Monday, August 28, 2006
I’ve returned and I have a concussion!
Well,
I’ve returned from the wilds of South Dakota. We finally pulled up to the
apartment at around midnight, after an exhausting ten hour drive home. And, can
I just say that eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota stink! Yes, you
heard me…the aromatic winds blowing around in those areas give off a lovely
smell best described as manure. Mmm, nothing says welcome back to your home
state better than the stench of poop. But, I digress. I had a lovely time and
we had a very jam-packed weekend. We managed to see everything we had planned,
despite the fact that it rained the entire weekend. I just love my luck. We
made the best of it, and fortunately, the steady rain did ease a bit as we
looked around each destination, so that’s good. Here’s a quick breakdown of
what we did each day:
Friday: We left Coon Rapids at 5:00 am (that’s right, Michelle
wasn’t very coherent during the walk to the car) and took I-35 south. We then
took I-90 west into South Dakota. I had fallen asleep fairly soon after passing
through the Burnsville area (hey, I managed to remain awake for at least 20
minutes!). I woke up when we stopped in Mitchell for gas. What comes to mind
when you think of Mitchell, South Dakota? That’s right, the Corn Palace! We
looked around briefly, but left after about 5 minutes (anyone who has ever been
will understand, as the inside of the Corn Palace is completely void of
anything interesting to look at). We then headed over to Perkins to eat, and
that’s where I discovered my mutilated arm. I was taking off my coat when I looked
at my arm and saw to my horror that the thing was bright red. It appears that
due to the distorted way that I had to curl up in the backseat in order to
catch some zzz’s, I had either placed too much pressure on my arm or something,
because every blood vessel in my left arm from my elbow to my fingers had
burst. It looked like a terrible rash or burn. I knew something was up when I
woke up and felt on odd tingling in my arm. Here is where I caution future
travelers to never try and curl up into a tiny ball in the back seat of a car
and let your arm become all tingly, because you’ll wake up with a terrible
surprise as I did! For the rest of the day I refused to remove my coat so that
nobody else could witness my new disfigurement. Eventually, we arrived in Wall
and went to visit the world-famous Wall Drug. It’s a huge drugstore that takes
up an entire city block. We only went there so that I could buy a replacement
battery for my digital camera. We left after a short time and continued
westward toward our hotel in Custer. We finally arrived in Custer at around 4pm
(I was surprised by the time, as I had forgotten that you cross into Mountain
Time halfway across the state). We checked in then walked around to find a
restaurant for dinner. Before we could find somewhere, we were cajoled into
viewing a shootout at the back of some saloon. I personally thought that it was
stupid, but my stepdad had a great time and loved it. Finally we left, ate
dinner, and then returned to our hotel for the night, as ten hours of driving
will tire anybody out.
Saturday: We woke up early and started our busy day by 9:00 am. We were
dismayed to see that it was pouring rain, and I checked the NWS site (there was
free internet in the lobby of our hotel) to get a look at the radar and
forecast. Not good news. It looked like the rain was going to stick around for
most of the weekend, due to a pesky stationary front over northern Nebraska.
