In my blogs I have want to start including segments from the books I have written, so now is the time to start. For upcoming posts I want to choose a topic to write inspirational words with, starting with this blog. The words will come at the end of my travel writings, hoping to inspire and motivate you.
August 3–Because there is not much to see, we went across Ohio and Indiana quickly; wanting to get back to the forests and wilderness. Long, flat, straight roads, we accomplished our goal of getting across quickly.
We stopped at a couple Walmart’s to spend the night along the way. These are just places to rest our head for the night. Not much to write about, in the wilderness soon, I hope, then words will fly.
The drive continues through the state of Iowa, more flat, more corn growing, not much to see. Corn and soy beans are the main crops that grow in this state, so very much corn, hard to believe. Our aim is to get to the mountains in South Dakota to start, then on to more wilderness.
August 5-7–Moving forward, north in Iowa we go. Through Freecampsites.net we came upon a site that is quite hidden away, hardly used I can tell–Hieb Memorial Park in Marion, South Dakota–is a delight.
No one around, yet they keep all the grounds in top shape, clean and nice. There are two baseball fields, a swinging walking bridge over the river, picnic tables, electric available and water available to about five campsites.
Also, within a short walk is a very large pool with two diving boards. I was the only one in the very clean pool at the time, hope it is used enough.
So hidden away, this place is fabulous. We had the whole place to ourselves. I’ve used the free electric to charge up all our battery powered things. We filled all our water jugs for the future. It is free to stay here for a week, then they charge $150 a month to stay, which is so little to live with electric and water supplied.
Such a small town, even the mayor of the town, Ron, came to greet us. Such a treasure this town is, yet the fields and area are not utilized enough, I can tell.
Because no one is around I will be using my outdoor sun heated shower today (once again, with no clothes on, don’t tell anyone.)
Just one problem with this place, many many flies in the area. We had to shew away about 30 from the van before we could get to sleep.
Once again, the English language bothers me (not “bugs” me, I will write more later.) Why would a people use the word “fly” to call this small insect, simply because they fly around? Too simpleton, this bug can fly so let’s call it a fly, couldn’t they think of anything else?
Now we get to the word, “bug”. Most all insects are called “bugs”, why is it when something bothers us we say, “it bugs us”? Why not, “it insects us”?
August 7-8–On the map book we saw there were some lakes and the Missouri river in the southeast corner of the state of Nebraska, so off we went. We drove to a secluded spot then made and ate sandwiches (another strange word, sand has nothing to do with them, they would taste awful.)
While eating we heard some live native American music coming from the other site of the lake–we had to investigate. What we came upon was fantastic. This was on the Yankton Reservation near Lake Andes.
A group of Dakota (native American) people were having their annual powwow. There was drumming along with singing and chanting, also many kids and people dancing. Later there was food for everyone, we ate well; including buffalo meat.
This annual powwow event attracts some hundreds of people, it is fabulous. Friendliness was abundant and everyone was having a fantastic day; this was the last day of the three day event. It is like a family reunion in a big way.
I do not like to call these native peoples, “Indian”. You may know, when Columbus sailed over and found America he thought he had found a back way to India, so he called the people, “Indians.” To me this is kind of an insult that this name stuck.
While at the powwow I talked with a number of people, one of whom was Sharon Drapeau. Sharon is a member of the Ihanktonwan tribe (aka, the Yanton Sioux tribe, as the white man named the tribe.) Sioux is actually a French word, I believe.
At one point I asked Sharon, I said, “So, when are they going to give this land back to you?”
I asked one lady what she likes to be called, she said, Dakota. There is the wording, “Native American”, but that is like calling all Spanish, English, German, . . . people, European. Call these people by their tribal name. Just in this area there are the Dakota, the Lakota and the Nakota people. Each of the three groups of people speak somewhat the same original language, just different ways to say certain things.
We were about the only white people here. Funny, I am called white and I am actually kind of red colored. This is just like someone is called black and they are actually brown. So sad that people could not think of better wording then a name sticks. I like using dark and light skin.
August 8–The next day our journey continued, we drove down one road where we were the only vehicle for many many miles. At one point we passed two churches, one on each side of the road, at one point, yet there were no houses anywhere for many miles. How do these people and buildings make enough to keep going?
While driving along we saw a sign saying something about a shore area. We diverted and went down. As usual in this area, we were the only ones within many miles. I needed a cleaning and there was the lake, so off came the clothes, on went some soap, and in I went–Kit the skinny dipper. Within some minutes I reemerged quite clean, smiling and happy.
So off we went to
First we passed by many elk who
Just down the road we came upon hundreds of bison. Growing up I knew of them as “buffalo”, but that is incorrect. American Bison is the right wording.
