6/21/12 If This Is Thursday It Must Be Sioux Falls

6/21/12  If This Is Thursday It Must Be Sioux Falls

 

Sleep, Niamh, sleep

Another long day of driving yesterday, this time considerably more relaxed than the day before.  Here is a mystery about pets in general, and our cat in particular – how is it that they so often serve as our avatars?  On the day of our traveling misery, Niamh was the center of serenity, passing the day in her car carrier, sleeping or at peaceful rest.  Yesterday, when I was feeling much better (physically and emotionally) she seemed to have taken in the disquiet for me, or perhaps from me.  She clawed at the metal bars of her carrier door, stretching her front legs out through those bars, claws splayed, reaching for anything to snag.  She bit the bars and pulled until I thought her teeth would break.  She thrashed about and twisted in an inconsolable way.  After many pullouts at several rest stops to try and calm her (South Dakota, by the way, has fabulous rest stops on Highway 90), and after even the tranquilizers failed to help, I did what I swore I would not do, and let her out of the box while we were driving.  She crawled straight onto my lap and immediately fell into a four hour deep sleep.  The girl moved only to snuggle in closer.  A healing slumber.

Missouri River

We drove past places of great story, places that I understand better because I have now seen the landscape.  The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, site of the massacre at Wounded Knee; the birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder; the Missouri River.  Looking out across the rolling prairie I could imagine the colossal T-rex hulking around, and wondered about all the changes that brought that creature to extinction and put the wild horses here now.

There was, of course, the goofy stuff as well.  There is a crazy place called Wall, SD, that is home to Wall Drug.  Wall Drug is evidently famous for being famous – it’s a gigantic store set in a faux Old West town, kitschy and fun.  I stayed in the car with the sleeping cat while Dwight went in to get us a sandwich for lunch.  Too bad we didn’t buy Asaka a T-shirt.

Look carefully -- it's all corn!

And then there was the Corn Palace.  I could not make this stuff up.  In a little town named Mitchell, SD, there is a large building decorated on the outside entirely with corn, corn cobs, and corn husks.  The design corn work is actually beautiful, although the building itself is over-the-top silly.  We stopped by, of course, and although the cat was still sleeping on my lap, Dwight went in, and this time he did get the T-shirt for the little man.  It has a glow-in-the-dark corn cob on it.  How good is that?

And now, as soon as our laundry is finished in the hotel laundry room (I love the Staybridge Hotel – I heart it bigtime) we’re off to Madison, WI to see more cherished friends.

Sioux Falls to Madison today!