Paul and Casey's Great Adventure.... Aug 2002.
    On August 3rd, 2002, Casey and I left our humdrum lives in Delaware for about five weeks and did a cross-country road trip. We travelled the northern route on the way to the West Coast, on the I-90 for the most part. On the way back, we took the I-40. While we were on the West Coast we went all over California... etc. I'll get into that later. Anyway, the trip would be an unforgettable experience that would have an impact on both of our lives. We did the trip in a tiny KIA Spectra.. an 'equivalent substitute' for the Nissan Sentra we were told we were gonna get.
     The first few days we went through Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. We passed through Chicago at some point. It sucked mostly, especially the food. Should you drive that way, bring some sandwiches because Harrisburg to Minnesota is a barren wasteland of abandoned factories, fly-infested diners with cold food, and very pale-skinned people with the depression of living in Pittsburgh or Chicago for 30 years etched into their features. Best to just stay in the car. You couldn't pay me to live in any of those places except maybe for Minnesota, which had very nice gas station attendants and motel clerks. Oh, and lots of grassy fields and such as well. Not many people. So if that kind of thing is important to you, it's a nice place. I'd live there, anyway. In the summer at least. I'm not sure we have any pics from this section of the trip and honestly, you aren't missing much.
     Somewhere around the border of South Dakota, we made the transition from Eastern USA to Western USA. The landscape is much different, it's a very noticable change. At this point we began seeing some sights. We stopped at a small petrified forest about 300 miles away from Mount Rushmore. It was a nice stop, but we didn't know at this time that we'd soon be seeing THE Petrified Forest in Arizona which is much bigger. It was about this time that we also noticed there were more motorcycles on the road than usual. Remember this.. it has some relevance later on.
South Dakota is really, really flat. Whereas Casey isn't! Huge expanses of open land lets you know you've come to the western side of the US.
Me, surrounded by desolation and death at the Petrified Forest in South Dakota. All of the rocks in the pic are petrified trees. I don't know why all the bones were necessary really.
    So we continued our drive across South Dakota, and came across more and more bikers.. they were getting like wasps. We asked a waitress or some such person about it and she remarked that the motorcycle rally in Sturgis was going on! 800,000 bikers apparently come into Sturgis, South Dakota once a year and do biker things like drink cheap booze, show their tits if they have them, wear leather, and ride motorcycles.And throw geeky looking middle class white boys like me through windows, without opening the windows first. Bear in mind that the population of South Dakota during the rest of the year isn't 800,000! Luckily I had been working out three times a week, had my ratty 'Allied' movers T-shirt I could put on, and hadn't shaved in a couple of days. I fit right in! And Casey, being a woman, would be welcome anywhere. Even in places neither of us would really want to go.
     Sturgis is only about 15 miles from Mount Rushmore, so we waited in line with thousands of bikers to go see the heads. And you know, Mount Rushmore wasn't as good as we expected. The pics look cool, but the heads themselves are much smaller than you might think. And when it comes down to it, they're just heads carved out of stone. If you're up there to see Yellowstone and stuff it's worth the trip, but don't head way up to that area just to check out Mt. Rushmore.
     However, while we were in the area we also went to see the Badlands. They were pretty breathtaking. Grey rock formations and ravines as far as the eye could see. That's not really a good description...well, actually it's a very precise description, but it doesn't do the Badlands justice. Check out the pics and you'll see what I mean. The Badlands were a much more worthwhile sight than Mt. Rushmore, but you never hear about them as a major tourist stop.
Casey mugs for the camera as the Mount Rushmore heads look over the scene approvingly.
A cutesy shot at the Badlands.
The Badlands, South Dakota.
Back to Main Paul and Caseys Great Adventure, Part 2.
Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1