South Dakota: Rush No More

The Enchanted Highway led me South into South Dakota and I grew very tired from my blissful sleep in the back of my car. As I drove through pastures green I started crying in weariness. There's nothing in Northwest SD. Pulled over for a nap that made me more tired. Cried and cried until Sturgis, SD where I found the nearest Super8 in all its motorcyclist glory and passed out for 12 hours.

It was the day. When I was 4 or 5 years old, I had a dream that my Bubby was driving and as I looked through the windshield from the backseat, I saw Mt. Rushmore up ahead. I knew that this day when I finally made it to Mt. Rushmore, I would be with her again.
I loved it there. All the silly tourists with their awkward pictures and the old white guys with their asian wives. In my own world, I hooped and walked. A cute little asian girl told me "that was like the cupid shuffle! Left left...right right...around and around..." Hilarious.

It was at Crazy Horse, my next stop, that I committed to a billboard I saw. Rush No More. I've been so stressed that I'm not traveling the country correctly. There was really no reason to get home, except for to get home. Rush No More was a motto to take it as I wanted to take it. I did not have to do things in an order. Being on my own, I could make every choice. To eat here, see there, listen there. No rush. Just be.
I was sure to hoop with Crazy Horse, as it may be many more years until it is complete and it will be cool to see the difference.

Keystone, SD is a place I certainly want to return to. Though touristy everything, those things are freakin sweet! I wish I would have stopped some more places - movie sets, funlands, and more. I also want to explore the Badlands when I am in the right mindset.

My lowest moment of the whole trip...

I decided to see one monument of the Black Hills before exiting the state. Jewel Cave National Monument seemed on the way so I put it in my navigation and drove. Siri took me onto a dirt road and I thought...well...it's gotta be, if it's a natural cave thing...
I followed the rocky dirt road for a few miles and it got more and more narrow. Shit...ok...Rush No More...
The area looked like it had been ripped apart by a bad storm or a fire. Weird dead trees...hey look a cow...hey look lots of cows...hey look...

A fricking red gate. In my narrow road. To my left...a ditch of cows. To my right...a wall of rock. Forward...cow and red gate. Behind...rocky road that scraped the bottom of my car. Stuck in the middle of nowhere. No phone service. Gonna die and get eaten by cows.

I did an Austin Powers thing and did maybe 48 tiny turns, scraping my car on the rock as to not fall in the ditch of hungry-looking black cows. My poor Prius.

I didn't die...just incase you wondered.