Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Aches and Pains
I'm headachey and homesicky and not really in the mood for a fun city like Chicago. Last night a dozen of people from the hostel grouped up and went out to a comedy improv show called Improv Olympics. It was really good, and apparently there's a whole improv scene out here, with performers rated at different levels of skill. It's very interesting.
But I've had a dull headache for the last 18 hours, which isn't the most fun. So I'm going to drive to Sioux Falls, SD which is about nine hours. Maybe I'll go straight to the badlands. I need to look at weird rock formations and empty landscapes.
But I've had a dull headache for the last 18 hours, which isn't the most fun. So I'm going to drive to Sioux Falls, SD which is about nine hours. Maybe I'll go straight to the badlands. I need to look at weird rock formations and empty landscapes.
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Does everyone else get to read my comments? I'll keep them clean, then. Did you go see Ernest Hemingway's house in Chicago? Is my question. Plus there's a nice church built by Frank Lloyd Wright. Oh, well. Maybe it's too late. South Dakota is long and flat, I'm told. Better take some No-Doz. Good luck.
# posted by 
: 5:19 PM
: 5:19 PM
It’s all coming back to me. The big trip.
It was 1976 and we took the kids across country to celebrate the bicentennial. We went to all those places you mentioned - like the Badlands.
Oh yeah, the Badlands.
First they were standing there looking down – three boys. I shoot, then turn away pointing my camera at a magnificent cliff. When I turn back there are two boys looking down.
“Where’s Michael?” My voice is shrill and my heart bounds. Terrified of heights, I run out on the narrow outcropping.
“Where’s Michael?”
The boys look down.
Michael had fallen. The V of his legs hugged a small rock jutting out from the side of a cliff. To one side of him was a deadly smooth, straight drop down the canyon wall. The other side offered a bumpy ride to the bottom, (while jagged rocks tore him apart.)
The other boys held Uncle Fred’s feet while he lay on his stomach and reached down to grab Michael’s hand.
“I don’t have a good grip Dad.”
Uncle Fred sees the smooth drop and the jagged rocks. “Keep what you’ve got son,” he says as he tightens his grip on Michael’s wrist and quickly pulls him up.
An hour later Steven manages to climb to the top to the cliff I had photographed earlier. He can’t get down. I’m thinking, police, helicopter, but good old dad comes to the rescue again as he climbs up the cliff and guides Steven back down.
In Sioux Falls, all the kids jumped off a thirty-foot waterfall. Heart attack city.
Let me know if Wall Drugstore is still at the edge of the Badlands. It was about the only place I felt safe.
It was 1976 and we took the kids across country to celebrate the bicentennial. We went to all those places you mentioned - like the Badlands.
Oh yeah, the Badlands.
First they were standing there looking down – three boys. I shoot, then turn away pointing my camera at a magnificent cliff. When I turn back there are two boys looking down.
“Where’s Michael?” My voice is shrill and my heart bounds. Terrified of heights, I run out on the narrow outcropping.
“Where’s Michael?”
The boys look down.
Michael had fallen. The V of his legs hugged a small rock jutting out from the side of a cliff. To one side of him was a deadly smooth, straight drop down the canyon wall. The other side offered a bumpy ride to the bottom, (while jagged rocks tore him apart.)
The other boys held Uncle Fred’s feet while he lay on his stomach and reached down to grab Michael’s hand.
“I don’t have a good grip Dad.”
Uncle Fred sees the smooth drop and the jagged rocks. “Keep what you’ve got son,” he says as he tightens his grip on Michael’s wrist and quickly pulls him up.
An hour later Steven manages to climb to the top to the cliff I had photographed earlier. He can’t get down. I’m thinking, police, helicopter, but good old dad comes to the rescue again as he climbs up the cliff and guides Steven back down.
In Sioux Falls, all the kids jumped off a thirty-foot waterfall. Heart attack city.
Let me know if Wall Drugstore is still at the edge of the Badlands. It was about the only place I felt safe.
# posted by : 9:34 AM
: 9:34 AM
Mr. anonymous: I did not go to see Hemingway's house, or any Frank Wright stuff. I left that for me and you, when we go to chicago, dope.
Altie: what a story. I was there today, and am going back tomorrow. Yes, Wall Drug is still there, but I wouldn't know what it is: I didn't go in. After a thousand miles of advertisements, there was no way I was going in that place, even if therein lay my salvation!
I slept in front of that very same Falls, last night! I wondered about jumping it. I've done such things before, in Mexico, much bigger falls, but that was only because other people did it. Left to my own devices, I sleep in front of and write about, not jump over, waterfalls.
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Altie: what a story. I was there today, and am going back tomorrow. Yes, Wall Drug is still there, but I wouldn't know what it is: I didn't go in. After a thousand miles of advertisements, there was no way I was going in that place, even if therein lay my salvation!
I slept in front of that very same Falls, last night! I wondered about jumping it. I've done such things before, in Mexico, much bigger falls, but that was only because other people did it. Left to my own devices, I sleep in front of and write about, not jump over, waterfalls.
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