Little cabin in the woods...

I write now from a little cabin in the woods of Mitchell, South Dakota, our brief respite from what has thus far honestly been terrible weather for our trip. It absolutely poured on us last night in our little state park by Mt. Rushmore, and we decided splurging on a KOA cabin was more than ok for the opportunity to dry out our sleeping bags, pillows, tent, and some clothes.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Chrodgers caught you up to the Loden's in Buffalo, WY, and I suppose it is my duty to take you further (see below post by Chrodgers). Without further ado:
We allowed ourselves to sleep in till around 9 at the Loden's Thursday morning, and were stuffed with scrumptious waffles and bacon by Cindy Loden before we were allowed to hit the road, which finally happened around 10. Our drive today through Wyoming was much more the stereotypical Wyoming drive: flat land covered in grass and sagebrush. Chrodg and I like it though. It's a different kind of beauty...serene, calm...not the beauty that requires movement or anything to fill it, but is beautiful such as it simply remains constant.

We took a brief sidetrip out of Gillette, WY up to the Devil's Tower National Monument. I think one of the coolest things about the tower is the relationship of the Native Americans to the area. Many of them call it the "Bear Lodge," or "Bear House," and the only reason it is called "Devil's Tower" is because some white muckety muck called it that. The Native Americans really dislike the negative connotations of a name like "Devil's Tower." At any rate, the creation story for the tower goes something like:

Chrodgers took over driving from DT until we had crossed into South Dakota and stopped at Jewel Cave National Monument. We got there too late for any of the tours though, so we just moved as quickly to Custer, SD, to visit the Chamber of Commerce for guides to local campgrounds. We wanted to stay as close as possible to Mt. Rushmore (for ease of access) but were drawn to a campground advertising $10 sites (quite the deal!) in the shadow of the new Crazyhorse monument. When we visited the campground, however, we were the only ones there, in what seemed like a particularly remote and isolated area...so we decided to move on, rather than becoming the lead characters in a real-life horror movie.

We found a cozy little state park for $19 and decided to make it work for the night, setting up the tent as soon as possible to help it dry out from two nights previous at Yellowstone. We headed on up to Mt. Rushmore, which, in all honesty...was a bit of a letdown for me. It was not nearly as big as I remembered it being 10 years ago (amazing what a little perspective will do, eh?) so I kinda kept looking at it going, "really?" It helped when they explained that if the entire bodies of all four figures were completed they would stand something like 850 ft tall (which I SUPPOSE is pretty impressive). What was really cool was later that night when we went back for the lighting ceremony: they play all this patriotic music and a ranger gets you all riled up and you watch this movie on the four figures in the mountain...and then they light the faces and everyone cheers and cries and loves each other.

Of course, while this was all great, I have to admit I was really bothered by the fact that half the time at Mt. Rushmore, a source of great pride for our country, I couldn't seem to make eye contact with half the people I ran into. They looked down at their feet, or away at the mountain...anything to avoid looking at me. How do we cheer for our country if we fail to show recognition and value for our fellow countryman? I love the patriotism...but I wish we showed each other more respect and dignity.

Funny story though...one lady, who from her accent seemed to be out of some part of Great Britain, offered to take a picture of Chrodg and me with Harry (the stuffed animal Haribou). She watched me take a picture with Harry and the mountain, carefully cropping out Teddy Roosevelt and replacing him with Harry's stately face, before asking, "Would you boys like a picture with the mountain and the jackelope?" I had to laugh... so we stuck Harry front in center in between us and she took a picture of us with the mountain. We're pretty cool. People like our haribou.

I suppose I should explain at this point that we have taken pictures of and with Harry at basically every landmark thus far. As soon as we get some pictures up you'll see (and understand). It's quite fun.

So as soon as we return to our cozy little camp the rain starts coming down....slowly at first while we fall asleep, but when I wake back up at 12:30 it is thundering down on our little tent. So...another night of very little sleep for the two of us. And that is our reasoning for spending some extra dough to get a cabin tonight. :)

Today we tried to swing through the Badlands between Rushmore and here, but were somewhat disappointed when everything was socked in by the weather front. In a way, we were lucky: most people get pictures of the Badlands in scorching hot days of sun, whereas our's were of haunting ridges emerging from the dark fog. Honestly though, it was disappointing, so really all we saw of the Badlands were the glimpses we got as we drove through.

Whew. I'm sorry...it appears I'm a little more long-winded than Crodg when it comes to summary. Tomorrow we'll leave for Minneapolis to visit one of my friends from a conference last January. Should be a blast! The next few nights we're staying with friends...a welcome little break from Mother Nature's angry storms! Until later....adieu.