Midweek road trip
02/11/12 05:27
One of the pleasures of South Dakota is that one can still get in a vehicle and drive to a place where cell phones do not work. It is a bit more difficult these days than it was a few years ago as the companies build more and more towers and coverage is extended. Still, I know a few roads where the cell phone coverage is spotty. I use a trip to the Cheyenne River Reservation as an excuse to take a day off from e-mail. Yesterday was one such day for me.
While New Yorkers and others on the east coast lined up for gas at the few stations that had power and tempers flared in the long lines, there was no line at 6:30 a.m. at the local Safeway gas station and I filled up for our trip. My companion for the day was a little early arriving at the church and I saw his pickup heading up the hill just ahead of me. The trailer was loaded and within a few minutes we were heading out of town.
Not much longer we were driving in fog and speculating about how long it would take for the fog to burn off. I recalled a conversation I had last summer with a couple traveling by RV who were heading from Kansas City to Medora, North Dakota. I had suggested that they go through the Black Hills one way, but they were reluctant, fearing the 185 miles of two-lane highway from Spearfish, SD to Bellfield, ND. “We don’t like to get off of the Interstate,” they declared.
It might have been fun to have them along as we exited the Interstate after less than 30 miles and headed east on South Dakota 34. The fog rolled in and out. In some places we were down to 50 mph or so because of reduced visibility. We were at Howe’s Corner by 9 a.m. Howe’s corner isn’t one of the big communities of the prairie and we often stop and use the pit toilets without seeing anyone else. The place was fairly buzzing with a half dozen trailers and campers set up with hunters eager to get out for the deer season opener. There were no pickups at the campers, however and we knew the hunters had gone out early. The fog, however, was giving us a clue it wasn’t going to be a good day for hunting.
15 miles north of Howe’s Corner we left the paved road behind and turned on to Red Scaffold Road. Ziebach County, according to many sources, is the most impoverished county in the United States. About 25 miles down the gravel road we arrived at Frazier Memorial Church. A quarter mile down the road is the home of Matt Iron Hawk, where we unloaded a trailer of firewood. Matt and his son-in-law helped us stack the wood and it was a short job. We went up to the church and unloaded one of the organs we had in the back of the pickup. After struggling to get the spinet legs reattached to the organ, we plugged it in and Matt played a few songs to make sure that everything was working.
From there it was east about 5 miles on the gravel and north another 25 miles to Dupree, the county seat of Ziebach County and the home of the headquarters of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. At Dupree the fog was so thick we couldn’t see a block down the street. So much for the theory that the fog would burn off. We didn’t see much scenery for the 20 miles into Eagle Butte. If it had been a person’s first trip to the area, that person wouldn’t know that there is a water tower in Lantry. At Eagle Butte we couldn’t see the clinic from the Eagle Butte Learning Center.
Cell phones do work in Eagle Butte. It is a good thing. It took a half dozen calls and a couple of text messages to connect with Louie Blue Coat, who has a key to let us into the Learning Center. It was noon our time (1 p.m. Central Time) when we arrived in Eagle Butte, so we had our lunch while we waited for our friends to arrive.
There is a wheelchair ramp at the Learning Center, and we had brought a dolly, so we could roll the organ up the ramp and into the center. We didn’t have an organist with us, but we played a few chords to make sure that the organ was working. Rev. Norman Blue Coat arrived with his wife and great-granddaughter to greet us, so we visited for a while before heading towards home.
The first few miles were remarkably fog-free. We had good visibility until we were almost at Faith. Then we were back in the soup. We decided to take a rather convoluted route home and headed south from Faith back to Howe’s Corner and then west towards Sturgis. A bit past Union Center, which we could see in the afternoon, we turned on New Underwood Road, headed south to New Underwood and came the last 25 miles into town on the Interstate from the east. We pulled into the church parking lot at about 4:30 p.m. The fog hadn’t slowed us much. We had anticipated that it might be 5 or even later when we returned.
A couple of minutes later, the trailer was parked and I was home in time to read for a half hour before supper.
From time to time it seems to give me energy and renewal to just leave town and drive across the prairie. Sometimes I say it is because I like the scenery, which I do, but there was little to be seen yesterday in the fog. I think that there is something about unplugging and disconnecting from our normal hyper-connected world. Aside from a few calls and messages to make contact with our friends in Eagle Butte, I ignored the phone, e-mails and messages all day long. Traffic is never very heavy on the roads we were driving and we had the gravel roads to ourselves. I love working with people and I enjoy my job a lot, but there are days when it is a treat to not have to do too much talking. A person can feel small out in the middle of the prairie.
