South Dakota

This month I am working in the Eastern Dakota region of the states and while taking a long winding detour from Sioux Falls to Fargo, I discovered a fabulous little sculpture park off of I-90!

I was driving West toward Hwy 81 with the hopes of exploring some rural decay that I had made note of earlier in the week when out of the blue a ginormous bull head broke appeared in the horizon. There was absolutely no doubt to argue with, I was gonna get off at the next exit and get up close and personal with this Bull head!   Seriously, what kind of art loving curious drifter would I be if I just passed by? Not a very adventurous one, for sure.

My heart dropped when I got off the exit and saw a sign that the park was closed for the season. I had to see it. So I continued on and thought that maybe there was a house or a contact number or something that I could contact and get in.. There was nothing! No signs, except CLOSED, and no information that I could find. But luck would have it the gate was not completely closed. I immediately parked Teddi, my car, and walked the  half mile dirt stoney road that lead to the park itself.

Anyway, the park is a quirky little artist space that is definitely worth the stop during the summer season, especially if you are on an epic American road trip and love to support local artists. The open landscape surrounding the park adds this otherworldliness to the experience, at least it did for this Jersey Girl.

Fun sculpture!

Check out more of the photos and story at Chasing my Shadow and also check out Porter Sculpture Park !

The Badlands, South Dakota

This past week, my BFFFFF (that’s best friend foreva eva, like since the dorms and a meal plan!) Zoe took the Badlands and the surrounding areas by storm and made them worse.  Exhibit A: See above.  That’s me with my new friends Yukon and Tilly.  They are male models.  That is not a joke, you snarky judge!  These two charmers convene outside Rapid City, SD with more rugged gents of their ilk and don 19th century costumes to portray TRAPPERS and MOUNTAIN MEN!  Drinking a Bud Light with these two might be the apex of my life.  Tilly (left) has his own face tattooed on his bicep, and taught me the colorful phrase “Kiss my ass and call me Christmas!”  Yukon (right) is the more sedate of the pair, enabling Tilly’s alcoholic ramblings, but when Zoe declined a beer (she’s gluten free or in AA or something), he offered to buy her a “sodey.”  I almost fainted into his wiry arms, so thrilled was I to hear the word “sodey” deployed in real life/in the 21st century.  Unrelated, I also heard a waitress pronounce a certain salad dressing as “Eye-talian,” never heard that in real life either.  I swoon for the Great Plains!

Our trusty Toyota Yaris, Ferdadando.  We got a hatchback and everywhere we go yo we gets laughed at.

Your car looks fine (ahem, stifles laugh). Must have been a great adventure!

Check out the whole post here and do visit Elizabeth Greenwood !

Black Hills, South Dakota

“A pinch pot named “Jeremy” by Cindy at Jenny Gulch Pottery & Art. “

What a face!

Check out nononosarang !

Custer, South Dakota

vesselsandjourneys writes, I have large feet…like really large feet…large feet for a woman, size 11.  I am nearly 6 feet tall and have had large feet all of my life.  My father always told me I was “big enough to hunt bears with a switch”…not really a compliment to an adolescent girl.  One time in junior high school, I went to the shoe store with my mom, Brown’s shoe store in Mitchell.  Duane Kellinger was the clerk (very handsome guy in my day and I had a crush on him) and he told me that the only thing that they had that would fit my feet might be some boxes in the back room… I wasn’t sure I heard him right. I was horrified.  Through most of my adolescence I entertained all kinds of ways to shrink my feet.

Women who have a thousand pairs of shoes in their closet mystified me. I have never bought many pairs of shoes, very few actually…the bare minimum to get by. To sit in a shoe store and bare my extremely big feet to a salesman for his brutal comment was not my idea of fun.  I would slink into the shoe store, try to find something in a bargain place, so I didn’t have to meet a salesman’s eyes and quickly, head down, make my purchase and beeline out the door.

Last summer, when I was shopping for shoes for my daughter’s wedding, I realized that my feet were here to stay and I could hate them for the remainder of my days, or I could embrace them.  I came to grips with the fact that I don’t have big feet because of any irresponsibility on my part, or a lack of self-control.  They are not the result of running red lights, or lying too many times.  My feet say nothing about my character. Why should I be embarrassed or ashamed of them, just because they are not the size of many other women’s feet…I am not the size of other women.  I am not unhealthy, but I am big.  I am a strong woman, in body and soul, and in my life. I have carried many…I have carried my babies, I have carried family members through heart wrenching times and I have carried many students and their loved ones.  I have been entrusted to carry the hearts, tears and secret stories of many… and that is why my feet had to be so large.

I bought four-inch heels for the wedding.

Great photo, story and attitude!

Check out Vessels and Journeys !

Badlands, South Dakota

“Picture 2: My vacation to the Badlands in South Dakota; amazingly beautiful and stark and lonely all at the same time.”
Great foot toemail photo! Looks like very rugged country. Badlands.
A Journey Of 1000 Miles Begins With A Single Step