Drive On

Thanks, but I can wait for a bathroom break until we get to the next town. The next town with pavement. Pavement, and indoor plumbing. Drive on.

Going to Sturgis

 
Sturgis, SD, is just down the road from the Badlands. Bikers are beginning to trickle in to attend, or deliberately miss, the big event two weeks from now. Of all the bikers I talk to (the smiling, least-scary ones), they are united in their passion for motorcycles.

Old and young, male and female, the enthusiasm vibrates in their voices. The same enthusiasm I recognize in my own devotion to my camera. Hmm. South Dakota: big skies, small world. Nice.

Immoveable

The spires and blocks of the South Dakota Badlands look like ruined cathedrals frozen in time. For a place sculpted by erosion, it looks like nothing will ever move again. The pliable road curves around buttes and over hillocks, conforming itself with shrugging practicality. I can't shrug, though. I'm in awe of this sculpture playground.

Badlands Dusk

As we head "out West" toward Glacier National Park we take a road I've never been on before. There are a lot of those. But I'm working to change that. Dusk seems to come to the sky first, before the land. Curious.