Wednesday, August 27, 2014

Digging for Prairie Dogs

Originally Posted September 11, 2004 by Mags

Have you ever been so tired that you felt sick? Well, that's how I felt last night as we rode into Sioux City, Iowa. We've bucked the winds of the prairie all week- instead of blowing from the west to the east they blew from the south to the north. The strong cross-wind put a serious damper on any thoughts of a 200 mile day. And we thought it would be easy going once we hit the heartland. Anyways, there is one benefit of the strong winds: pungent odors emerging from Captain Cookie are whisked away before reaching my nose. The highway that we took across Nebraska overlaps some of the camping spots of Lewis and Clark along the Missouri River. At one spot they tried to catch a prairie dog by digging down its hole but after shoveling dirt down 6 feet they gave up. Instead they poured water down another hole and pushed the prairie dog out that way. On Friday we passed by the area where Private George Shannon (one of Lewis and Clark's men) got lost for 17 days. He was almost dead before he got reconnected with the Corps of Discovery. 

Comments: Digging for Prairie Dogs
Dear Margaret,

You've seen a lot of evidence related to the passing of the Lewis and Clark Corps of Discovery. Seems you and Chad are a smalleer corps of discovery finding out many new things about the land and all that goes on in connection with the land but also discovering new things about yourselves.

The tiredness has got to me complicated by the alergies. Mom said you were talking on the phone as you soaked in the tub in your first motel since leaving Provo. Well you certainly deserve the motel stop. I sincerely hope your can recuperate sufficiently that the riding can be a pleasure along with a supreme effort.

Our ward's Western Picnic which Mom and I and other members of our ward missionary committee were in charge of turned out to be a wonderful success last Saturday, September 11th. George Korologos's lamb cooked on a spit was done in the Greek Festival tradition and even his father, a life time Greek Orthodox practitioner, said the picnic was more fun than a Greek Festival. George is one of our recent convert baptisms helped through the conversion process by Lew Chappell who preceeded me as ward mission leader. We had about 25 Dutch Oven dishes with a huge variety of foods including some bread that I cooked. There were games for kids and adults including two of the "western" blow up slides, a calf roping station where kids could sit on saddles and rope a wooden animal, rodeo events with stick horses, and lots of other games that our own grandkids loved too. We also had line dancing that Mom and I participated in led by the young women and their leaders. The high light for me was putting up the large handcart pioneer family painting (40 X 30 feet) and our large American flag. The flag was significant because Mom, our MC, lead us in singing the National Anthem, invited a young man to lead us in the pledge and then called on me to lead the gathering in prayer of thanksgiving and tribute to those whose lives are now in harms way and those whose lives have been taken because of political strife. It was a moving experience in part because a number of our non member neighbors were present. It was a moment of sharing deep commitments and feelings. Like some have said there is much more to celebrate that we hold in common than those differences which divide us. Any way the event ended on a high note of Dutch oven coblers and icecream.
I saw the twins last night. There were laying face to face in their hospital setting with all the tubes that sustain them with food and oxegen and also monitor their vital signs. There continues to be progress but it is slow, Glory and Logan are working so hard to help them survive and while it is very taxing they are encouraged. The nurse was really neat with Natasha and Matthew. She let them use the stethscope to listen to the babies hearts and their own. Natasha wants to be a doctor or a nurse.
We congratulate you on your 3,000th mile. We continue to pray for your health, safety, enjoyment, and for the wind to be at your backs.

 Love, Dad

Posted by Carl Harris at September 13, 2004 06:12 AM

Monday, August 25, 2014

Sioux Reservation

Originally Posted September 8, 2004 by Mags



We’ve been stuck in towns beginning with “W” for the last 2 days! Wanblee, White River, Whitten, Wood and today we’re in Winner. We’re traveling Highway 44 in South Dakota where the fields are filled with sunflowers. Fields of crops and grass and gullies filled with trees beginning to turn color. Two days ago while riding through the first “W” town- Wanblee- we stopped at the only gas station in town. (Wanblee is on a Sioux Indian reservation and a large blue water tower is its largest feature.) Sam, a Sioux Indian at the gas station offered to let us camp on his mom’s property. We rode 6 miles past Wanblee to his mom’s house and she let us put up our tent near a circular arena where they perform Sundance ceremonies. Sam said they dance from sunrise to sunset for 4 days straight. Ernestine, Sam’s mom, was a sweetheart- she brought us a blanket, lavendar oil, chairs and Indian skillet bread. In the morning, the inside of our tent was dripping with dew- (I think we’ve finally got back into the humidity again). When we were about to leave Ernestine gave us leather pouches filled with sage to protect us. People are friendly and curious on the reservation but it seems like a depressing place to live in some ways because of the lack of an economy. 

