We rolled into Minneapolis at 8:00 PM after starting out this morning in Spearfish, SD at 8:30 AM. Needless to say it was a long and exhausting day of driving and the scenery was both foggy and bleak for much of the drive. We drove through the Cheyenne River Reservation (Sioux). The drive through the reservation is about 75 miles long and it is 75 miles of virtual nothingness. In a little over an hour we saw a number of aluminum sided homes, two gas stations, a cultural center, a few churches, and a wellness center; I believe we saw most of the non-residential spaces in Eagle Butte one of the larger towns on the reservation. We also saw a power plant and a beautiful new school made of red brick, antelope, and cows. I was struck by several things 1. the size of the reservation 2. the lack of businesses and employment opportunities, 3. the number of road markers indicating traffic fatalities* there must have been 30 such signs within the 75 miles stretch of hwy 212, 4. the remoteness and isolation 4. the lousy land with its dry conditions that make farming impossible. Please see the link to the right for more information about the reservation. We made just a few quick stops for gas but didn't stop for lunch until 4:00 PM in the town of Watertown, SD because it was the first town large enough to have more than a couple family owned diners. John did about 80% of the driving today because the heavy fog made me nervous and it lasted for hours, he did the night driving too because my night vision isn't the greatest. When we got to his house we made popcorn and I had a cup of hot tea, and now we're just chillin' out.
I have an appointment with my hairdresser, Del Marie at 10:30 tomorrow, the first since October 22nd. She was afraid I'd dropped her, but I told her "no way" just traveling and trying a new hair regimen. She also told me that she's 9 weeks pregnant with her 2nd child. Her older "child" is 21 years old.
*Official signs erected by the SD Dept. of Transportation, part of a program started in 1979. Diamond in shape, one side says “Think,” and the other side says “Why Die?” Both sides have a red “X” painted on them (definitely not a Christian cross), with “X marks the spot” in small type.
Multiple fatalities are depicted as individual signs in a line spaced ten feet apart -- we assume this was to avoid the visual horror of signs sprouting from one spot like some abstract fatality flower.
The signs stay until they fall apart or are displaced by construction, and are not replaced unless the deceased family makes a special request.
No comments:
Post a Comment