Yesterday was amazing. It was like five days wrapped in one and so much of what my heart needed. Exploring on my own, living in the moment. No time for second guessing or discussion, just good old decision making and embrace. When you're in a completely unknown place with no expectation of how it should be, that's when you can really appreciate it. Our minds get all confused and hung up on how we've imagined something, rather than seeing it for how it is. More appreciation, less expectation. That's what I love about travel. It frees you from your ideas and routines. It allows you to encounter things just as they are, and wow is there a lot to appreciate.
Started my day in Sioux Falls after sleeping in because I was up late. Leaving the hotel, I ran into to a friendly man from Minnesota I had met the night before who told me all about duck hunting. The more colorful ducks are males (I wonder why - maybe to attract a mate?) Who knows when this little tidbit could come in handy but seems useful to keep around. Started on the road, not a care or hurry in the world, just living in a nomadic and present way. This was one of my favorite parts of the trip because I was completely in tune however the drive itself was the most demanding.
South Dakota is vast and unforgiving. Even with our modern amenities, it still is a challenging drive. The open plains, the rushing winds, the barrenness of the surroundings. Lest you for one minute forget where you are, you could easily be blown off the road or in an accident (80 MPH speed limits there.) The heat is out of this world, people are nowhere to be found and it's long stretches of highway with no civilization in sight. Just dryness and more dryness. At one point, I couldn't get my door open the wind was so strong. As soon as I got out of the car, I could barely breathe from the heat and the dust (no shade or trees in sight.) Sure makes me appreciate the pioneers which made the long journey through here.
There's something sacred about this space though. Maybe just seeing the Earth, as she is, untamed and raw. You feel connected to the Native Americans out here. You can see how their beliefs about spirits and Mother Nature developed. It's almost as if in the distance you can hear their chants, part man, part wolf, lifted to the sky. Their long shadows cast upon the ground, the dim glow of the fire reflected on their tanned skin. The playfulness of the prairie dog never far, the wisdom of the eagle, ever close.
My Grandma used to say she was part Native American and I like to think I am too. Learning of their beliefs from a young age, I have always felt aligned to their way of life. I deeply believe that everything has a spirit and that all spirits should be respected, including those of Mother Earth.
Arrived at a scenic stop, a little further East, which looked over a river. I don't think I've ever been so excited to see water! It's amazing to see a life-giving river in such a vast body of plains. God provides. At the viewpoint, the signs talk about how Lewis and Clark camped around there and dried their gear. They must have been so thankful for a quiet, calm place to rest, although they still had to be very mindful of the snakes (as did I, given the many signs reminding me to be.) I drove into the town, just a little place off a forgotten highway. I couldn't believe it. The town was straight out of an old western. People going about their daily lives, living like nothing was out of the ordinary. This is how people live! My mind was blown. Makes you realize how easily we get caught up in our day to day. I bet the people who live there don't think it's anything special but I thought it was pretty grand.
All this already and I haven't even gotten to the Badlands, the "baddest" part of the state.
Coffee for 5 cents (anyone who's driven through South Dakota can't ignore the Wall Drug signs) and anti-abortion propaganda littering the highway. Guess that explains why some of the people here believe what they believe, if that's all you know and it's so blatantly in your face (side note: this was another moment of realization for me, given that it was the first time I truly understood how someone like Donald Trump could win an election in our country. Not out of hate, just out of a lack of knowing anything beyond the immediate, i.e. what's taught or seen.)