| I excitedly began my day, hoping to hit both Devil's Tower and Deadwood on my way to Rapid City. I had no idea that by the end of the night I would consider this to be the worst day of the trip. |
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| Prepare to see a lot of pictures of Devil's Tower. |
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| See that? That's the tower. It's about 630 feet high and growing every year. The path around it spans over a mile. |
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| To hike around the peak, one seemingly encounters a different environment around every corner. There are ponderosa forests, badlands, a boulder garden, and burnt woods. |
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| As I was walking, I saw something moving through the grass. I chased after it as it ducked behind some shrubs. It was a snake! A real live snake! |
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| It had a tread on its back -- like a rattlesnake -- so naturally I moved in for a closer look. |
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It lunged to bite me, but it never "rattled" or anything, so I was pretty sure it was not a rattlesnake. Also, some nerd with a walking stick came over, took a quick look at it, and told me it was a bull snake.
Then I was all, "Whatever, Natureboy!" And continued on my way. |
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| Goodbye, Devil's Tower. |
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Hello, Prairie Dog Country!
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| Look at those little fuckers! What the fuck is wrong with them! What the hell are they doing! Why are they so fucking weird looking! |
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| I don't get Prairie Dogs, but I am endlessly fascinated by them. Also, there are a million of them all along the ground at the base of the tower. And yet, I didn't see one single smooshed prairie dog anywhere on the road. Amazing! |
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| Welcome to South Dakota, asshole. You'll need quicker reflexes if you're going to survive out here... |
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| They call this area the Black Hills, and for good reason. |
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| Myself, and a fraction of the one million bikers who came to South Dakota this weekend, decend on the town of Deadwood. |
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| By the way, I literally rolled into Deadwood, because something several fucked up was going on with my engine. |
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| The presence of the bikers and the steady rainfall made my stay in Deadwood quite frustrating. Also, they jacked up all the prices of the food and beer in town to unbearable costs. |
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| This is Deadwood, cocksucker. |
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If you don't ride a hog, you're shit out of luck this weekend if you're looking for someone with whom you can converse. |
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Did you watch Deadwood? Then you'll recognize The Gem. |
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| On the way to my hotel in Rapid City, I was caught in traffic behind -- wait for it -- a motorcycle accident. The rain intensified, and my car woes worsened. Suddenly, as I sat in traffic, the car shook harshly and died. Although it restarted on the first or second try, I was mortified that I could be stranded in South Dakota. |
To make matters worse, I decided to get roaringly drunk at my hotel following my arrival. As I was typing in the story of the day's events, I accidentally knocked over my pint of beer. It spilled all over my laptop, rendering it inoperable. Now I was absolutely enraged, mortified, and stressed all at once. What the hell was I going to do? |
The answer, of course, was get really, REALLY drunk, and do some damage to my hotel room. I broke a mirror, broke the tissue dispenser in the bathroom, and coated the walls of my room with degrading comments and self-effacing remarks. I spit on the back of the paper and stuck it to the mirror so that I would see it when I tried to brush my teeth or look at my disgusting, unshaved, filthy self.
The next morning, the car was fixed and I continued on towards Omaha without my laptop and with little desire to take any more photographs. |
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