CHAPTER FIVE: The
We pulled
into Beulah,
My original
plan in staying here is, naturally, to save money. Over the five nights we’ll be here, we’ll be
paying somewhere between one and two hundred dollars less than if we had picked
a more expensive place closer to
Right now, I’m waiting for everybody else to decide where we’re going to spend the evening, either at Devil’s Tower or Deadwood. It’s 4:30 in the afternoon, so I’m not sure what will happen.
We picked
Devil’s Tower. It made sense. (I guess these pictures are starting to look
pretty similar. Maybe I’ll make a collage
of these tall shots of Freddy and the ladies standing in front of national
landmarks.
I decided to take the scenic route figuring it would be more fun to drive. It was, until I learned the Honda Civic hybrid is a lot like a Japanese convertible. The top stays where it is, but the bottom falls out!
Fortunately for me, Freddy is an expert on car bottoms, as well as countless other things, so he took care of the job. We put the car bottom in the trunk until we can find an auto parts store, so Freddy can get more pins. What would I do without him?
At Devil’s
Tower, Freddy and I took off for our usual climb.
On our way
back to the campsite, the setting sun threw a prism of colors over the
grasslands.
The next
morning, we headed for
Before
There were
plenty of
We also stopped at a place called “Wolf People” where a woman introduced us to some wolves and taught us some things about them. One interesting fact is that wolves are notoriously shy and afraid of people. No real wolf would ever be aggressive enough to attack a person. They would naturally run away. The only “wolves” that attack humans are hybrids who are part dog. These animals are usually crazy because the wolf side is afraid of people and the dog side wants to be with people, so they react unpredictably.
At
Rushmore, Freddy had to try the little dynamite plunger he had played with
years ago, when we first visited
One thing I
did find irritating was the fact that so many people thought other American
Presidents deserved to be added to the monument. Naturally, a few even thought that George
Bush deserved a place there. I tried to
imagine what
What an idea! What patriotism! When we think of George Bush, it is the only image possible!
Deadwood was fun, but to me, it was disappointing. The old rules applied at the Casinos about letting kids hang around their parents, which was good.
The gunfights in the streets, however, were lame compared to what they were back in 2000, according to our old videos, which I had transferred to DVD some time ago. What used to be 25 minute stories with people fighting in the streets and Calamity Jane’s bullwhip and lots of gunfire, had become five minutes of argument and three or four gunshots. The reenactment of the murder of Wild Bill was similarly shortened and cleaned up so that there was nothing educational about it anymore and it just jumped right to the gunshot from a Jack McCall who wasn’t drunk anymore. How like education today, cleaned up for the kids who might get scared of a load gunshot, and with all the dull, educational stuff cut out, because kids have learned they can just talk through that crap, and ignore it. Who wants to learn anything, anyway?
The original reenactment taught us all about the early days of Deadwood, with lots of interesting stories and a biography of Wild Bill. About all that remained of that was the story about the bartender’s greasy hair which he used to steal gold dust from his patrons.
It seems that the longer Diane and I taught school, the more children refused education. And we wonder how people like George Bush got elected when education is watered down more and more when we cater to the children’s egos instead of their minds. Pitful.
After the reenactment of Wild Bill’s assassination, we went to a play called The Trial of Jack McCall. It, too, seemed watered down and lame compared to what it used to be. I saw it when Deadwood was a small town without casinos. It seemed like everybody in town played a role in the production. They started off by picking a jury. The town was so much smaller then, that they must have gotten lists from local motels and campgrounds, because they just called out names and practically everyone called was present and sworn in with lots of jokes. For instance, an airline pilot had to be registered as a balloon pilot in the 1880’s. Eight years ago, it was still a pretty good show. The only change was that jury members were selected from the audience instead of random name calling. I was asked to be Mongo from Blazing Saddles. I had some fun with it, but I didn’t really go as far as I could have impersonating Mongo.
This time, the show had moved from a theatre to a Shriner’s Hall, with a minimal set. Jury members included children and were not interviewed at all. Scripts were given out to people in the audience who were supposed to be witnesses. Most of them just read the material lamely. When the guy was looking for actors, I naturally called to him and said, “I want to be a witness.” I was all ready to make up for my poor showing as Mongo to give it all I could. Well, the first line was when I was sworn in, I was supposed to say, “I will” instead of “I do,” which led to a joke about this not being a wedding. I shouted out, “I will”, with a stupid eager smile, and never got the response written on the card. I turned to the judge and complained that the bailiff skipped over my line, but got no real response, so I proceeded to adlib.
When asked about my business, I started bragging that we served the best drinks in town and the best prices, etc. I got a laugh, but these guys just didn’t take the bait. They were far from the experienced actors who had performed last time I was in Deadwood. Later on, I improvised lines about McCall being a “dirty yellow rat” and stuff like that, but the other actors just never really took the bait. Still, I got a big hand from the audience after my testimony had ended. It was a lot of fun.
Next, we
saw the
We bought a necklace for Aunt Eileen. I had promised her a necklace from the west, and we thought this would be the most authentic, and, more important, we knew it was really from a Native American artist and we also knew the money was going to the right place, rather than some corporation who gets Chinamen to make Native American Art.
Back on the road, we stopped at a fabulous place called “Boondocks,” which had all kinds of movie memorabilia, fifties stuff, and even a baby blue ’56 Thunderbird like my father used to have. I must have taken a dozen pictures of it. It brought back such great memories. I bought Diane a pair of Breakfast and Tiffany’s wine glasses and we had a good time there.
Our next stop was “Bear Country USA,” where we had to pay $50 a carload to drive through a park with Buffaloes, Bears, and all kinds of animals. I’ve never been a big animal fan, but Diane and the kids were just crazy about it.
A very strange looking bear welcomed us to the zoo:
After the car tour which included lots of bears, we went on a walking tour to see other animals. I finally got a picture of a peacock with open feathers, but I guess the favorite animals of the day were the bear cubs climbing a tree and rolling around in the grass. Even sour old Bill thought they were cute.
It was with
heavy hearts that we returned to the Campground in Beulah. It was a quiet, friendly place and everybody
we saw in
Back to my point . . . We loved the beautiful campground and will look forward to coming back again.
