Hi,
Perhaps you’re partial to South Dakota although, other than the Badlands, I can’t imagine why. I think it says something when the most attractive aspect of an entire state is named “Bad Land.” If you lived here the very first thing you would do is move to somewhere else.
The wind has been relentless for three days. Otherwise it’s been marginally close to warm enough to consider the tent. But that wind is a deal-killer, in the tent department. It’s been constant and 30 mph with gusts upwards of 45 mph. Over the last three days I’ve chased my baseball cap, newspaper from washing the windshield, and my lunch all of which have escaped the bounds of gravity and flown across one field or another.
We’re still off the Interstate Highways and one thing I can say about South Dakota is that their 2-lane roads are in excellent repair. You can go 80 miles an hour all day long. In fact that’s a pretty good idea.
We backed up to Interstate 90 the night before last in a little town called Murdo for the purpose of visiting the Pioneer Auto Show, an improbable collection of 250 antique and otherwise collectable automobiles that are more or less sheltered from the elements in a series of leaking, and unheated rattling old buildings that provide the barest of windbreaks on the South Dakota Plain. I’m talking rare autos here: your Cords, Huppmobiles, and Henry J’s, in addition to your SS 396 Chevelles and your amphicars. We spent hours marveling at this assortment of history before heading off to the Outhouse Museum, about which I will say no more, other than “don’t bother.”
Gregory, SD appears to be an unremarkable little town, even including the miserable collection of tumbledown outhouses for which it is noted. Except for the north-facing sides of many of the homes and commercial buildings in town, which are glazed with plywood and pockmarked as if large stones had been fired point-blank at the walls by some giant repeating cannon. Which, in a way, is what happened about a month ago when hailstones 3 and a half inches in diameter pelted the town in the night, along with 3 inches of rain. It was interesting to note that the constant 30 mph wind in town today was from exactly the opposite direction. Clearly, the people of South Dakota get it both coming and going.
After breakfast we’ll begin today with the National Music Museum and its collection of 10,000 musical instruments including one of two Stradivari guitars in existence. The museum is located on the campus of the University of South Dakota which, other than its location, appears to be a quite nice facility.
Then we’ll escape to Iowa. Or Minnesota; we haven’t quite decided. But I think the wind will die down and the rain will begin, whichever way we turn. It’s snowing heavily in the Black Hills, which we left behind only a couple of days ago. Nice timing.
I’ll get around to putting a photo of Mt. Rushmore up on the blog, but chances are you can conjure up the image unaided. See, it ain’t all bad in South Dakota, just mostly.
Bill
www.elotrowa.com
(202) 262-0576
Tags: Retire, Retirement, Road Trip
Hi,
Well, let’s give it up for the Traveling Companion. Hip-Hip Hoorah!
We prowled the ghost town of Nevada City yesterday and then meandered over to West Yellowstone, MT enroute to the Bear Tooth scenic highway–only to discover that a piece of the highway is closed due to construction. It was better to figure this out when still in the town of West Yellowstone, especially since all lodging in the Park was already full, leaving tenting as our only option in the Park.
The alternate route to the Bear Tooth is about a five hour drive, so we spent the night in a swell little motel, complete with kitchenette and a home-cooked meal. This morning dawns with the temperature in the upper 20’s and us snug inside relaxing over the 2nd cup of coffee. Whooee!
We went to see the local opening of Julie and Julia last night and were in the audience of 10 at the single showing on Friday night. It’s the first time we’ve been inside a movie theater in probably a couple of years. We’re saving up.
The Traveling Companion has also weighed in on that little brain flash I suggested yesterday (big party, see everyone at once, etc.) and has pronounced it a TERRIBLE idea. She may be right about that but it’s an undeniably efficient terrible idea, no?
Autumn has arrived, no question of it here. I hope it’s comfortable wherever you are.
Bill
www.elotrowa.com
(202) 262-0576
Tags: Retire, Retirement, Road Trip
Hi,
We finally stopped into a KOA campground last night, and were happy to do so as dusk approached. It’s sort of a lovely parking lot with all of the facilities, much the way I’d imagined. The night sky in the Middle of Nowhere, MT is quite something to see.
The Traveling Companion, who has a pretty good grasp of the consensus reality, woke up to 40 degrees and a brisk breeze blowing from the East this morning. It was 70 degrees and sunny on my side of the tent, so I was surprised when she announced that it was Winter and this camping business was over for the season.
I’m sure that she’s close to right, if not exactly right on the mark.
Today we’ll peek into Nevada City, a ghost town assembled from the wreckage of the mining boom in this valley during the 1890’s, stroll through Virginia City and then head into Yellowstone and some scenic mountain passes that I suppose haven’t yet closed for the Winter.
We’ve appreciated your suggestions and observations on this journey and have followed many of them, making note of others for future reference. We’ve also learned a few interesting things, and I guess that was the whole idea.
One I’ll share now: when visiting a town with lots and lots of friends in it (Seattle, for an instance) it may be a good idea to prevail upon one friend to have a big party of strangers (our friends) as a nice and efficient way to actually spend time with all of those you’d actually like to see. Dunno, I could imagine a fiasco also.
I’ll get back to you on that little notion.
