Today, being the twelfth (12th) of July, I woke up in Gillette, WY. In that fancy campground. I did the usual morning stuff of: eating, organizing, pondering, and toothbrushing. Then I was off to do laundry and hook into the internet for more postability. Unfortunately neither of those would work out quite the way I’d hoped. Firstly, I went to do laundry, and found that I didn’t have any detergent. I looked around the general laundry area, but couldn’t find any dispensers, so I figured they sold it in the camp office and store, which was closed with a sign that read ‘back in 5 min.’ on it. So I sat down with my computer and started writing for the blog. I was uploading pictures at the same time, when suddenly, and without warning, the internet went out and all progress was lost. I thought maybe it was just my wireless card on the fritz, so I actually hooked in with a wire. I discovered that my connection was nearly ten times faster, but still wouldn’t work. The network thing knew it was connected to the internet, but the browser didn’t, and I didn’t know how to rectify that, so I contented myself with typing. There was a guy who came in to use the internet and had the same problem as me, he said that the modem just had to be reset, but we assumed it was within the confines of the locked office, to which people were going to be back to in 5 minutes for the past half hour. I typed for a little while longer, then decided I needed to get up and get on with it. I gathered my things together, and headed for the door. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the detergent dispenser. I realized that I didn’t have time now for laundry to finish by checkout, so I grudgingly went back to my truck and packed everything up. I headed out, but needed to get gas first. After that, I headed out once again, but decided to check out the World Horseshoe Pitching Tournament. I got there, and was utterly fascinated. I took many, many pictures. Unfortunately many of them didn’t turn out great, but some did. Also, I feel somewhat limited in the number of pictures I can post on this thing—for both time and, well, time restrictions. I have to check out of this motel in less than an hour and a half, and still have a lot to do. In any event, here is a wall of rare horseshoe pitching horseshoes: I wandered around for a while and then ran into the people I had spoken to the night before. They led me on toward the location of a playoff, when we promptly had to turn around due to a court(?) change. This is a picture of the judges, I believe they’re preparing to be hard at work. I’m pretty sure I didn’t see much in the way of actual competition, mostly just practicing, but that’s fine with me. I had a pretty good time there. And then it was time for me to leave. The people I was hanging out with had gone on to be judges themselves, so I took a few more pictures and proceeded with my journey. Next stop: Devil’s Tower. It was pretty neat. I didn’t pay to go all the way into the park. Maybe some other time... I just felt that I had too much ground I wanted to cover, and too little money. Nothing significant happened to me between then and South Dakota, but once in South Dakota, I stopped at a few historical markers. One of which was the memorial for the Preacher Smith of Deadwood, who was killed on his way from church to another group he wanted to preach to. Then I went to Deadwood, SD. I stopped in at the Days of ’76 Museum (I believe that was its name), which was free. In the Museum were all sorts of wondrous things. Including many antique saddles, covered wagons, buggies, hearses, guns, paintings, photographs, and Native American beadwork (some of which is apparently the finest in the world). I also met a couple of fellow road-trippers. They were from Washington, D.C. and doing a loop around the country. They’d been to Louisiana, and California, and then Las Vegas and Utah, and were on their roundabout way back. They were pretty interesting. We talked for a while, and discovered that we were most likely going to some of the same places later in the day, but my schedule felt more pressed, so they opted to stay in the museum and watch some videos about the town, and I left. On my way out I saw this guy: After the museum I had little choice but to go see the grave sites of Wild Bill Hickoc (whose name wasn’t really Bill at all) and Calamity Jane. I had to be a dollar to get in the cemetery. I took a picture of the plaques telling of Wild Bill and Calmatiy Jane, because I didn’t think I could get a good enough picture of both gravesites at once. I’d say that I was right, but you can look for yourself. From there I left for Mt. Rushmore, after taking several minutes for lunch and to figure out just how to get there. I got there, and the park itself was free, but parking was $8, with no option for free parking anywhere. I paid my money, and made my way up to the viewing platform. Ah, the presidents on the rocks. After viewing from the platform, I went downstairs to the visitor center and learned a little of the history and technique of the mountain’s carvings. Apparently Jefferson was originally going to be on the other side of Washington. I left, and on my way down the mountain caught a good Washington profile view. Then I went to the Crazy Horse Monument. It’s still under construction and looking like it will be for quite some time. Anyway, here’s a tiny one up against the big one. You can get an idea of what it will look like (some day). I wandered around that complex for a while, and right then, when I was about to leave, it got dark and they lit up the mountain. They had a laser light show on the side of Crazy Horse, so I stayed and watched it. The only thing that troubled me was that I really didn’t know where I was going to sleep, and that it was getting later (and harder to figure out) all the time. When the time finally came for me to leave, I did. And wound my way down that mountain, and through several more windy mountain passes while my paranoia got the better of me and I thought I was getting sick or something. I was quite concerned that I was going crazy or seeing things or something. Ever since the light show I’d been seeing flashes. During the light show I thought they were just camera flashes (really bright ones), but as I got further away I realized that they were in no way unique to the Crazy Horse area. The flashes were in the sky, and I thought of lightning, but listened very intently and heard exactly zero thunder. After many bends in the road I finally had service on the cell phone and called to ask my dad what I was seeing. I had a suspicion that it was heat lightning, but never having seen it myself, couldn’t really be sure. He gave me as much confirmation as he could offer. I continued on and, feeling a little bit better about things, wasn’t as worried. And then came the deer. Oh, the deer. There were three or four smallish deer on the side of the road as I came around a bend. I had turned on the bright lights a while earlier, so I saw them there with their glowing, unmoving frightened eyes a while before I got to them, but the shock of it all was quite exhilarating. And the moon was nearly full, and very bright yellow. All the while the sky is flashing about three times a minute. Finally, I get out into the open, and find a road that will take me to the interstate, where I plan on sleeping at a rest stop. I got some pictures of the lightning once I was out in the open. I tried for a long time to get an actual bolt, but never did. It was really fascinating to see, sometimes the clouds would just flash, sometimes a bolt would go all the way to the ground, and sometimes a bolt would come out of a cloud and go right back into it, just sort of curling around it. I finally got on I-90 and thought I was going to run out of gas. I’d never had my trip odometer over 300 miles before, and felt that it would be some kind of miracle if I did. It got up to about 320, when I finally saw a gas station. I stopped, and had to pay with credit card because it was an automated station. There were a lot of bugs on the ground. I got back in my truck and drove to the rest area nearby. I tried to find a comfortable position, but couldn’t, and then noticed a tickling on my leg. I freaked out. A beetle had crawled up my shoe when I was at the gas station. I frantically knocked it out of my pants, and tried to squish it, but it got up onto my floor mat, which I took out and banged against the side of my truck. I wasn’t satisfied that I’d gotten it, but what more could I have done? Well, a little while later, I try and fall asleep again (which is very difficult in such a strange place in the front of my truck with new people arriving all the time), when there comes that tickling again. This time I don’t freak out quite so much, it was up around my knee (don’t ask me how I didn’t feel it get there, I couldn’t tell you), so I pinch it in my pants, and kind of shuffle it down my leg. It falls on the mat again, and attempts to scurry out of range of my wrath. No dice, beetle. My heel came down hard, and I was bothered no more by beetles that night. There were, however, giant Amazonian bugs in the drinking fountain that scared me silly. Their wingspans must have been about four inches. After brushing my teeth, I went into my fitful, ‘I’m in a strange place’ kind of sleep. And that was the end of day seven.