After heading east and being nonplussed with the climbing and wilderness opportunities, we decided to take things as face value and appreciate the various aspects of each locale we visited. We appreciated basically everything east of South Dakota as quickly as possible, taking pictures from the car, not stopping to see much other than a few stops at various relatives of ours along the way.
With the exeption of a soul crushing hypoglycemic episode in PA which made me seriously doubt if such a trip was a good idea, the first few days were uneventful. For what it's worth, I decided that I just needed to sack up and monitor my sugar better. I did so and had literally no other issues with my glucose levels for the remainder of the trip. Many times later on I would think back to how discouraging that initial crash was and thanked my wife for being level headed and not letting me bail!
Resuming the narrative...
Most of the midwest along our route has proven to be pretty bland, albeit pretty—essentially lacking variety in the various features of the landscape. Until the Badlands, that is. We began our fourth straight day of driving after having over-nighted in a rest area for a few hours which was none too comfortable. I was immediately surprised by how hot the sun felt and how that was balanced out by the cold breeze.
Being completely honest there is a lot more to see than there is to tell about the Badlands. They are vast, impressive and seem to come out of nowhere. Hiking around in them makes you feel like you have landed on another planet, while the hordes of tourons help reassure you that in fact you are very much on planet earth. We only took in a small bit of the hiking but there is a great deal which can be done. No overnight permits are required for back-country hiking which is nice. Due to the complete lack of water sources, it would probably be more suited to cooler weather.
Next on the agenda was the tourist haven of Wall Drug- a town with a population justabove 1000 souls. I vaguely remember stopping here as a little kid on the way to Alaska when we went in 1985. From a much different perspective I am far less impressed with the trinkets and souvenirs than I can recall being at that time. I took a quick walk through paying homage to my past and then got the hell out, without spending a nickel on silly nick-knacks. I have plenty of dust gathering devices as it is…
Shortly after that we arrived in Custer SD after having driven by Mt Rushmore and seeing the Crazy Horse monument. We will hit Rushmore during the week in hopes of getting away from the crowds…Crazy Horse was impressive but also somewhat sad. Apparently the idea of honoring your heritage has become synonymous with selling trinkets to chubby, white-legged tourists and their bratty kids. The monument itself was impressive. The Indians make nice trinkets, for what its worth.
The Black Hills of South Dakota- July 18th 2008
To make these postings more coherent and less spastic I am breaking them up into several different topics...first, the mundane.
That said, this last week was spent in Custer SD, (15 minutes or so from Mt Rushmore) enjoying a wide variety of experience and adventure- not the least of which was the wonderful people we met.
Having never been much of a social butterfly I expected this trip to be defined by its solitude and asceticism- embracing the simple life, living off of the radar so to speak, spending little, and seeing much. Not unlike every other plan I ever tried to make, this changed within hours of our arrival in Custer.
Initially the plan looked like this- Arrive in Custer on Friday , stay the weekend at French Creek Campground/RV park then move on to a primitive campsite (basically a small bit of land with no amenities where you can put up a tent for free) nearby to save some cash and be closer to the climbing in Custer State Park. Stay for a week or so then leave town for the next location.
Arriving in Custer was an immediate eye-opener. I had pictured your run-of-the mill KOA with a pool, a waterslide and an air conditioned office. I had even entertained thoughts of bartering my services as a lifeguard against the fees incurred for camping. Instead, we were met by a large older man who could pass for a more intimidating version of Charlie Daniels who turned out to be our gracious host, Rock. We talked for a little bit and found out that he has relatives in Newburgh and Walden, and much to my own surprise, knew the difference between NY-the state and NY-the city. To give you a little more insight into what kind of guy Rock is, you have to know that he has lived just about everywhere, and done just about everything. Prospecting, Guiding, Cooking and Leatherworking are just a few of his talents that we witnessed in a weeks time. To put it bluntly, this guy is "the real deal" and never minds lending an opinion to any discussion-which tend to become rather colorful, right out of the gate. Various (frequently off color) exclamations are punctuated by some good-natured pistol brandishing and usually, a good laugh.
Rock told us that Friday night is BBQ night and that we should just bring a dish to pass and show up at 7. We showed up with some mediocre deli potato salad and enjoyed the first of many amazing meals. All the RVers in the park brought different dishes, and everything was first-rate. Rock made french fries from scratch, which were to become a staple of that week's diet. Better yet, many locals in the area showed up and explained at length that every Friday, a potluck BBQ takes place and it has become a regularly attended event by many locals as well as guests. At the outset of the meal, Rock explained that we would say a blessing for the food and if it offended anyone, tough shit. He then proceeded to deliver a benediction as eloquently as you please. At that moment I knew I liked this place.
So that was pretty sweet. What about the other 6 nights?
Saturday, the "Custer Coonass Convention" assembled in our midst and with them came a whirlwind of Cajun cooking and wild good times. Its all sort of hard to explain, but basically a one time visit from a year before led to the repeat business and the arrival of a whole fleet of RVs - couples from Louisiana and Colorado, who loved to cook and turned out to be some of the nicest people we have met. From the night they arrived to their last night at the camp, we only had to cook dinner for ourselves once; we had an enormous shrimp feast (enough to feed 40 people who were not shy about eating) Jambalaya, and alligator meat. There were many other dishes they prepared as well but I can't remember their names. All I know is that they were delicious.
We ate like royalty and at the same time got to exchange stories and information with these folks who were quite entertaining. I never thought that this trip would be an opportunity to learn so much about other people and to really make new friends. Some of the Custer locals encouraged us to move to the area and help us out if we decided to do so. It became apparent in the middle of the week that we weren't going to camp elsewhere during our stay in Custer so at that point we resigned ourselves to great food and good people. I got to talk alot with one particular character named Joe "The Real Deal" Breaux, who has more colorful sayings than anyone else alive. He's old enough to be my grandfather but fun enough to make even the briefest exchanges hilarious. When Joe cooked shrimp he claimed it was so hot, "itta make you slap your grammaw--if she ain't bigger'n you!" We got to talk about politics and society and life too and we were right on the same page. I can honestly say its the most fun I've ever had drinking with a friend where I wasn't drinking.
Its tough to explain the level of acceptance and true hospitality we felt here-from everyone we met. I know I will certainly come back to Custer if not for the climbing,certainly for the people. We hope to be seeing our friends from the "Coonass Convention" again before our trip is over as they very graciously invited us to visit them in their various locations.
If you have any reason to go west- dont miss the opportunity to spend a night camping at French Creek Camp. It really is a wonderful place, albeit eccentric.
The weather has been outstanding- clear, warm and breezy with cool to cold nights. Last night was the only real rain we have seen since being here- it was a real frog-strangler, but our tent held up and there was only a little moisture on the floor despite the fact that it looked like a swamp all around the outside of our tent.