Final Destinations

Departing Interior

As a person who’s into nostalgia, I stayed in the same motel that I stayed in the last time I visited Badlands National Park, but this time I got a room on the side featuring the sunrise. By this time, however, I’m kind of burned-out on the whole deal and bail on setting-up something to capture it. Instead, I get in a yoga session and pack before my weekly meeting with clients… which I find-out is canceled as I sit-down and login, so instead I get into some other work for a minute before heading-out of Badlands NP.

Minuteman Missile National Historical Site

Just north of Badlands NP is the Minuteman Missile National Historical Site. My expectations were low and my focus is collecting another stamp, but I’m pleasantly surprised by how interesting the presentations are in the visitors center. As a kid who grew-up in the 80s, seeing some of the exhibits triggered chilling emotions from down deep. They had a set-up featuring an actual control center board which would be used to launch a nuclear attack, examples of supply bins you’d find in fallout shelters and many graphical representations of the arms race from the 1960s through the present day. There was a command center west of the visitors center that I drove to, but it was closed. An actual silo was further west, past Wall, South Dakota, but I didn’t have the time to drive-out and chance it not being open, so I decided to head east towards Minnesota to my next stop.

A Sleepy Drive

For the first time on this trip, I struggled with drowsiness while driving from the Minuteman Missile NHS to Minnesota. Not sure why it occurred, but I just got into that mode where I couldn’t focus and wanted to pull over and take a nap. It worries me because the next two days will feature long drives with nothing to look forward to and I’m expecting more of this type of exhaustion. It’s probably just the past five weeks of packing, driving, seeing crazy stuff, unpacking, rinse, repeat, over and over. Since I’m not trying to get anywhere at this point, I’m just going to plan on stopping at rest stops and walking around a bit when I get drowsy.

Pipestone National Monument

My next stop was Pipestone National Monument in southwestern Minnesota. The focus of the park are the pipestone quarries which indigenous people use, to this day, to craft ceremonial pipes. After checking-out the visitors center and getting my stamp(s), I headed-out to walk the paved path that takes you through the quarries as they exist today. It being a sacred area I laughed at the thought of leaving one of my stones along the way and just enjoyed the scenery. What I didn’t laugh about was the realization that I was wearing a Cleveland Indians hat through the visitors center which was fully staffed by indigenous people. While it’s a block-C hat without Chief Wahoo on it, the back displays the Indians name and I felt like a complete asshole.

Onto Bird Island

Because I was driving east and crossing a time zone, I ended-up in Bird Island, Minnesota, an hour later than expected. My friend, Bud, greeted me and after unloading a few things he took me on a tour of the town. At the moment, the region is working on processing a literal mountain of sugar beets that are close to expiring. The trucks which are tasked with hauling the beets are massive, but they’re dwarfed by the sugar beet mounds. After that, he showed me a few of the barns that he painted, the same ones that inspired a series of the roaming stones made for my trip.

Back at his place, we made a simple dinner and spent the rest of the evening talking about art, music, politics, religion, etc. Basically, all the things you don’t want to bring-up unless you’re somewhat in agreement with one another. We’ve only ever talked a couple of times, but we got into easily and I could’ve talked into the early morning. However, I was exhibiting extreme exhaustion and around 11 PM I made my way to bed to prepare for the next two exceptionally long days on the road.