Friday 7 August
Yesterday, last day in Rapid City...
latino influence
every town seems to have a flavour.
The boys found a hotel down the street
all you can eat smorg breakfast for $10
then out with a taxi-load to gun shop Cebalas, a huntin, shootin, fishin emporium
size of 2 rugby fields
videos running endless ways of kill, 100 varieties of each kill method
and all down one wall, 3 shelves of pistols.
Some people we've spoken to have 50 guns
another crank addressed us, had 26,000 rounds any one time
'jes in case the neighbours give trouble, and its a goin t' come one day soon, baa' (boy)
I was happy to buy 2 workshirts, $NZ 40 ea, beautiful cut and weight cotton.
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| A little ute at Rapid Black Hills Harley |
display as big as any sizable expo back home
bikes and all ancillaries.
You can hear different sorts of exhaust running, then have it fitted while you wait
ditto screens, suspensions, engine lighting, prettifications, you name it.
Ran into Paul McCormick, equivalent of finding a needle in a haystack.
Local bodies say attendance should reach 700k OK, people just not staying as long
only coming for day or 2.
Had a corn dog, and pork strips on stick for lunch, others had usual pork chop.
Feeding the masses logistics are simply enormous, food stalls everywhere you go
lot of local charity groups involved.
Sturgis week now owned by local chamber of commerce after 3 yr legal wrangle.
You can even get free feeds at church group venues.
A good day spoiled by haggle over tipping at restaurant later same evening
20% over menu price including sales tax,
my pizza and a glass of pinot cost US$45.
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| Mt Rushmore |
Crazy Horse more impressive, will be huger than Rushmore when done
local Indian elders commissioned sculptor Worscak, worked on Rushmore as younger man
to carve Crazy Horse on horse pointing to across his land, "where my people are buried"
out of a granite mountain.
Again monumental distances covered by these people.
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| Crazy Horse, the model and the mountain |
the whites must have been really keen to kill them off.
When you consider the 10 sleeps thing, 40 miles a day for 10 days and you're halfway there
its like deciding its too hot and rainy in Auckland in the summer so you roam down to Wellington
and have a pow-wow with the Crows at Taupo as theyre passing through on the same lurk from HB to NP, but double the distance.
I guess they must have carted their tepee poles with them.
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| Bison in Wind Cave Natl Park |
heaps of bison, elk, donkeys
some bison tame, I think, obviously mustered, going by the 4 wheeler tracks around the place.
Down through Sth Dakota to Nebraska
huge rolling, good country, cropping, ranching
impressive...
Had a really precious hour at a 2 gas-station small town called Kimball, about the size of Bulls
got myself a pie and a drink, and asked 4 gents at a table in the shade
if they'd mind my settin with them......., no problem
They quickly worked out I was Australian or sumthin'
and seein' my trip book, asked if I'd been to Sturgis
did I get me a tat then?,
nah, i says
what about them studs 'n rings 'n stuff, got them back home?
yeah, but luckily, I reply, ahm abart 2 generations away frum all thet shet
they crack up laughing, and if that aint key to the door enough
I score again when they ask how NZ farmers are doin
I say my grandma always said you farmers'll allus get rich next year
and the one who turned up later in the piece says, how come you kin afford to be here then
to which the elder says, you aint never heared he sold half his farm last year
'bout the cleverest one uv us round this here table.
All these blokes were on the set-aside
the govt pays them to keep their farms out of production to even out price and supply fluctuations
"thats why we're settin here in the shade", but you can see it dosent sit lightly on their shoulders
such a beautiful tract of land, but the homesteadings look dirt poor
at first I thought the place must have been subject to amalgamations, and the homes let out.
Somebody came over and gave one of them cheek about bein able ter see the engine through the floor of his ute
and you could see his embarrassment in responding in front of a stranger.
A lady joined in
her son had just won first prize at the county fair for his Hamp/Suffolk ram hgt, 149 lbs
wouldnt like to have to shear that one I rejoinder
nah, we had to tie its head down on the board to do it.
Just as we're finding everywhere we go, there's a good knowledge of NZ here too
the young woman and her husband had been to the SI, in through Christchurch.
The sun was getting lower and I still had one-forty miles of Interstate to do, so I had to go
they didnt want me to leave, as much as I didnt want to go.
Had an amusing incident on the way in to this little hamlet too
was playing 90mph leap frog with a motorist
I'd stop for a photo, he'd pass, and so on.
I take a photo, start over a rise, and there he is with a state trooper, getting a ticket for doing 75
told me what he thought about it at the gas station.
So to Ft Collins...
mexican infuence here, the boys were waiting for me
and a wild, marguerita by the jug night ensued.
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| Black Hills back-road |
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| Wild donkeys |
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| On the way to Wind Cave |
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A lake back of Rushmore, featured in the movie, National Monument |
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