On Tour in the USA

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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.

[monster]

Car henge -you'll be able to paint unless it changed recently. After all the travel tips, please may I give you a posting one? hit a double return between paragraphs -it's a hell of a lot easier to read thanks -it's worth reading, but normally i would skip read a post all bunched up like this (usually indicates psycho/obsessed/ranting/raving poster)

[xoxoxoBruce]

I agree, if it was anyone else I wouldn't bother figuring out how to break it up, but your reports are very much worth the trouble.

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Point taken,must use Enter more I must have been late with my meds the previous night

Indepenence weekend is upon us.Down with the British!

Sod that,we're hiding for the weekend,having already being subjected to vast volleys of fireworks going off nearby for the last couple of nights.Rock Springs,southern Wyoming seems a fairly safe refuge from gunpowder happiness for the next few nights.

Its been a bit of an odd one,today has.We started the day with great promise.We'd been too short on time the day before to visit some petroglyphs at a place called Castle Garden,near to Riverton WY,so we'd resolved to turn back on ourselves and remedy the error.

I was quite excited,as I'm becoming something of a prehistoric art junkie.There's a lot of it about,back where I'm from,and although many thousands of years may seperate my local carvings from the glyphs I'm encountering out here,I'm spotting common themes and shapes.

We made the requisite trip out into the wilderness,Castle Gardens being some 40-50 miles from the nearest town of any note.Its not a formal site,there is a trail of sorts around the canyon,which is quite beautiful in itself,but we decided to head straight off the path and explore the site from right to left,following the canyon wall to ensure we didnt miss much.

So it was quite disappointing that the first carvings we encountered were no more than a few years old,some grafitti from some kids out having a bit of fun no doubt.We were not discouraged,and kept going.Our enthusiasm began to wane by the 3rd or 4th panel of recent rubbish scrawled upon the walls.I looked more closely at the latest panel we'd found.I was absolutely aghast.

The modern scatchings had been done straight over the top of old petroglyphs.And so with the next panel.And the next.And so on.My amazement turned to first horror,then sadness.....then bitter fury.I very much doubt that,in all the time I've been interested in stuff historical,that I've ever seen any archaeological site so thoroughly and deliberately trashed.Admittedly,some of the 'modern' damage did date back as far as the 1940's,but I did spot some which was dated as late as last year.Not every panel is spolied.But certainly in the region of half.One of the last we encountered was an absolutely stunning frieze of several shield-type petroglyphs,which were the first I'd seen outside of books,and that cheered me up a bit.

But frankly,that kind of deliberate damage baffles me.There was plenty of open rock to etch inanity upon....why the hell do it straight over the ancient work?And why track so far out into the back country to do it?I feel the culprits should be tracked down,and I'd love the opportunity to etch a few messages of my own,on their faces.Most of the vandals seem to have been good enough to leave their names.

Persistence decided it was probably a good time to push on,and get me more distracted.She'd slipped a little something of her own onto our list of activities.We'd been a little disappointed with our last effort at finding a ghost town,and she'd been puzzling over the web looking for something more substantial.She'd found it though,in the shape of Miner's Delight (also known as Hamilton City),a 19th century boom-and-bust gold mining town,which was conveniently close to where we were passing by.Unfortunately,she'd also forgotten to write down any kind of directions for it,other than a vague splodge on our maps.

For a good 45 minutes or more,we ploughed up and down the highway between Atlantic City and Lander,until just short of the former,in desperation we turned down a BLM dirt road.20 minutes later and dustier,we got lucky,and spotted the old cemetery from the road.I thought it was going to be like the first one we'd encountered.An overgrown graveyard and very little else,but as we came over the top of the hill beside the cemetary,a signpost pointed us down a path into some woods.

Expecting a fool's errand,we followed it through the trees,and across a bridge.A bridge.That seemed to me an awful lot of trouble to go to,if nothing was at the end of it.But after today's earlier disappointment,I wasn't going to raise my expectations.So it was a pleasant surprise to be greeted on the other end with the sight of a derelict cabin.We excitedly ran forwards,to inspect it.Derelict it may have been,and braced internally with a steel rope to prevent collapse,but to me it was as good as discovering an ancient tomb.For the next few minutes,we paced and clucked around it,with an air of fake intelligence,discussing how it was built,who could have lived there,what things they might have seen....Until Persistence spotted another,and we ran towards that one,like excited children.Then she spotted another...and another.It became a mad,joyous paper-chase.

We paused under the verandah of the fourth building we found,a sizeable house,and examined a table of artifacts someone had thoughtfully laid out.Broken bits of this and that,an old shoe-sole,splintered pottery...as good to us as chunks of gold.

A flash of lightning split the air,and a peal of thunder broke our excited mood.We'd failed to notice an approaching thunderstorm,and the rain came down hard.But it didnt matter,we are,after all,British.And well we know that rain will only soak through as far as the skin.We spent far too long investigating the increasingly soggy scene,and it was with great reluctance that we dragged each other back to the car,in tired triumph.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Excellent, glad you found your ghost town and free shower.


Oh, and much easier to read, too... thanks.

[monster]

No wonder she's called Persistence. excellent work. be sure to document exactly where it is and let us know so we can go next time we're out there, thanks

Oh, and pictures.

Now.

If you wait until you get back home to share with us, it'll take you months to get them all posted.

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You may laugh,but I've just had to sort over 900 images from the last few days

I sorted a few into a .rar for another m8 back home last week,they're not that recent,but should be enough to give you a flavour.

Find them here

http://www.filefront.com/13927705/tripfotos1.rar

[monster]

Well, I tried, but now I look forward to you posting them in an accessible form

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Some views of Miner's Delight














That last shot I'm particularly pleased with.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Excellent! There's a reward for you in IOtD.

[monster]

Those are great pics, thanks I want to go....

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[xoxoxoBruce]

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I think we upset the guy at the fireworks caravan earlier,either at our modest purchase (which is probably more fireworks than either of us have detonated this decade),or with our Britishness.I will say,tho,that caravan we went to had enough gunpowder products to un-nerve a British Parliament.

Then its taken us 3 tries to find a Beer shop.

Luckily theres some waste ground behind the parking lot at our Motel.The festivities will commence later.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Bravo, I admire your spirit of when in Rome.