Days 13 & 14 - Gillette, WY and Rapid City, SD

Earthship Le Van Gogh Diary

Days 13 & 14 - Gillette, WY and Rapid City, SD

Whoooeee! You can’t turn your head in this area without seeing some kind of natural beauty or some location immersed in history. As I was leaving Gillette I realized I was in Close-Encounters-of-a-Third-Kind territory and I was kind of hoping I’d see my very own spaceship come swooping down from the sky. It didn’t happen, but I saw the turn-off for Devil’s Tower and whimpered a little to myself. Whine. Later, Lea, later.

I also passed through Sundance, yes, the Sundance from whence the Sundance Kid received his name and he and Butch Cassidy and their gang hid out in the Hole-in-the-Wall cave from local (and not-so-local) lawmen. That cave and all the land around it are now a part of privately owned land but the owner will graciously give tours for those who wish. I wished but needed to push on, so I just whimpered a little more and kept my eyes on the road.

And in the little town of Buffalo, there is a really lovely building called the Occidental (“Western”) Hotel which is still in use as such. It was restored in the 1980’s and looks like it most likely did when it was first built in the early 1900’s. Before the building you see today existed came first the original hotel which started with a tent in 1880. This became a log building and didn’t emerge as the brick building you now see until 1901. It’s a pretty famous hotel and hosted the likes of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Teddy Roosevelt, Calamity Jane, “Buffalo Bill” Cody and Owen Wister, author of ‘ The Virginian.” I haven’t read that particular book but I’m told it’s one of the most famous Western novels ever written. I’ll just have to take that on faith.

And then moving on into South Dakota comes the turnoff for Mount Rushmore (whiiinnne) and the Museum of Geology (Sharon in Georgia, you’d love this one!) which I longed to pull off for. All kinds of dinosaurs, and rocks and minerals from the Black Hills area and archaeological sites and, and… everything! I could spend hours exploring this museum and the local digs that are open to viewing for the public. And there’s also the Museum at Black Hills Institute which focuses primarily on fossil hunting and restoration of the dinosaurs they find. You’ll see Stan T. Rex at the museum, a fully restored and assembled skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and many other kinds of dinosaurs, fossil fishes, reptiles, mammals, birds, and plants and a collection of invertebrates local to the area and meteorites and, and… Well, let’s just say that it’s a good thing I didn’t stop or I’d never make it to Georgia!

And there’s the beauty of the land on both sides of me as I drive. The colors are fantastic! You can’t really tell where one ends and the next one begins because they are all just blurred into each other. But the red of the mountains and the greens and yellows of northeast Wyoming change only a little as you enter South Dakota. There the mountains appear very far off and do look black from a distance; hence, the Black Hills description which is very apt for the view.

And there are the Badlands, an area of incredible geological changes that have resulted in the incredible shapes and colors now visible. The fossil beds are immense and of course there is a museum open to the public (well, let’s hope so!) and a fossil exhibit trail you can walk and lots of educators there to explain the Oligocene era which produced all these beautiful geological formations.

Lord, I could spend six months in this area and just barely dip into the history, culture and geological events that I enjoy so much. And when I come back, I’ll pretty much just camp out in the area for the non-snow months and explore to my heart’s content. Yippee! And that’s just this area! Throughout America there are natural beauties, and geological cultural history settings that I find so fascinating. If I’m bored at all it will be my own danged fault.

To segue into a different subject, I am still having difficulty picking up a wireless signal. Here in Rapid City I can’t even get a cell phone signal. Perhaps it’s just AT&T, with whom I have my account. (Actually, I met another man yesterday who likewise has AT&T and has problems logging on and using his cell phone, so I’m not alone.) And even if I do pick up a signal and even though it says the signal is strong, I frequently can’t access either Blogspot.com or Yahoo or Facebook so I’m simply not available to reach at certain times. My apologies for seeming to be just lazy about posting, but I’m writing as I go and uploading as I can.

Anyway, I’d better quit writing about the area before I just abandon my trip to Georgia and just camp out until the snow starts to fly.

Lessons Learned:

That Chopper likes cashews.

That is, she likes to lick them.

So I share.

That last night I didn’t have to turn on the furnace for the first time.

That I did have the air conditioner cranked from the time I hooked up until bedtime.

That this will likely continue as I head further south.

I’m not sure which is better - hot or cold.

Both have their goods and not-so-goods.

Oh, well.

That I actually passed someone on the highway yesterday!

That I’m not the slowest driver on I-90.

That my arms and hands ache from wrestling the steering wheel during gusty winds from Sheridan to Gillette.

That the topical ointment I bought to help relieve muscle pain doesn’t work worth a darn.

Ow.

Observations:

Three deer, two skunks and numerous unrecognizable heaps on the ground from being hit by cars. Sad.

Very alive antelope grazing right inside the town of Gillette on a grassy common.

A scattering of horses, possibly six in all, that were quite lovely. I asked a local man if those were Palomino’s and from my description, brown spots on white, he said yes. Only out here they were called “Painted” horses. Friend Jeanne, you’re the horse whisperer. Perhaps you can shed more enlightenment regarding these beautiful animals!

The same friend, Jeanne, also informed me that a pirogue is a hallowed out tree used for a canoe, which greatly clarifies why an area out west would be called Pirogue Hill. I was having a difficult time reconciling Italian potato-based dumplings with the local history. Since I more often than not can’t get an online signal to check this out for myself, I appreciate the input from friends.