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- South Dakota Summer 2004 - |
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Shortly after immigrating to the Americas Readers Digest published this quote, "The difference between America and England is that the Americans think 100 years is a long time, while the English think 100 miles is a long way" (Earle Hitchner). Until this summer I had not realized how significant this quote was or just how assimilated I had become to American thinking in the acceptance of long distance traveling as means to an end. In America, distance is something that one becomes numb to after a while.
Last year I gained a job in the local school district and in early 2004 Iain called to ask me if he could come and visit. What great news. I began plotting a change to my plan of heading to Colorado and the Rocky Mountains. I thought a 24 hour drive to Denver would be out of the question and turned my attention to the Black Hills. The Black Hills were a quick jaunt in American terms - 880 miles could be done easily in two days.
During our brief side trip to the Badlands we did hike the short, but exposed Notch Trail which, at one point, climbs a 61 rung ladder to reach a crumbling ledge that leads into a much wider landscape that is reminiscent of the moon's surface before making a short ascent to a very windy overlook of the park's visitor center. At this point, Elinor lost her hat as it was blown effortlessly into the void below. On our return to the cars we continued our drive toward our destination of Hill City. We ate supper at a Denny's diner in Rapid City. Emma expected the Fonz to appear from the WC at any moment. Our base in the Black Hills was just outside Hill City in the Palmer Gulch KOA. It was a great spot with Harney Peak looming on the horizon with its impressive granite summit and tower. Over the four days we were there Ellie, Hannah, and I managed to take a hike in Sunday Gulch (next to Sylvan Lake), see Crazy Horse Memorial, Mount Rushmore, drive the scenic Needles Highway, Wind Cave National Park, walk to the top of Harney Peak using the easier route from Sylvan Lake, and walk down Hell Canyon above the extensive Jewel Cave National Monument. The Hollands joined us on all but the first and last events. They chose to relax on those days and use the facilities at the campsite. Although it was a long drive for such a short time, I think everyone enjoyed the trip. My highlights were: Making fun of the ranger (Forest Gump impressions) at the Mount Rushmore lighting, Emma generating her own souvenir that she will never lose, the thunder of 850,00 Harley Davidson motorcycles, spending three nights burning half-a-tree that Iain had pulled out of the woods, drinking beer around the slowly burning half-a-tree with old friends, waking up on the first morning to see ice on the picnic table and realizing the heating didn't work in the trailer tent, watching some idiot kid with half a brain ride his bike off the edge of a six foot drop through bushes into a stream next to our campsite, sitting on the top of Harney with my daughter and friends, and watching a magnificent thunderstorm unleash its power on the way back through Minnesota. |
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The
Black Hills of South Dakota are a remarkable sight after a long drive
across the Great Plains. I have many cherished memories of the area
after Ellie and I honeymooned there in 1997. It is a place of great
beauty, but it's a bloody long way (something one forgets after not making
the trek in a few years). So, jumping back a few years, Iain Holland
had threatened that if I ever got a job with summers off he would come and
visit North America with his family.
We
set off from Northern Wisconsin as a convoy of Iain etal driving a rented
Pontiac and me driving the Blazer towing a 12 foot Jayco trailer
tent. On that first day we managed to drive 500 miles and reach
Sioux Falls, South Dakota as the sun was setting. I think it was
somewhere during mile 400 on that first day that I wondered if I was
expecting too much from my long time friends. The second day was a
little more relaxed as the monotony of the plains was broken by the sight
of the Missouri River, distant mountains, and a short side trip to the
Badlands National Park.
