Tornado

First things first, the wheel seems fine so far. With the help of a
shop that had never seen a hub like mine and usually deals older
bikes, we got it on there. I'm still kinda holding my breathe since
neither of us really knew what we were doing. Thank goodness for
Shimano maintainence guides.

Within 1/10 of a mile of entering Wind Cave NP, we saw a heard of
buffalo and an antelope. Wed even saw baby buffalo... Awwww. I
couldn't help myself when I saw The Purple Pie Place. Pie is amazing.
I could eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Admittedly, I had
strawberry rhubarb pie the 2 days before. I don't think I had tried
that before; it was amazing as was the bumbleberry pie. Don't know
what bumbleberries are but they are great in a pie! Caution: hold the
a la mode. I just can't seem to help myself. For and extra $.70, who
wouldn't throw on a scoop of ice cream? When we were climbing out of
Hell Canyon in the Black Hills, I wished I hadn't.

We skipped the faces, crazy horse, and devil's tower. I saw them all
when I was young and Lee seemed to lack interest in all of the above.
The Black Hills are beautiful. Its too bad we aren't staying longer.
But we must push on to Jackson, WY.

We ended our day in Newcastle, WY. Again, we pulled into town not
really knowing what to expect or where to go. We stopped in the
library and asked for some camping recommendations and used the
internet. We were directed down the road to a park. As we waited for
the train to pass thru the dead center of town, the man in the truck
in front of us that read ''homeland security'' got out and told us
that some tornadoes had touched down nearby and I believe he mentioned
something about 83 mph winds. Well, we were a bit worried but the wind
wasn't really blowing much. We made it to the park and I began to
snack. In conversation, Lee said 'when that tornado comes...' I
replied, 'you do realize that you just said when, not if. Right?'
Within moments, a woman from a nearby house came running at us
shouting that tornadoes were nearby and we needed to find shelter.
Now, I type on this keyboard that is half the size of my palm from a
nice woman's basement where we're sleeping for the night.

Lee was telling me how he initially felt like traveling alone was the
best way to do it because you minimize the risk of problems by having
less people. Tonight, he said that he had a change of attitude on
that. We both agree that traveling with another, while they may lean
on you a bit, has tremendous advantages. If anything, it increases the
probability that you will be taken care of. Indeed, we have been taken
care of by so many people in so many ways. A big thank you to
everyone.

To sum up, we met someone in Atkinson who knew someone in Ainsworth
who knew someone in Valentine who has a sister in Hot Springs. We have
been taken care of, Nebraska style. Even though our host in Hot
Springs was in South Dakota, she was from Nebraska. So far, South
Dakota hospitality ain't too shabby either. One thing that all the
locals have done is warn us of the Native Americans. It is a uniform
sentiment: stay away. The reports we have gotten are those of larceny,
murder, alcoholism, welfare abuse, and just general disdain. It is
unfortunate that this is the case. It makes me wonder about the
Cherokee nearby Asheville. Are they in a similar condition and I am
just oblivious or are they somehow better off? And how can the
resentment of a whole people be healed that has been fueled for
centuries?

I put my eyes on our revised. schedule and noticed that I did the
dates wrong. If we make our mileage, we'll get everywhere a day sooner
than scheduled. Also, we're going to skip Midwest and go to Casper via
Douglas to stay off interstate 25... that would not be fun.

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72 miles today from Black Hills, SD->Newcastle, WY

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