Original Comments: Sioux Reservation
 
It is so good to see your pictures of the people and places. We appreciate the connection particularly as we just celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary and our friends asked us, "Do you know where your children are?" Fortunately, we could say Logan, Lindon, Draper and smallwords.org. We pulled up your site while we were in McCall, Idaho, and it was fun to ooo and aaaahh about your adventures.

Report on the twins---Chantel had to have another blood transfusion and seems to respond well. Has had to have oxygen now and then. She is very active and different times of the day and tries to pull on the hoses she is connected to. Jadira is gaining weight and learning to swallow. Their beautiful black hair and rosy pink cheeks gives us such joy as we look at them. The parents are doing a marvelous job of being there for the twins and helping the other children get to and from and being happy about the adventures of having their little sisters getting ready to come home. No date for that yet as they have to be able to gain more weight, nurse, etc.

Love, Melanie

Posted by Melanie Harris at September 9, 2004 11:30 AM

Friday, August 22, 2014

Rapid City, SD

Originally Posted September 6, 2004 by Chad



Cassie, Jacklyn, and Megan were the first to welcome us into Rapid City. They didn’t know where Seattle was but they saw that we were thirsty so they sold us some lemonade anyway. I hope they’ve found it on a map by now. Have you girls?



Ben and Shannon were classmates of mine at the University of Washington. They got married in July and are living the American dream in Rapid City. Ben took us all to the Dakota Thunder air show where he is stationed at Ellsworth Air Force Base. The Thunderbirds were there but they didn’t perform because of the nasty weather. I still had fun watching the other spectators and admiring the cockpits of enormous bombers. I saw a kid almost fall through a hole in the floor of one plane. Can you imagine the amount of paperwork that would have caused? I saw Elvis there too. He was hiding out by the Honey Buckets, where people are in too much of a hurry to notice him. I didn’t know he was interested in America’s military might.



Our next stop was Badlands National Park, our last national park for a long time. Ben rode with us for 70 miles while Shannon followed behind in a car loaded with watermelon and other goodies. We all endured a windy night of camping in the park that night. The next day we drove the scenic loop through the park and up into the town of Wall, where we stopped at the drug store.




DO NOT GO TO WALL DRUG, unless you like giant gift shops with overpriced knickknacks and overworked employees from Eastern Europe. I was surprised to learn that they actually do employ 2 pharmacists among all that junk, but I never saw the pharmacy. The most amazing thing I saw there was a size 6XL T-shirt. They had a whole rack of these:



It was hard to leave all the excitement of Rapid City behind, but we had to keep moving east. We’re in Winner, SD now and are headed for Sioux City, Iowa tomorrow.

 Original Comments: Rapid City, SD

I have a great grandfather who helped settle Wall, SD (or someplace near there). I think he was on the right side of the law, but I'm sure he was packing heat. Did you hear that our inspired congressional "representatives" are going to let the ban on assault weapons expire?

I saw Elvis in Philadelphia on the 24th of August. I wasn't surprised that he would hang out in the "City of Brotherly Love", but I'm shocked that he was in scenic South Dakota a couple weeks later. My recollection is that he did serve in the military. You, of course, are too young to know about that. If you took the time to watch (and suffer through) his movies, you would find he was a "big" fan of military might. Or am I getting him confused with John Wayne?

Now you get to glide through the cornfields of the Midwest. May the wind be at your back.

Doc

Posted by Doc at September 9, 2004 08:04 AM

Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Mt. Rushmore

Originally Posted September 4, 2004 by Chad



Iron Mountain road is an ideal road to ride a bike on. It’s curvy, the scenery is spectacular, wildlife is abundant, there's little traffic and the pigtail bridges keep things exciting. The one drawback is that it’s mostly uphill. I don’t know what our bike weighs with all of our gear, and frankly I’d rather not know, but when we crossed the Rocky Mountains in Wyoming I thought we were done hauling it up lung-busting, leg-burning hills. Iron Mountain road put an end to that delusion.

Our motivation for getting to the top was obvious. We wanted to see Mt. Rushmore, the monument to our nation’s persevering past and optimistic future. When we got there, many of our fellow visitors were more impressed with our bike and our trip than with the monument. We had people asking us where we were going and where we came from every two or three minutes. At one point a group of about twenty gathered in a circle around us to listen to us tell about our travels. Even Abe Lincoln was asking us questions, instead of the other way around.




