On Tour in the USA

[monster]

We're so jealous you got to North Platte after the tower was built.... well hector is anyway....

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Yeah,lumberjim,the Cheesesteak did seem a little thin on meat-content,but its a sound food principle I missed the genuine article whilst in the east,and was surprised to see it offered as far west as CO,but I thought better to try it,than not....The stall selling it touted themselves as having appeared on the food channel,so it seemed a good chance.The guy working the queue was quite entertaining too.

Careful of that tower,monster,apparently they have a pet trainspotter who virtually lives on the top-deck...the door staff referred to him as a 'real mine of information' whilst she rolled her eyes.... We stayed one deck down from the top,and enjoyed the almost balletic performace of engines and cars.

[xoxoxoBruce]

I spent a happy couple of hours watching incoming trains being split up and sent down a hill to a holding yard where they were shunted about and attached to ongoing trains.

Called "humping". Occasionally you'll see a picture of a sign or placard on the net that reads "Do Not Hump". Those are attached to RR cars they don't want rolled down the hill and making sudden stops, because of the weight, how it's packed or cargo(explosive, acid, etc).

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Hehe...a tremendous night here in Sioux Falls,SD...we've been treated to another jaw-dropping thunderstorm,which took enough time to get over for us both to shoot video and time-exposed stills,and for us both to get absolutely soaked (and looked at like total lunatics by most people in the motel.).
I would have posted up today that we visited the Corn Palace in Mitchell,but I can still see a fragment of that thunderstorm passing south from the room window.
Persistence made the error of parking in the sun whilst we visited the Corn Palace,which is quite splendid,we arrived back at our car to find the temperature indicator showing 105...I took a slug of my soda and found it to be more like fizzy tea Nevermind,at least I bagged myself a corncob pipe.Now I just need another decent tobacconist.

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Currently,we're back in Alliance,Nebraska.

The morning after our last entry,we went to see the Porter Sculpture Park,outside of Montrose,SD.It was a morning and $6 each well spent,as we found it everything Art should be. Thoughtful,witty,provoking,happy and sad.Whilst strolling around looking at the exhibits,we ran into a couple of young ladies who seemed slightly appalled at the sculptures,much to our delight.We even had a bit of time to stop and chat with the sculptor,Wayne Porter,who is an all-round good-egg and a great laugh,and a good deal more intelligent than first impressions might suggest.
The smile didnt wear off our faces for the rest of the day from that experience.
Since then,amongst other things,we've visited the Badlands National Park,where despite my sun-tan I managed to get pretty burned on a 40 minute hike through god-awful heat.And we stopped to feed some Prairie Dogs at Cactus Flats,which if you're not familiar with them,are entertaining little creatures.Leaving the Badlands,we'd been obliged to visit Wall Drug,as we'd been seeing advertising hoardings trumpeting its virtues from the other end of the state.Its an amusing and unapologetic tourist-trap,so we took the opportunity to buy a couple of gifts for the folks back home,and sample our cup of free ice-water (which was probably the most unpleasant bit of our visit there.).
The Cosmos Mystery Spot,near Mount Rushmore was a pricey but worthwhile side-trip.But the highlight of the last few days was probably visiting Mount Rushmore itself.We decided to go to the lighting-up ceremony,on the recommendation of the tour guide we had back at the Mitchell Corn-Palace,at about 9pm on Saturday night.We were initially horrified at the piped patriotic music,as we walked up from the car-park and through the (quite pleasant) gift shops and concessions.We thought we were going to feel quite awkward and out of place,suspecting that the whole shebang was going to be terribly cheesey.It was a pleasant surprise then,to find the ceremony tasteful,and very respectful.I've seen less devout crowds attending church to be quite honest.'Patriotism' is something of an anathema to us Brits these days,as it tends to carry ominous overtones of nationalism/racism back where we come from,but we have to say,it was very refreshing to see it celebrated,and particularly touching to see members of the US armed forces invited to come down to the stage,and to be introduced to the audience.I may not have been able to join in the national anthem,but I couldnt help but joining in the applause to honour braver men than I.
We overnighted in Custer after that,and took a stroll around the town the next day.The town is currently hosting an art installation,there are around twenty model Buffaloes stationed around the place,which have been painted up by what I assume to be local artists,and there is a particularly good rock and fossil shop at one end of the town.As it goes,we found it to be a very pleasant town,it does cater to tourists,but not in an over-the-top kind of way in contrast to a place called Keystone that we'd stumbled over earlier in the weekend.It had assaulted our sensibilities with great tackiness and false bonhommie.
We also paused by the roadside outside of Custer to grab a couple of shots of the Crazy Horse Memorial.We thought the entry fee of $10 each to be a little rich for our tastes,but nevertheless,its an impressive bit of scultpure.
We then proceeded into Wyoming,and visited the Devil's Tower National Monument,which is a stunning lesson in why nature will always be a better artist than man.For film buffs among you,its the mountain featured in 'Close Encounters of the third kind' movie,and its a lot prettier than it looks in the movie.Sadly,there wasnt much to do around there tho,we chatted to a couple of the locals,and a couple of visitors and moved along.
This morning we went to the town of Lost Springs (WY).Officially,its the US's smallest incorporated town,although the population is 3,not the 1 which the road-signs told us.The lady in the post-office was very nice,and once again we took an opportunity to shoot the breeze and sent some postcards that we'd been carrying about for a week or so.
We're now holed up,waiting for the weather to get a bit cooler,so we can scoot back to Carhenge,and put to some use the paint we bought earlier today.We're not entirely sure as to whether its allowed to decorate the cars or not,but dammit,we're not going to get much other opportunity to paint stuff.That $10 will not be wasted.