be just for large farm equipment. I tried to go down it as far as I could but when the blue dot needed to move straight ahead more and the “road” was getting worse, I just couldn’t safely do it. It didn’t even resemble a road anymore at that point. The problem was I had to go all the way back on that really rough road to the main rough road that’s not as rough as the rough rough road I was just on. Ha!

So I literally drove all around the tri-point poppin’ in and out of three states like a crazed vulture circling and honing in on the spot. It actually became a fun game to me until the thought creeped in that this all for nothing because there was nothing out there as far as the eye could see. Almost right when I started having doubts that I’d ever find the spot, I finally saw a white sign with red lettering low to the ground on the right hand side of the road. I was super excited!

Even though the directions my friend gave me said to go, “through a gate and drive 3/4 mile on a pasture road,” The sign clearly said, “Foot traffic ONLY” and the gate was closed. I parked in front of the gate, took some photos of the sign, then went hiking into the flat, empty, muddy cow pasture dodging cow patties. It smelled like shit. There were flies all around the shit, so therefore all around me. There is no escaping the flies in the plains!!! All the grasshoppers were hanging around the area too along with other weird flying objects that annoyed me. I should not have walked it in flip-flops, but until I read the sign, I didn’t know it was a hike past the sign to get to the actual benchmark. Then I completely underestimated how slow nearly a mile on uneven ground would take in sandals. I’m just glad I actually read the sign. I was about to just take a quick picture of the sign and leave without seeing the actual Tri-point, monument and benchmark.

On the hike, there were lots of times that I felt like I had missed it. I didn’t know there was a large noticeable marker to be on the look out for. If I had known that, it probably would have taken me less time than 35 minutes to get there. But, I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was just a small bench mark to look out for no doubt buried under a pile of cow poop because that’s just my hilarious luck sometimes. I feel like the sign out front should’ve had an arrow pointing in the right direction because it was a very large field and I had no idea which direction to walk, how close I was, or if I was about to get shot for trespassing. It was weird. There was one sign to let me know I was on the right track, but it was all the way near the spot already. Oh, thanks. It would definitely be easier with more arrows pointing the way. Also, I thought it would be cool if there were all 3 state welcome signs there. How cute would that be?!

By the time I got to the monument, I had to pee. So I’m pretty proud to say I peed in three different states at the same time!!! Winning! I think I need to be in the Guinness Book of World Records for this feat! I tried to take selfies at the monument, but it was difficult and I was starting to overheat.

The next 4 images show all 4 sides of the monument. The initials and numbers mean nothing to me, but maybe someone else will get it.

I saw lots of creepy crawlies in the area. Right before I got to the monument, I saw what I thought was a dung beetle playing in cow shit. I thought it was cool because until this trip, I’d never seen one in person and I kept seeing what I thought was them in different areas. I guess much of this trip had been in prairies of bison or cow pastures. Ha! I asked my naturalist buddy, Mel and she confirmed it was a dung beetle. I saw more of them on the walk back. I watched one for a minute and wondered if they preferred fresh patties or crispy chips? That’s a thought I had while walking back to my car. I passed tons of shit and had to keep looking at the ground to not step in it… in sandals. I was glad I had nothing else planned after that because I was sure the smell would be lingering on me for some time.

So I bounced back-and-forth between Colorado and Nebraska and basically rode the state line for a bit after leaving the tri-point. But sadly, there’s literally no signs in the middle of the fields and dirt roads saying “Welcome to Nebraska” or “Welcome to Colorado”, so I did not get any weird middle-of-nowhere-plains sign photos which would have been cool looking. I’d been in the middle of the freaking The Great Plains all day!

When I was attempting to drive out of the plains without GPS still, I drove right past the road for the high point again. I decided to whip back down there at the last second. I forgot to leave my performance and photography business cards in the desk. So, there I was again…or still…alone in the middle of nowhere. I put my cards in the desk and then plopped down on the bench to enjoy the vast nothingness one last time before leaving the area for good.

Back in my car, I noticed that I was still working on a great farmers tan on my 4 and a half hour drive to my hotel. I noticed my weird color pattern with my extremely dark arms in the shower in the morning and it was just getting worse out there in the sun all day…again. 30 minutes from my final stop at the Western Motor Inn, I found Tequila’s Mexican Grill. Mmm! I liked that I was having dinner in Goodland, Kansas, but spending the night in Burlington, Colorado. I had never spent the night in Colorado before, so that was new and exciting.

While driving out of the prairies, I kept seeing thousands killdeer birds. They nest in the ground and they get stirred up and scared by cars driving by. The problem is, when they get stirred up, they fly in front of your car and often straight towards the car and between and under tires. I truly believe they are the dumbest birds that have ever existed. I started getting super annoyed in the North and South Dakota prairies because I was constantly dodging them and that annoyance continued the whole way to and from the High Point and the tri-point. Who is not doing their job and eating these birds? Why are there so many????