I decided that I’d tell people we were doing this trip to raise awareness of bicycling as an alternate method of transportation. I guess I was pretty convincing, because even George, Tom, Teddy and Abe decided to dust of their bikes and go for a ride—


Monday, August 18, 2014

South Dakota

Originally Posted September 2, 2004 by Chad



We made it to South Dakota on Wednesday. It didn’t look much different than eastern Wyoming.



Mags is a sucker for “cute” bakeries, so when we saw the Fall River Bakery in Hot Springs, we had to stop. As we were leaving I decided we needed to spend a little more time in town so I dropped my water bottle on the sidewalk. It then rolled down into a storm drain. We spent the next 20 minutes trying to retrieve it with a borrowed rake and broom. When we finally got it out the baker washed it off for us with Clorox. That bottle is now the cleanest one we have.



North of Hot Springs, we stopped at Wind Cave National Park and took a tour of the cave. This picture doesn’t do justice to the elaborate boxwork and other formations we saw inside.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Rangeland

Originally Posted August 31, 2004 by Mags

Miles of grass nipped short by cattle. Cow turds and low sagebrush are the texture in the stretch of tan rangeland that enfolds black cows and barbed wire fence. The mountains and trees are behind us. The freezing dew on tents remains in the forest. Here it is dry and still. The land slopes and ascends but is constant with color and shape.

So this pretty much describes our descent from the Snowy Range into Laramie, Wyoming and our ride for the last two days. The land is interesting in a way but bleak. The cows have absolutely no shade – they are slowly baking out there as they fight off the flies. At noon we saw two adult deer with two fawns hunched up under a small bluff that was still in the shade. They just stared as we rode past. The only water comes from the windmills that pump water from wells into metal basins for the cows. The cows crowd around these oases and make mud pits. 

Original Comments: Rangeland

I've loved catching up to you via your prose. Having been around both of you a bit in the recent past helps me understand what you're saying and what you're not saying about the experience. As always I'm surprised how fast you move across the country.

Helping Glory and Logan with their children has been a big part of our recent activities. One of us has been at their home every (almost) afternoon and evening since Jadira and Chantel were born. On the week end we've taken the three older ones to Heber with us. The twins are progressing but very slowly. They still are not really grasping the swallowing technique they need to sustain themselves at home on their mom's milk. Logan and Glory love to be with the twins and find it hard to go home after being at the hospital several times a day.

It is really neat how some of the folks you've met have taken you in and been so sharing. It is really a treat to meet people who've done something like you're doing. The club you're now a member of is really kind of select.

Thanks again for the great Alaska and Wyoming experiences. This has been an unusual and very fun summer for us. But even after 40 years of marriage were still looking over the next horizon for a new adventure almost like you two are.

Love, Dad Harris


Posted by Carl at September 1, 2004 02:56 PM
 
Margaret, your voice sounded really good. I called the number you used at the library and the very friendly librarian said you two had left only 20 minutes ago. Too bad you missed us and I missed you. The librarian sounded like a member of the family. You two must have really charmed her. She knew your names and seemed to know Chad's mother's name too. The librarian suggested we call Shirley for the low down on where you are and where you are going.

Tomorrow we fly to Boise and drive to McCall, Idaho for several days with Mom's friends at one of the friend's great cabins. Mom has been there before and raves about it. We'll report later.

Love, Dad Carl

Posted by Carl Harris at September 2, 2004 09:36 AM

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Asterisk

Originally Posted August 31, 2004 by Chad

It finally happened. We had to take a ride in a truck yesterday. Did I protest? You bet. Whine? Apparently not enough. Perhaps I should have been more adamant about possible damage to our gear from riding in the truck. Maybe I’m just too much of a purist.

We had just started descending from Morton Pass north of Laramie when we came to the construction site. The kid holding the stop sign was impressed that we had ridden all the way from Seattle, but he didn’t understand that putting our bike in a truck would be such a traumatic event.

The woman driving the pilot truck was less sympathetic. She said our only other option was to ride back to Laramie and on to Cheyenne. I hope she wasn’t serious.

It was all over in about ten minutes. We rode in the back of the truck for about three miles. The road was all dirt but I think we would have been fine. I was bitter. When she let us out she told us to have a nice trip. We said thanks and rode off. She will never understand.

Today we’re in Lusk, Wyoming. It’s hot as Hades outside. We’ll be in the Black Hills of South Dakota tomorrow.