It was a great way to begin the month of November.
While New Yorkers and others on the east coast lined up for gas at the few stations that had power and tempers flared in the long lines, there was no line at 6:30 a.m. at the local Safeway gas station and I filled up for our trip. My companion for the day was a little early arriving at the church and I saw his pickup heading up the hill just ahead of me. The trailer was loaded and within a few minutes we were heading out of town.
Not much longer we were driving in fog and speculating about how long it would take for the fog to burn off. I recalled a conversation I had last summer with a couple traveling by RV who were heading from Kansas City to Medora, North Dakota. I had suggested that they go through the Black Hills one way, but they were reluctant, fearing the 185 miles of two-lane highway from Spearfish, SD to Bellfield, ND. “We don’t like to get off of the Interstate,” they declared.
It might have been fun to have them along as we exited the Interstate after less than 30 miles and headed east on South Dakota 34. The fog rolled in and out. In some places we were down to 50 mph or so because of reduced visibility. We were at Howe’s Corner by 9 a.m. Howe’s corner isn’t one of the big communities of the prairie and we often stop and use the pit toilets without seeing anyone else. The place was fairly buzzing with a half dozen trailers and campers set up with hunters eager to get out for the deer season opener. There were no pickups at the campers, however and we knew the hunters had gone out early. The fog, however, was giving us a clue it wasn’t going to be a good day for hunting.
15 miles north of Howe’s Corner we left the paved road behind and turned on to Red Scaffold Road. Ziebach County, according to many sources, is the most impoverished county in the United States. About 25 miles down the gravel road we arrived at Frazier Memorial Church. A quarter mile down the road is the home of Matt Iron Hawk, where we unloaded a trailer of firewood. Matt and his son-in-law helped us stack the wood and it was a short job. We went up to the church and unloaded one of the organs we had in the back of the pickup. After struggling to get the spinet legs reattached to the organ, we plugged it in and Matt played a few songs to make sure that everything was working.
From there it was east about 5 miles on the gravel and north another 25 miles to Dupree, the county seat of Ziebach County and the home of the headquarters of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. At Dupree the fog was so thick we couldn’t see a block down the street. So much for the theory that the fog would burn off. We didn’t see much scenery for the 20 miles into Eagle Butte. If it had been a person’s first trip to the area, that person wouldn’t know that there is a water tower in Lantry. At Eagle Butte we couldn’t see the clinic from the Eagle Butte Learning Center.
Cell phones do work in Eagle Butte. It is a good thing. It took a half dozen calls and a couple of text messages to connect with Louie Blue Coat, who has a key to let us into the Learning Center. It was noon our time (1 p.m. Central Time) when we arrived in Eagle Butte, so we had our lunch while we waited for our friends to arrive.
There is a wheelchair ramp at the Learning Center, and we had brought a dolly, so we could roll the organ up the ramp and into the center. We didn’t have an organist with us, but we played a few chords to make sure that the organ was working. Rev. Norman Blue Coat arrived with his wife and great-granddaughter to greet us, so we visited for a while before heading towards home.
The first few miles were remarkably fog-free. We had good visibility until we were almost at Faith. Then we were back in the soup. We decided to take a rather convoluted route home and headed south from Faith back to Howe’s Corner and then west towards Sturgis. A bit past Union Center, which we could see in the afternoon, we turned on New Underwood Road, headed south to New Underwood and came the last 25 miles into town on the Interstate from the east. We pulled into the church parking lot at about 4:30 p.m. The fog hadn’t slowed us much. We had anticipated that it might be 5 or even later when we returned.
A couple of minutes later, the trailer was parked and I was home in time to read for a half hour before supper.
From time to time it seems to give me energy and renewal to just leave town and drive across the prairie. Sometimes I say it is because I like the scenery, which I do, but there was little to be seen yesterday in the fog. I think that there is something about unplugging and disconnecting from our normal hyper-connected world. Aside from a few calls and messages to make contact with our friends in Eagle Butte, I ignored the phone, e-mails and messages all day long. Traffic is never very heavy on the roads we were driving and we had the gravel roads to ourselves. I love working with people and I enjoy my job a lot, but there are days when it is a treat to not have to do too much talking. A person can feel small out in the middle of the prairie.
It was a great way to begin the month of November.