Best of 2018: db's epic South Dakota travels

I drive to as far as I can see, then I do it again, and again, and again, and again. I’m on a road that goes to forever, and then some. Welcome my friends to South Dakota a state I’ve never been to, but a state I fell in love with…

Trust me, they sent the right dude, in 15 hours of windshield time Troy (and Katy) took me on a 794-mile tour of the state, from the plains in the east of the state to the mountains in the west and a whole bunch of cool things in between, so come on, check it out…

…got together and built a bass pond for the local kids to come and fish in. Troy told me there are a bunch of bass in there, he just for some reason wouldn’t point out exactly where those fish were. Huh.

Let me be honest with you, it was like I had somehow driven to Mars. I’m a city guy, a Buffalo, N.Y., guy, wide open spaces to me was our driveway…

…I mean, who mows this stuff?

Now check this out, for a city guy this figure is almost to hard to grasp, South Dakota has about 10 people, 10, per square mile. In perspective New Jersey, the state with the most, has 1,205 people per square mile. By the way, Manhattan alone has 27,000 tightly packed and slightly cranky folks per square mile.

Yep, more driving, Katy told me that the nearest mall from where she lives is three hours away, which to a teen is like, wow you know. Sometimes Troy drives an hour and a half to grocery shop. So we drive a couple hours, maybe more and then suddenly we somehow end up on Mars…

Imagine, a city dude looking at this, and when I say to me it looks like Mars, I’m not the only one who thought that way…

…the are was also used in the movie Armageddon…don’t tell anyone but it was the surface of the asteroid.

…a billion or so years ago this was the bottom of the shallow Cambrian Sea…

I have to tell you, since I was a little kid all I’ve ever wanted to be in life was a Paleontologist. I have a childhood love of dinosaurs that has never gone away and standing here, to me, was a childhood dream come true. Out there in those nooks and crannies…

Just to stand on the rim and look at it was a dream come true, and for a moment, I was a little kid again, for a moment I could hear the waves lapping the inland sea, for a moment I could hear the roar of the most dominant life forms to inhabit this earth…so far…dinosaurs. Thank you, South Dakota, for a moment I’ll never forget…by the way, look close…

…and speaking of tourists, no I wouldn’t do that…

…but thanks in part to “the selfie,” and beautiful sights that you want to make your friends crazy that you are there and they are not…

…even my tour guides became tourists in their own state…but nowhere here draws more than the original fab four…

Mount Rushmore, last year 2 million people came to see it, came possibly to pay their respects to America’s founding fathers/Presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, President Abraham Lincoln and President Teddy Roosevelt. Quick coolness fact: Originally Thomas Jefferson was going to be to the right (stage right) of Washington, but it wasn’t working so they blew up what they had of him there and put him in the place where he is now.

90 percent of the “carvings” were carved with dynamite. The one face, the one face that choked me up while looking up there was this one, George Washington. I live in New England amidst the history of the Revolutionary War of which I’m a history buff, Washington actually did stay with his troops in our town a couple of time. Without Washington and his soldiers and common folk who fought to turn this land into America there could easily be the faces of kings and queens up there. God Bless those who fought and won our freedom led by this man.

…I was drawn to the sight of these two trees on the side of the mountain, and something came over me. I thought of my buddy who was killed in Vietnam, thought of all the men and women who died for our freedom, these two lonely trees about knocked me out, to me they tied Mount Rushmore altogether, with the famous faces up top and these two trees who serve and who die, for this country. It’s weird but I know nothing about those trees but I hope to God they remain there. I know, weird.

…hills and mountains everywhere, and whatever these things are, around every turn…check out the bottom of the photo it’ll give you a perspective on how big these things are…

…Pactola Lake.

Chief Crazy Horse, in stone. There have always been legends in my family that my maternal grandfather, Clay, was of “First Nation” indigenous heritage (Canada’s Native Canadians) but I’ve never found any proof of that and kind of doubt it, but, from a young age because of it I’ve been acutely aware of other folks, other places, other ideas. I don’t really know who got here first and don’t really care, I respect everyone’s heritage and like Grandpa Clay used to tell me, “Ain’t no difference Donnie, we all the same species,” which of course I had no idea what he meant until I got to college and found out yep, Gramps was right. As I was taking this picture I was also silently saying a prayer, for all of us.

…I just sat in the passenger seat deep in thought as Troy drove into the sunset while Katy slept in the back seat…

…on the plains, all within your border.

…a lady here. Your statue is called “Dignity,” the one near me goes by the name of “Liberty,” to me pretty much the same thought. I read on your statue this: “...have the sculpture stand as an enduring symbol of our shared belief that all here are sacred and in a sacred place.” Dear South Dakota…