Bill
www.elotrowa.com
(202) 262-0576
Tags: Retire, Retirement, Road Trip
Hi,
We’ve been basking in hot springs, sleeping in a campground 25 miles off the pavement on an old logging road, lunching in a neighborhood park in Kalispell, riffing about electromagnetic anomalies with the proprietor of the Montana House of Mystery vortex and then cruising the margins of Flathead lake; Montana is pretty swell, even if Missoula is something of an armpit.
Denise and I are dodging the frost and ambling towards northern Wyoming, planning to visit Mom in Wisconsin and return to Washington DC by the 12th.
Hope all’s well with you.
Bill
www.elotrowa.com
(202) 262-0576
Tags: Denise Hanna, Retire, Retirement, Road Trip
Hi,
I suppose that any worry I may have had about this series of missives turning into a sort of dull travelogue is ended with the fact that you’ve heard nothing from us as we crossed the high plains, traveled the length of the Colorado Rockies, trudged through the high desert or turned the corner in Western Oregon and Washington States.
Take it from me: so far, it’s been the trip of a lifetime. Perhaps we’ll have a chance to talk with you about it and other things one day.
But now I would rather speak about the selection and proper care and feeding of the Travel Companion. It’s a subject that I’ve come to learn something about during the past 7 or 8 weeks.
My traveling companion on this jaunt, as on other more or less interesting journeys over the past 20 years, is my wife, Denise. I don’t know if either of us accurately recall who selected whom the first time we met, but we’re pretty much agreed that it was a lucky day for us both. I’m pretty sure that the occasion was a happy confluence of current reading material and pheromones. In any event, it has proved a good basis for selecting the traveling companion.
Travel companions, if the journey is interesting or at all challenging, find themselves in situations and places where they must depend on each other. Frequently there is no one else on whom one might depend, even when that might be preferable. Of course, mutual dependency is a learned skill.
For starters, it is helpful to develop a well-founded and abiding trust in the Traveling Companion. This confidence in the behavior of the Traveling Companion is helpful when contending with other persons or when sorting through the vagaries of living in unfamiliar places.
Over time, one learns to trust the Traveling Companion and even to correctly predict many behaviors. The resulting trust in the Travel Companion is particularly useful within the traveling relationship. For example, the day will come when you will fail to recognize the benign motive behind some particularly outlandish bit of behavior on the part of the TC. At this juncture the wise traveler is able to place his faith in the trust established with the other.
As Denise once pointed out to me, the Travel Companion quite likely has your best interest at heart in any given situation, no matter how incomprehensible his or her actions may seem at the moment.
I think we might have been traveling from the kitchen to the living room when that particular insight was first shared, back in the early days of our relationship, traveling and otherwise.
Often, when one travels with a companion, the pair has the opportunity to separate for a morning, or a day, or a week. This is almost always a good idea, as it gives the companions the opportunity to individually pursue some interesting point without subjecting the traveling companion to the needless torture that can be inflicted, for example by the world’s largest ball of paint, or room after room after room of Judy Chicago’s work.
For obvious reasons it’s more difficult to do this when the companions are traveling by automobile, where the attachment is quite close and nearly constant.
In part because of the close confines imposed by automobile travel, the savvy traveler will demonstrate appreciation for the traveling companion frequently and in every way that the traveling companion might find fulfilling. This is simple prudence.
What, for example, is to be gained from pointing out that a particular observation was made by the Traveling Companion at least once in each of the preceding three states through which the traveling pair has passed? Exactly nothing. And if it’s a particularly astute observation it probably bears a little repetition anyway.
Even if the observation in question tends towards the uninteresting wouldn’t you think that hearing it yet again is preferable to 150 miles of silence? I imagine so, too. And if I’m ever faced with that circumstance that’s just how I plan to respond.
Same thing goes for other repetitive behaviors, such as the preparation and presentation of food, or the establishment of the campsite.
Salami, cheese, and onion sandwich for lunch again? Oh joy! The experienced traveler realizes that this is a really GOOD choice and recognizes that it is the thoughtful and generous travel companion who would prepare such a delicious and nutritious meal. A proper complement to this preparation is the thorough cleaning and predictable storing of the kitchen utensils and the prompt noting of any grocery requirements.
As for erecting or dismantling the tent, the companionable traveler recognizes that, even though there are more or less efficient approaches to the task, there is no actually incorrect way to go about it. Bolstered by this realization, the traveler is unlikely to find him- or herself tackling the project single-handed.
We’ve discovered that there is generally little urgency when traveling together by automobile. The considerate traveling companion bears this in mind. For example, it is helpful to recall that when traveling in close quarters comments delayed often mature nicely and both deepen and broaden in meaning and criticisms withheld can yield rewards in the restraining that are more gratifying than the self-satisfaction implicit in the apt retort. The desirable traveling companion can occasionally practice restraint.
In so many ways, traveling over great distances confined in tight quarters for long periods of time can be a wonderful opportunity for quality time with a good friend. Or I suppose it could be a living hell.
Come to think of it, I suppose this characterization can accurately apply to companions of all stripe, traveling as well as otherwise.
Anyway, I’m happy to report that Denise and I are continuing to have a swell time together on this trip. We’re looking forward to making our way back across the northern states, stopping in Wisconsin to visit my mom, and then returning to Maryland for a couple of weeks before once again decamping to the Dominican.
Hope that all is unfolding for you as expected.
Tags: Denise Hanna, Retire, Retirement, Road Trip