Speaking of wildlife…I don’t even want to talk about what happened to the only rattlesnake I ever saw in the wild, but I suppose I should. So, in my travels, I’ve seen, loved on, and photographed lots of wild animals, but one that I’ve never gotten to see in the wild was a large rattler. I’ve even gone out of my way to search hard for them. When I was on a 32 day road trip from the Florida coast to San Fransisco coast, I asked people in Texas and other surrounding states about where I could go to find a Western diamondback in the wild. Now, at first they assumed I was asking because I wanted to hunt and eat them…ew, but I told them that I just wanted to photograph and observe them in nature. After they looked at me like I was crazy, they told me a spot in Texas to go where tons of them are. They said that it’s so overrun with rattlers that the spot is actually in a book about them. I got excited, but ultimately didn’t see anything, but a ton of large holes where they were all hiding. I didn’t even hear a damn rattle. I must walk like a lumberjack. They hear me coming a mile away and flee. If you don’t want to see any snakes then just hike with me. I am not a snake ninja.

So, once I was off of the gravel roads and on paved ones, I was up to a good speed because I knew I had a long drive ahead of me. I saw something ahead on the road that I assumed was a stick. Well, once I was close enough to see that it was not a stick…it was too late. A poor, sweet Prairie Rattler was sunning himself on the road probably after a good meal and I plowed right over his head. As soon as I saw that it was a snake at the last minute, I tried to move, but I could not avoid hitting him since he was completely sprawled out horizontally in the road. I immediately whipped the car around to check on him only to see that I crushed his head in. He was definitely gone. I was at least happy that he died instantly and did not suffer because of the total head shot. I told him that I was so sorry and sat there and cried in the middle of the barren road. I still took a photo because I saw a rattler in the wild, but it was not the photo I wanted to take. If only I had seen him just 2 seconds earlier I might be telling a much different story. I thought about taking his rattler to make a necklace out of it, but I couldn’t even bring myself to do that. I just left. Devastated. I was on the look out after that for more in the road because I was not about to let that happen again, but I didn’t see any more…of course.

On the drive, I passed through an Akron, Colorado which I thought was crazy because I live in Akron, Ohio. Also weird, I looked up what Akron meant and it means “summit or high point”. I can’t make this shit up. So, I live in a city that means high point while on a high pointing trip I find this out. But the high point in Ohio is flat as shit and I drove through Akron, CO, but it was flatter than flat and all plains there, so what gives with the naming of towns, people!?

The best things about the plains? Sometimes you get a of the wonderful sweet grass smell instead of shit….and of course the sunflowers. Once the sun set, I was driving with my window cracked to get some fresh air and…lets be honest….I was trying to get flies out of my damn car still. I enjoyed getting whiffs of the sweet grass here and there throughout my many miles of plains.

So I got to the Western Motor Inn sometime after 10 with another time change and got a cheap room for $65 total. I think it was really 11pm, but I was totally disoriented by this point in the trip and I didn’t care much anymore to keep with with the time changes. As soon as I opened the door to my room, I noticed that it was very sparse to say the least…and then the smell hit me. It reeked like someone just ran in there and sprayed an entire can of Lysol then spilled a whole bottle of cleaning solution. It was toxic smelling. I had a headache instantly. Great…this will be great for sleeping, I thought. Then I tried to plug in my phone in one outlet… it didn’t work. I went to another outlet… it didn’t work. The third time was the charm, but it made a spark when I plugged it in and it was not close to the bed for me to chat with friends before I drifted off to sleep. Then, I go to the bathroom and noticed that the toilet had a sign hanging next to it on a pink post-it note that stated, “Do not flush toilet paper into the toilet”. Ew…what? And Oh my God the flies! There were at least two flies in my hotel room by the time I went to bed. That one was my fault because I left the door open when I was bringing stuff in slowly to try to air the gross smell out. Not only did It not work, but I had friends sleeping over then. I had gotten very spoiled with the amazing hotel / motels I had up until this night. Soft beds, no toxic smells, less minimalist and more homey. Gah…

I was supposed to stay at the Burlington inn. Perhaps that place was better. I called the Inn about three hours before I got there, got a quote and said that I’d be in in a few hours. I asked the elderly lady on the phone if I should book it then on the phone and she assured me that she never fills up and it would be totally fine. Uh huh…then I pull up to a sign that says, “No Vacancy” and the office is closed. This was the second time this happened on this trip where people are sure they’re gonna have an opening and then they book up all of a sudden. I called her up and told her I was outside staring at her “No Vacancy” sign. She started apologizing right away and told me that a bus full of people came in last minute and took all of her rooms and she was all booked up now. That was the moment I decided to always book right then when I call. I mean, in my defense, I did try too, but she was having trouble hearing me because I was coming out of the mountains and kept cutting out. That’s when she just told me to come in and it would be fine and that she would have something for me. It would have nice for her to hold a room for me, but I get it…I was just getting very tired and was not ready for the panic of trying to find something else right away.

I got my wool blanket out of the car, wrapped myself in that and tried to sleep…

SUBSCRIBE AND DON’T FORGET PART 3…More high peaks and more adventures!