From:  Chris Hoke <mineralrock@yahoo.com> 
Subject:  day eight.
Date:  Mon, 16 Oct 2000


day eight.
south dakota. october sixteenth.
8 days of teenage abandon to go.
gee, i better get busy with that abandon, eh?
well, i've had enough for 10 lifetimes, and i'm sure
there's alot more to come. just not untill i'm twenty.
yeah, so this diesel truck was running all night next
to us, and it bothered dad. didn't bother me. what
bothered me was dad taking away the cd player at one
thirty am. ok, so it was late.  ok, so i should be
asleep. whatever. i wanted a little smashing pumpkins
before i fell asleep.  dad had a point, but whatever.
he was right. i was wrong. whatever. then i was surly
in the am, i had a little sass in my voice, and that
wasn't to be tolerated. whatever.  i felt like a five
year old. it's all forgotten now. who cares? i don't.
so we drove along and along stoping only to get gas
and to stretch legs, and whatnot. all along the drive,
there were billboards every mile or so for "historic"
"world famous" wall drug. "free ice water!" "5 cent
coffee!" all sorts of stuff.

as i type, dad is whining like a baby!
not anymore, though.

so we drove on, always seeing these billboards for
wall drug. biggest, bestest ding dang drug store in
the world, don't cha know.
we didn't.
we drove and drove, across the great plains of south
da ko ta. we, of course, had to see the corn palace,
in some god forsaken town. it was made of corn.
lots of corn.  it said on the front,
"www.millenium.corn" man, did we get an "earfull" of
corn.  i don't even like corn. however we did stop at
cabella's, an outdoor store, like, pretend if LLbean
wasn't all prissy and PC. now you're getting the
picture.  lots of guns, bows and arrows, camping
supplies, clothing, a huge aquarium. i really liked
the pistols they had.  i've never been one for guns,
but when you see them up close, all shiny and
powerfull. well, it helps if you've been listeing to
nonstop louis l'amour for the past week. all the
sudden you want to put on some tight levi's, a pair
of britches, a tight checkered shirt, a huge 40
gallon cap, and a big, bad, sideways hanging holster
belt with a colt 45 stuck in. then you're bad, and
you wanna see if anyone will mess with you.

so then we drove some more, drive drive drive.
finally, 3 hours before the sun went away, we got to
the badlands. it was really, a must see. absolutley.
i took tons of photos of this, vast, incredible,
deathly beautifull place. pictures cannot be just to
this place, and only because it is so vast, so
massive. you turn a corner thinking that was the end,
and you're assaulted by more badlands. vast are these
badlands. we decided, well, dad decided, that we should
run around for a while, an idea i've never been able to
warm up to. well, no matter what, we ran, and i hated
it.  how can you concentrate on the landscape when all
you can think about is how much you hate running.
running, shmunning.  well, it's better than a poke in
the eye with a sharp stick, i suppose. not much better,
though. we were running not more than 150 yards and
then we were lost. pathetic. but we found our way.
apparently dad used to hate running too, but not
anymore. at least he's in shape.  that's more than i
can say for myself.

we drove out of the badlands as the sun was setting,
and we saw some animals, some deer, a moose, etc. we
drove by, and we were checking them, checking us,
checking us checking them out. the rest of the evening
is uneventfull, as it consisted of driving, driving,
and driving. oh, dad bought some alcohol.  who-pee.
and we got eggs, muffins, milk, etc. and spent the
night at a wal-mart. watched a video about south
da ko ta. tired we were. and ready for the great sleep.
and sleep we had.

perhaps you'd like to get some play by play action of
the trip?
***/***/****
or you're pining for written things?
mineralrock@yahoo.com

we're out and about, bounding west for glory.

chris