August 5th
Dear Mom,
Today I drove the Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park. They advise you drive really slowly to avoid injury to yourself or the wildlife. I also did my research and decided to drop the teardrop at a campground before beginning the loop.
I spent several hours at a small lake along the road.
It’s called Legion Lake, and it may be small, but it’s beautiful.
I fell in.
I mean, of course I did. I was walking along the edge, tripped, and in I went. It was embarrassing, but somehow only a few people saw me. I shook my dripping hair back, and saw this girl up on the bank, staring at me. She was probably nine and was obviously trying really hard to not laugh at me. She was failing. She called for her dad and he helped me back up the bank, also trying not to laugh and failing.
I actually needed his help because I couldn’t stop laughing myself. It was so embarrassing, but it wasn’t like they were thinking less of me for tripping.
He introduced himself as Marc, and his daughter as Kris, and he insisted I walk with them back to their car where he had a towel stowed in the backseat.
Mom, in the walk between the lake and the car he somehow learned more about me than I ever would have thought possible.
He would glance at me with a little bit of side-eye, and ask me interesting questions about my past and my travels. Never prying, but like he was just curious. Before we even got back to the car he'd invited me to have dinner with him and his daughter.
Dinner turned out to be a picnic they'd packed that morning and brought to the park, and somehow I ended up having lunch with complete strangers who felt like long time friends before we were done.
I didn't cry.
A few times when he asked a question, and I could feel Kris watching me, the tears threatened to burst through my protective layer. But I kept my brave face up and did my best to not make him uncomfortable. And I know you might think he was being impertinent to ask personal questions, he really wasn't.
It was reminiscent of Donovan kneeling and making eye contact with me for the first time. Of Darrah carefully speaking exactly the words she knew I needed to hear.
It was reminiscent of you and me in our best moments, and I was at once jealous and so so glad that Kris has a father like this to help guide her.
We finished lunch and Marc gave me his cell number in case anything else happened and I needed help. I tucked it in the shoe box when we got back to the trailer. It's becoming quite the receptacle for my adventures.
All I can say at the end of the day is “Thank goodness for campsite showers and hot water.”
I've felt a little chilled ever since I took the dip, so I've brewed myself a cup of ginger and lemon tea and am all wrapped up in my blanket while I write this.
The park is at a lower elevation than home, but it feels more mountainous. It reminds me a little of the Gates of Ladore and going camping there with you when I was little.
I miss the familiar smell of the coffee you'd make in the morning.
I love you
Bo.
Yesterday I went to Mount Rushmore and stood for thirty minutes looking at it through a pair of binoculars. It's smaller than I expected, but still so impressive. I can't imagine the detail and planning that went into carving those faces into the rock. Apparently, people have been wanting to add more faces onto the mountain for years, but none of the rest of the mountain is stable enough.
I also am not sure how they would decide which president to carve into the mountain. It seems like it would be a difficult thing to choose even if politics weren't involved.
I remember Mom telling me about the first time she saw Mount Rushmore with her parents. She was a teenager and bored from the long road trip, but just as impressed as I am now with the attention to detail in the carvings.
I'm going on to Wounded Knee tomorrow. It's hard to believe something like a complete massacre could have happened so recently. And so soon after the end of the Civil War. You'd think humanity would have had enough of the pain and sorrow that comes with war.
You'd think that even Western Expansion wouldn't have meant enough to take away the lives of all those Lakota.
I suppose that greed has no bounds. And when something stands in the way of your opportunity you have to choose whether that person is worth more than your future.
And yet.
What a way to think. That the only way to gain what they wanted was to take the lives of the people who had it.
Like there wasn't enough space for everyone.
And how much more awful that they then forced the different tribes onto reservations, like they were prisoners of war.
The Dakota's have really opened my eyes to the heritage of the people who settled this country. Especially the government and those employed by it.
I hope we learned something from it.
I hope that we can choose to be everything we could be. That we will choose love over hate, generosity over greed, and contentment over grasping. I hope we can be better than those who went before us, and make this world a better place. I hope we can help.