Just finished taking a KOA Campground shower, no way I’d pay the camping rates, but a five dollar shower is A OK by me. I’ve been staying in the National Forest campgrounds for the past few nights. It’s been great to be around some people. Fellow travelers to sit and chat with for a few minutes. There’s a beautiful young girl cleaning the shower stalls with an equally young boy. I began this trip with the ambition of being out by myself. Planting my car up in the middle of nowhere and doing nothing in the quiet peaceful scenery. I’ve had a lot of that, now my desire has shifted towards human interaction. I constantly find myself wishing to share the experience with someone. I’ll be cooking dinner, sitting beside a creek with nora, or watching a spectacular thunder storm and imagine teleporting someone I know or have met to my location. Just to share in the joy of the surroundings. Words to write are slow to come, usually they come fast. My whole entire process has slowed to a crawl. The excitement of being on the road is all but almost gone. No doubt there’s still exciting moments. When I first started the exciting moments were coming into a new territory, hearing a great story from some local folks, catching a fish on the river, watching the sun set. Now it’s getting stuck in the sand, having a forest ranger run my information, or surviving a near miss on the road. Not really the exciting moments one should want on a road trip, definitely not the ones I want. Sadly, these are the few times when my emotions seem to rise anymore. I went into a bar in Medora South Dakota, hoping for some human interaction. But I was to much of a stranger. Sat for 4 hours, eyes glued to the basketball game on tv, talking only with the bar tender when another drink was due. I’m debating wether or not to go into downtown Deadwood again tonight, but I know for certain it’s a worthless attempt. Bars are for drinking, and the human interaction is always second rate. I could drive down the road to find another campground, but i’d rather not spend money on a campground every night. So I’ll boon dock tonight somewhere around Deadwood. If someone is going to approach me they better be a shell cracker. My mind has become a bit numb, and my creativity in writing is lost to me.
Here’s an excerpt from an email I sent home to Mom a few days back, break up the depression a little…
“so Nora just about ended our trip this morning.
We were checking out the national forest, stopped to take some
pictures of the prairie dogs along the road, nora was in the passenger
seat, she saw one and flew out my window as I was taking pictures,
straight to the hole which she stuck her nose down. I kid you not, as
soon as the dogs feet hit the ground a Park Ranger came around the
bend. Me sitting in the car and nora running up to the prairie dogs
hole. It took alot of explaining and apoligizing, 5 minutes of him on
the radio in his car staring at me, and then finally we were let go
with a verbal warning. Anyways, all in all we’re still doing good.
Saw some giant Bison within a few feet from the car today as well,
norah wasn’t as sure of her self on that occasion.”
Jordansname.com 