The Trip Home - The Badlands

Taking the Badlands Scenic Loop was a sudden impulse, one I second guessed as I neared the gates, realizing that I'd be entering a National Park and thus need to pay a fee to get in. Just outside the gates, one could opt for a helicopter tour of the park which I'm sure cost a bundle and might be awesome, but not provide the same picture taking opportunities or time for contemplation being on the ground would.

So I ante-ed up my $15 dollars and braved the rattlesnakes to go sightseeing in this extraordinary landscape. Money well spent. Took over 160 pics - don't worry, I won't make you scroll through all of them! I didn't realize there would be so many turnouts as well as several places with boardwalks or trails leading to better views. I could have spent an entire day there.

When you enter the park from the east entrance, this rugged line of eroded hills catches the eye.

But in many places, that which gives the Badlands its name falls away at your feet.

I remembered them as a bit more colorful, but I may be remembering The Painted Desert which isn't too far away.  Perhaps the time of year makes a difference or the time of day.

I was particularly drawn in by curves and cracks, lines and overlaps.

At the first major turnoff, one could walk quite a ways both directions on boardwalks to scenic overlooks. On one end was "The Window" and on the other "The Door". 

From this second overlook you could actually walk out into the Badlands, snakes notwithstanding.

There were few tourist to distract...that is until a tour bus pulled up and a group of foreign students piled out. Ignoring the boardwalks, they ran straight for the nearest high point creating their own overlooks.

Bear in mind, this was a very windy day, the gusts particularly high in the park. More than once, I was buffeted while aiming my camera, blurring shots. This guy was undeterred. I believe this is the way people get in the news...when they fall from such high places where they should not be. However, no one injured themselves as far as I know.

The Trip Back Home

The first leg of my 5 day trip from Rochester home was uneventful. After seeing Judi off on the shuttle to the airport, I pointed the car west with the express goal of traveling out of Minnesota into South Dakota before day's end. Judi and I moaned the whole time we were there about how flat it was. Southern Minnesota is just that way, and South Dakota no better. Here's the view from Mitchell, SD where I spent the first night: the water tower is probably the highest point around. This is looking towards the freeway where I could see a Cabela's on the other side. I suppose that is a big draw for this town, but all I wanted was to take a walk and get some food.

As I neared Mitchell, I noticed how red the sun was - had been all afternoon. This has nothing to do with a sunset and did not bode well for what I'd be driving into. I checked the internet that night and sure enough, that red sun was due to numerous wildfires burning in Wyoming and Montana. In fact, I discovered there were big fires all over the Pacific Northwest waiting to welcome me home - sigh...

Here's the Super8 I stayed in - very nice and reasonably priced. Had a good continental breakfast too to get me down the road the next day. Casinos were everywhere, just hole in the wall places, but I passed on that.

Goal for day 2 was making my way across and out of South Dakota. I remembered this next stretch from the trip out as being the most boring, mind numbing 6 hour stretch of driving we encountered. So I steeled myself for a grueling day. Flat flat flat, no trees to speak of and a highway with few curves.

But at one point, the road dropped away...topography! I'd forgotten about crossing the Missouri River after dropping down off the bluffs. A welcome break but one that didn't last long.

On and on and some haze building on the horizon - a chance of rain was in the forecast and although that haze soon became stormy-looking clouds, rain did not materialize.

I stopped as a rest stop about mid-state and looked at where I'd come from...if you click on the picture you will see in the middle of the photo the highest point around - a cell tower.

And here was where I was headed...bleak as far as I'm concerned. I know these fields were all green when I came out at the end of June. Now everything is dry and brown.

Both my parents were from South Dakota, my dad from the the northeast corner, my mom from the southwest corner. Whenever I'm out in this country, whining about the days it takes me to cross the plains, I always ponder two things - how the pioneers spent months in wagons or on horses or walking to cross it so if it demoralizes me, how much more demoralizing must it have been for them? And how my dad spent his teens riding rails and hitching rides all over South Dakota looking for jobs during the depression. Time to stop whining.

I also wonder about the people who chose to stay and work this land...without the benefit of cautionary signs like this.

And endured the winds too - was glad this was a tail wind this day.

A little further down the road was a "scenic overlook" which had me curious. Didn't look to me like there was anything special to see, so I had to pull off. Still not sure what the scenic part was. There was this hollow where some cattle were grazing by a lonely tree.

The Pine Ridge Indian Reservation is off over in that direction. My grandparents were teachers there back in the early 1900's and my mother was born on the reservation. I remembered the picture grandpa took of the school house and the spindly tree in front of it that they so cherished, it being the only one around (see this post for more info and pics on this). Again, this was a time to ponder those years they spent in a part of the country so isolated and harsh.

Not far from here, I decided to take a detour through the Badlands National Park along its scenic loop. Now I knew this would be scenic, having been through it a couple of times as a kid. And it wasn't long after I hopped off the freeway that indeed, I spotted topography! What I expected to be a short diversion turned into several hours of gawking, gazing and picture taking. The Badlands deserve several posts of their own.

Bye Bye Rochester

After 3 months of Mayo Clinic schedules and what have turned out to be successful procedures, Judi and I are finally leaving Rochester for home today. Having lived through many Midwest summers before moving to the Pacific Northwest, the last thing we would have thought we'd be doing is spending an entire summer in southern Minnesota, but that is what we have done. Heat waves and torrential thunderstorms not withstanding, we did our best to find fun and pleasant things to do in Rochester when we weren't trapped in clinic buildings or too tired to budge. However, as the weeks dragged on, there were things we knew we would not miss about Rochester:

The jam-packed clinic schedule that changed almost daily.

And the waiting rooms that schedule required us to hang out in, no matter how nice.

Not to mention, waiting in the inner sanctums for the parade of health professionals to question us.

Queuing up at the Charlton Building passenger drop off every day.

Then queuing up to get into the parking ramp.

Lugging a day's worth of food, supplies and entertainment because you never knew if you'd have time to go back to the motel room or even to a cafeteria.

Wheel chairs ready for use at every turn.

And the ubiquitous Purell bottles.

A skyline full of cranes and their blinking red lights, and the general noise of a busy downtown city.

And graphic displays of body functions.

Mayo fashion accessories like Judi's chemo pump.

And the high percentage of people for whom this is normal attire.

Most of all, I will not miss surgical masks and having to carry that sweater with me everywhere every day because of how freezing so many of the clinic rooms are, and having to peel it off again once outside...

...the 3-note concertina-like alarm when the infusion pump was done (9 straight weeks of that).

and barf cups usually in use thereafter.

Thank you, Mayo Clinic, for how you helped my friend, but oh, we are SO done with you!

Parting Shots

We are wrapping up our time here in Rochester, and there are some random shots around town & the campus I haven't shared yet. Plummer Building, fountains, reflections and other inspiration...