Nonetheless, we couldn’t let that hamper our holiday so we drove to the Crazy
Horse Memorial, just six miles down the road. Unfortunately, when we got there,
Crazy Horse’s entire head was shrouded in clouds! So, we wandered around the
museum for a while, waiting to see if the weather would let up enough to
actually get a glimpse of his head. It didn’t, so we left. Next we headed for
Mount Rushmore, but got sidetracked as we veered off for a jaunt into Custer
State Park. This is supposedly the place where the largest herd of wild bison
is supposed to frolic, so we tried to track some down. We 
eventually
came across some errant donkeys in the middle of the road. How odd. After
slowly trying to move the car around them, we finally got a glimpse of some
bison. A little while after that we found even more walking across the road (in
addition to more donkeys!). It was a pretty amazing sight to see those enormous
animals pass just feet from our car. After a while we decided to
finally head to Mount Rushmore. I was sad because I had planned on taking a
helicopter ride around the 
mountain, but due to the weather, all flights were
grounded. I had to make due with visitor’s center instead. I took so many
pictures from all different angles as we walked the presidential trail. I had
to laugh though, because of the way the granite is layered, it looks like
Washington is crying and Jefferson has a runny nose! After spending quite a bit
of time there, we left and headed up toward Deadwood. My stepfather wanted to
go there, being a fan of the HBO show and all. I really didn’t want to go, as
Wild West facades just don’t do it for me. Luckily for me, once we got into
town, we realized that there was a huge classic car show that had taken over the city, and people were everywhere. Thanks to that,
my mother decided that she really didn’t want to fight the crowds, so we left
right away (my stepdad had to 
content himself with one picture taken in front of the town
sign). I should mention that by this time the rain had let up and sightseeing
was therefore dry for the moment. We took the opportunity to visit Bear Country U.S.A. This
is a great place, were you drive along a trail and are rewarded by all kinds of
wild animals walking within mere feet of your car. It is a bit terrifying when
you’re driving in the bear area and one comes walking along your car not 2 feet
from the window. Ooh boy, are those things big! After looking at the elk,
reindeer, wolves, big horned sheep, and of 
course, the bears, we got out of the car to visit the
grizzly bears and baby animals. I love the sight of baby animals…almost makes
you forget how vicious and carnivorous they become once they reach adulthood.
Nevertheless, nobody can resist the sight of baby bears swimming and tumbling
off logs, it’s just too precious. After partaking in the adorableness of baby
animals, we then returned to Crazy Horse to see if we could finally get a good picture of the monument. Luckily
we could, and we were going to wait for the laser lightshow that night, but as
it was still over two hours away, and we had already seen everything, so we
decided to leave and get dinner. On our way back to the hotel, we had to pass by
Crazy Horse, and I 
could see the light show going on from the road, and it was
amazing. I bereted myself for not having forced the parents to go back and
watch. Ah well, live and learn I suppose. We instead drove onward to the hotel
for the night.
Sunday: We had a late start, as this was our final day and we had
only one excursion planned. At around 10 am we headed westward 
to Jewel Cave, the second largest cave system in the United
States. We took the tour, which was to last for about an hour or so. My mother
kept complaining to me that she wouldn’t be able to do it, as the entire tour
requires going up and down some 740 stairs. I persuaded her that even her old
legs could handle it. The tour was amazing. At university, I had always loved
my geology class (in fact, Geology had always been my second career aspiration,
behind Meteorology), and listening to the ranger describe everything brought
back that passion for rocks. There was also this amazing formation that we were
told looked like a 35 foot long piece of bacon. I had my doubts until I caught
a glimpse of it, and she was right, it did
look unbelievably like an enormous piece of bacon! I had a great time down
there and loved the constant 49 degree temperature, and was sad when the tour
was over. After we left, we decided to forgo doing anything else and just head
back to MN (by this point, we were pretty much exhausted). Our return ten hour
drive had begun, but at least this time I remained awake through the entire
thing.
So
there you have it, my mini-break holiday to South Dakota. Now that my last trip
in the U.S. is over, I can’t wait until I leave for Scotland on Thursday night.
I have so many last minute things to take care of (everybody who knows me knows
that I am a huge procrastinator), and so little time. One thing I did was sign
up for Skype, an internet program that allows people to talk to each other for
free. I was tired of spending so much money on phone cards to call my friends
and family back in the states, so I decided that anything that would allow me
to do that for free was great. I even signed up for SkypeIn, whereby I
basically ‘bought’ a phone number here in the metro area that anybody can call
at no charge to them, which I can answer over the internet with a special phone
that I bought today. It seems terribly confusing, when in reality it isn’t. I
would love it if all of you decided to sign up for Skype, so that I could chat
with you all for free. That’s actually where the concussion from my subject
line came from. I was digging in my closet to find a phone to use with the
adapter I bought my mother, when an incredibly heavy suitcase full of my
mother’s papers and photographs from her childhood fell on my head. I’m
terribly tired, but thought I should stay up for a while in case I did actually
get a concussion…I’m not one to be a hypochondriac, but that suitcase was just
too heavy for my liking, and my head I now killing me. I’m sure I’ll pull
through.
Well,
it’s getting late and your eyes have probably fallen out of your head from
fatigue at reading this elongated post, so I shall bid you all ado and bugger
off to bed now. Goodnight.