2012--Day 14

Day 14

8:46 am came much too quickly in Pierre, SD.  After briefing we hit the road (today being a travel day), heading toward the northeast entrance of Badlands National Park in the hopes of getting to tour the Minuteman silos.  A sunny day but also a very windy day, with strong gusty northwesterly winds making for some nasty crosswinds as we drive west on I90.  On the positive side, the waves in the long grasses were beautiful, like leopard spots (sadly, pictures don’t do them justice).

Amazingly, I just noticed the first (of what will likely be thousands) of signs for Wall Drug.  If you’ve never been, it’s worth a stop, just for the sheer magnitude of what started out in the early 1930s as a town drug store.  The Depression threatened their business, so they invested in billboards along the highway advertising free ice water and 5-cent coffee (which they still offer to this day).  A tourist trap that can likely be seen from space mushroomed from this simple yet brilliant marketing plan.

Sadly, our plan to visit the Minuteman launch site was a dud.  It turns out that the launch facility is very popular, and we would have had to have returned later in the day to tour the underground portion.  The ranger was very pleasant and as accommodating as he could be, though.  We did get to see some of the paraphernalia, however, along with a short film about the Cold War and the Minuteman missile.  Sadly, it reminded me of an elementary school filmstrip I saw in 1972—Plan 9 from Outer Space had better production values.  There were at least two instances of Clutch Cargo-type mouth animations (or more recently from Conan O’Brien’s old show on NBC), which I found just spectacular.

The time savings we had from not going underground (literally) was partially applied to our visiting a Minuteman missile silo about 15 miles away, and a stop for lunch at the aforementioned tourist trap.  After paying $17+ for a chicken sandwich, a bowl of soup and a soda I can now fully understand how they can afford to give you a cup of coffee for a nickel.  They had a healthy number of international interns busing tables (their home countries were listed on their nametags).  I saw a couple of young ladies from Macedonia and Slovakia.  I feel for them—I can’t imagine wanting to move 10,000 miles from your home, your friends and family, your culture, your foods, your language, for the opportunity to go to America, where I imagine they must think New York, LA, or Chicago.  So you get top grades in school to end up clearing tables in the middle of a cafeteria in rural South Dakota (I know, the last three words seem redundant).  I hope they’re at least getting a modest salary and a decent place to live, along with some free time to see the sights.

Playing around with the routing software, I decided to see what our equivalent mileage would do for us if we did a big loop around the country.  It’s a bit of an overestimate, but our trip is basically the equivalent of going from New York City to Chicago and then to Seattle, then down the coast to LA, and then back to NYC (about 6724 miles).  Put another way…we could have driven from NYC to LA and back, and still have about 1000 miles left to go (5557 miles).

We are doing a bit of a reunion tour of sorts.  We’re currently in Chadron, Nebraska (the site of the most vivid and scary lightning I’d ever witnessed from the last storm chasing trip), on our way to Alliance, home of Carhenge (also from our first trip).  We just drove past the hotel and restaurant where we saw the lightning, and now we’re taking a short break at Wal-Mart (also a stop from last year).  Just before we reached Chadron, we were behind a humane society van with some rather creepy ‘cats’ in the back window.  I’m sorry, cats shouldn’t be allowed to have pinwheels.  The ‘dogs’ in the side window looked nicer, but still kinda creepy.

In order to get to that Wal-Mart, we needed to turn around.  We did so just behind someone in a Prius that was stopped in the same place.  As we are a large vehicle, it takes a bit of doing to maneuver.  I can only imagine what the folks in the Prius were thinking about seeing this white van pull up and stop behind them at the same time they did in a small Nebraska town.  I’m betting they were wishing they had something with a bit more torque and horsepower than their toy electric car.  I think they were getting ready to make their move when we did a 15-point turn and headed away in the opposite direction. 

We stopped in Alliance, Nebraska, home of Carhenge, the replica of Stonehenge made out of old cars.  One great discovery: the (former) electric blue Chevy Vega wagon that looks much like the old one my mom had (and hated).

 

Find of the day: from the Pierre (S. D.) Capital Journal classifieds:

PAWS ANIMAL RESCUE has [exact name as student on trip], an 8-month-old, spayed, female , reddish tan, Husky mix dog.  Call 605-223-CATS or visit www.pets4adoption.org.

Visiting the website provides a more detailed description:

[name] is an 8 month old, spayed female, Husky mix. She has a reddish tan, heavy coat and has one blue eye, one brown eye. She loves to be with people and other dogs. She seems to be house trained. [name] is adjusting to being in the crate, she only whines, cries or barks when she needs outside. She does well in an indoor/outdoor kennel with her foster family dogs. She is not food aggressive, loves treats, praise and attention. [name] sniffed the cats but was not aggressive and did not go chase them. Her approximate date of birth is July 17, 2011. Go to this link for information on Siberian Huskies.

Of course there are pictures.  She looks like a real sweetie, just like the student on this trip whose name she shares.

We entered southwestern Nebraska during the evening.  The bluffs are spectacular; no pictures, as I was driving.  We continued west into southeastern Wyoming, and after a raucous dinner at a well-known faux-Australian steak establishment, we headed south toward Fort Collins and a very packed hotel.  The nearby wildfire has sent evacuees scrambling for temporary housing.  As I sit and write this, I am enjoying my gift from Saturday night (thanks again, Precious—much appreciated!).  Final tally for the day: 602 miles.  Thank God we’re only about 75 minutes to the airport!