Night in South Dakota & Wyoming -- but mainly Rodeo Bar

May says:
there were some so-so moments... like the drive in. and the bad sleep. and the awful breakfast the next morning at Perkins. we'd been dying for Cracker Barrel-esque stuff. Perkins is NOT Cracker Barrel. sadly, it isn't even Waffle House-worthy. it's more of a Denny's. and there were lots of flies. other than that, our timing was always a little off. but thru all of it, we managed to get quite a few giggles. our dialogue was pretty unbelievable. back to the day. it was our first shower and night in a bed. so i thought we'd be in better shape. we might have been in worse shape. lol. so i grabbed 4 oz of espresso into a 20 oz cup... for a nice strong mocha and off we finally headed to Mt Rushmore. after 30+ hours, finally a real marker in our trip. i agree w/ everything Melissa said. smaller than we thought and farther away. and windy as all hell. the highlight were the mountain goats and the little hike thru.

for me, the real golden moment was our visit to Crazy Horse. 1: it was unexpected. 2: it was a fantastic story. i highly recommend visitors to go. and watch the 20 minute intro documentary. PLEASE. it's fantastic. Korczak and his family are the stuff that fiction could never copy. and best of all, it's very well-documented. when approached by the Lakota Indians to do this tribute carving, he started out alone with next to nothing. he tells a great story about how he built scaffolding/ladders that amounted to 749 steps (something like that). and he'd start the generator and tote a ridiculous amount of equipment up the 749 or so steps... and the generator would go "kapoot kapoot kapoot" and die. and he'd have to go back down the mountain. start it up and climb back up. one time it did it 9 days. his interviews are very heart-tugging. his family and his dedication to his work is just so fascinating and heartwarming. and you know when you hear about really GREAT people. or a person destined for greatness? Korczak is definitely one of them. i feel so lucky to have seen his work. what a personality too! he's denied government financing twice because he didn't believe in it. check out www.crazyhorse.org for more on it.

we then drove on thru Deadwood (blah, didn't even take pictures it was that lame-o) and onto Hulett to crash for the night before we hit Devil's Tower in the morning. a mere 9 miles away.
I'm glad we had this night... I'm sort of over South Dakota... but Wyoming really left a wonderfully warm feeling in me. There was a questionable moment. Vogel and I were up front...and we had ended up on this highway that winded thru the mountains. NO streetlamps. The GPS didn't know where we really were anymore. It was pitch dark. Vogel and I were both very quiet.... I kept saying, "2 miles more and we'll turn around" Every once in awhile, a car would come from the other direction and we would feel relieved. "They had to have come from somewhere", says Vogel. We passed by a town (Alva, I think) that had a sign with its population of 50. After 15+ miles of scariness....maybe longer, we finally arrive in Best Western. Without a doubt the nicest Best Western ever. Set with a log facade, gorgeous wooden staircase to the second floor...unbelievably clean with a very warm feel...even down to the walls and covers... This hotel kicked ass. It was 9pm and all the food in town had closed except for one bar that had pizzas, informs our front desk. We amble down two blocks to the bar. Some loud music and whooping along the way. Vogel and Melissa stops twice wanting to go back. It looks like I would imagine Deadwood would have looked like. Nick says he saw a bear while smoking. A dog came up for pets at one point. And otherwise, it's dead quiet except for whoops and music from one source. We decide not to go to that bar. And instead, go to the bar that says 'Bikers welcome' instead. Best night ever!!! It reminds me of Baltimore corner bars only no dead stuff on the walls. :) It turns out there is a motorcycle event once a year. And that is the primary income of that bar. Unbelievable. Even with them giving a 1000 pounds of pork in the form of sandwiches, that is the day that keeps them running. No need to write more. The pictures will tell the rest of the story. All I have to say is when you've been on the road and constantly run down... 5 beers, two vodka shots, and 2 glasses of wine is a really dumb thing to do. I was happy to have done it. I mean here we were... walking distance to hotel...and with, it turns out, some of the warmest people ever. :) I just want to publicly apologize to Vogel for the drunken snoring.

the hair band music came on, and we started singing and i started to try to play drums.

Dusky couldn't find the house phone.. we all pitched in...but didn't think to turn the music down

Nick (the non-drinker) won!!!

i'm pretty sure i was trying to be a panda, not humping the pole. i know melissa's mom must be rolling her eyes by now!