Posted

Aug 2nd 2007

Mood

Happy

Music

Moon over the Castle - Masahiro Andoh

Hey, guys! I'm back! Wanna hear about it? Sure you do! Even if you don't, you’re gonna hear about it anyway!

Day 1

Left 5:30 A.M., and easily made South Dakota. From Illinois, we zipped up through Wisconsin, and skirted the southern edge of the Minnesota. Which is very flat, and has bad roads. And wind farms. Lots of wind farms. Quick question for Anth: is this just the southern edge, or has all of Minnesota invested this heavily in Wind Power?

We broke up the monotony in the perfect way: with SPAM. Lots of SPAM. An entire SPAM museum, in fact. And, if you're thinking it's a hokey roadside attraction, consider this: Hormel actually built the museum in 2001, and it's modern, witty, and more than worth the free admission. And, yes, they did have a section on the Monty Python bit. (Come on, sing it! Sing it like a Viking! SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, SPAM, Lovely SPAM! Wonderful SPAM!) By the way, we bought some. It’s actually pretty good.

We actually reached the Missouri River halfway across South Dakota by that evening. Stayed in the small town of Oacoma, in a nice little motel.

Day 2

First, we stopped by at this hokey little petrified wood thing. My little sister bought $20 worth of rock. I'm still scratching my head on that one.

It wasn't a long drive to the Badlands from here. It's a bizarre place, especially to a flatlander like me. Imagine the Grand Canyon merged with the surface of Mars. It's really cool, not something I'll soon forget.

Upon leaving the Badlands, we hit the road and headed to the town of Wall, and its famous Wall Drug general store. It's as much of a roadside attraction as it is an old-time drugstore. In face, I overheard international travelers. Actually, at most of the big sites, I heard a number of people from other nations, Japanese, particularly.

On our way to the Black Hills, we mad a stop for gas in the town of Ellsworth. Of Ellsworth AFB. Home of the B-1Bs. Just outside the base (and I mean not 100 feet from the gates) is the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. It's free and great if you like military airplanes.

We made it to Keystone and the Black Hills by nightfall. Our hotel room this time was pretty tight, and Keystone was exceptionally touristy, so we booked it out of there the next morning. At least you could see our next goal from there: Mt. Rushmore.

Day 3

Wow. Just...wow. You see it in textbooks, on TV, It's one of America's most famous landmarks, and I stood right at its base and looked up Jefferson's nose.

But back up a moment, just as I got my first good look at all four faces, I caught a Ferrari. A 360 Modena, in fact. Too bad I wasn't able to get a picture.

So, we got to Rushmore, the Ferrari wasn't there (never saw it again,) but to see those presidents in the stone...I mean, that was mind blowing. Lots of Japanese Tourists here that day, and Harley Davidson enthusiasts. We'll get to that in a moment.

And then we went to see Crazy Horse.

Crazy Horse is another mountain carving that's been in progress for about 50 years. Comissioned by a Native American tribe, and completely privately funded, this looks to overshadow Rushmore in size and ambition, at the very least. Crazy Horse's face is now complete, and they're currently blocking out the head of the horse he's riding on. They've got a long way to go. If I have kids and take them, I doubt it'll be finished, even then. This thing's looking to take over the entire mountain it's on!

By now, another local event's also getting pretty obvious: the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. Harleys and other makes were swarming the Black Hills, and the actual event's a week away. And I'm really beginning to resent the sound of the HD V-twin.

So, we headed to Custer, and I SOMEHOW got dragged to a Flintstones Mini-Theme-Park. The only person who enjoyed it was the youngest, my sister. I'll say this defines "Tourist Trap" and leave it at that.

We rented a cabin this night; we were none too impressed with that, either

Day 4

When I get to GTP, I'm adding "Iron Mountain Road" to the GT5 Track Wishlist. In fact, I’m thinking about getting ahold of the FIA's WRC division. Custer State Park is amazing, and has roads worthy of a World Rally Championship round, tarmac and asphalt, and Iron Mountain Road is worthy of the best Japanese Touges.

And, well, there are also plenty of critters. Big ones. Herds of Buffalo.

I mean it. We didn't see much wildlife at first, but then we hit the wildlife loop. There were three kinds of deer, including Pronghorns, which look so out of place; they should be on the African Plains. There were adorable Prairie Dogs. And huge herds of Buffalo. A lot of young ones, too. They're huge creatures. And Plenty of Sturgis Bikers, even on the gravel roads. We went at the WRONG time...

After the wildlife loop we headed up Mt. Coolidge. WHAT A VIEW!!! My mom and youngest brother were a little freaked out, but one could see not only Crazy Horse and the side of George Washington's face at Rushmore, but also hangars at Ellsworth AFB and the Badlands!

Our final stop on the tour was the Mammoth Site. No, this ain't no Petrified Wood garden, this here's the real deal, a working Paleontological site, indoors to boot! Mom didn't want to leave.

This day, we hit Nebraska, and stayed in a nice hotel in the town of Sydney.

Day 5

Well, we trucked through Nebraska and Iowa, and we got home at about 11:00 Tuesday night. And we're back. The little brother got a good ways through Star Fox: Command, even getting the infamous "Star Wolf Returns" ending, or, as I like to call it, "Krystal's Kurse." I now know what I want to do for BTTF: RR Part II: we goin' Back to the Future, to create our own new SF: Command ending...better get Part I finished, first.

And that's about it. I drew a few more pieces of lineart, still on the Star Fox obsession.