On Sunday, July 1, my friend Marshall and I left Denver, where we stayed with my friend Sean the night before (and me, the two nights before) and headed north towards South Dakota. We would first drive through Nebraska. We stopped at Panera Bread in Denver for breakfast, and pulled out of there at precisely 9:00am to make our way north. It’s amazing that when we were only 30 minutes outside of Denver, we already felt like we were in a different place as it becomes rural pretty fast, as you head northeast.
About an hour on the road and Marshall needed a bathroom stop, which we took at a convenient Sinclair gas station in Wiggins, Colorado. As we were about to get back in the car, we noticed a dinosaur (the Sinclair company mascot) decked out in a patriotic red, white, and blue outfit. It gave me my first opportunity to don my own red, white, and blue cowboy hat and take the photo op with this prehistoric creature. It felt like our Independence Day week was now truly started. We then hit the road again. We changed from the interstate to a highway at Sterling, Colorado. A few minutes later, I pulled into a McDonald’s to get an iced coffee to keep me going, and we kept going.
About a half hour later, we hit the Nebraska border. My 45th state! Of course, we stopped for the photo op at the welcome to Nebraska sign. On the opposite side of the road, there was another car of a group of four young people from Illinois who were going south and taking their photo next to the welcome to Colorado sign. There weren’t many cars going by so we were able to cross the road, take our picture next to the Colorado sign (why not?) and also take a photo of them. Travelers going in contrasting directions in this journey of life.
About an hour later, about 1:30pm, we arrived in Alliance, Nebraska and ate at Ken and Dale’s. Marshall and I both had the brisket sandwich. He chose fries as his side, I chose fried macaroni. The brisket and the friend macaroni were delicious.
We then drove just a few miles down the rode to stop at Carhenge. This is truly an American place. It’s a roadside attraction (no cost, but they do accept donations and have a little gift shop with bathrooms and soft drinks). Carhenge has been here since the 1980s, created by a Nebraskan who had spent time in England. When he returned to his native Nebraska, he wanted to create something like Stonehenge, and decided that instead of waiting 10,000 years for these stone to form like they did there, he would take used cars and make a Stonehenge-like structure right next to a Nebraska corn field. Brilliant.
I felt like this was American in another sense: 242 years ago, we Americans told the British we didn’t need them anymore. In America, we may not have as old of things as the English, the Asians, the Africans, or the Middle Easterners, but we create something new modeled on something old. And, Carhenge took 9,999 years and 51 weeks less time to create than Stonehenge. We Americans are efficient with our resources. And what better resource to use then the good ol’ American automobile? In addition, there were probably 20-30 other “tourists” visiting the site around the same time as us. Look at Alliance, Nebraska on a map. It appears to be in the middle of nowhere, off a less traveled highway in western Nebraska. But you put something like Carhenge there and it’s going to attract passersby who need an excuse to stop and stretch the legs anyway. Why not here?
After getting back on the road, we traveled only two miles north before we saw another fun, small roadside creation: “Rest Area.” This features a few stacks of hay, with a toilet seat and a recliner stacked on top of it. There’s a sign that says “Rest Area” and another that says “Free Wi-Fi.” I sat on the toilet and took the photo-op. What a time to be alive. Back on the road we went. A few miles up the road we saw a beautifully golden field of wheat. So beautiful. We stopped and took a photo.
All this stopping for photos was pretty easy. This was a lightly traveled road, very nicely paved. And, from time to time between northern Colorado and all through Nebraska we also would see plenty of trains going by, usually parallel to the road. We saw some trains carrying coal. We saw others probably carrying crops like corn and wheat. I remarked how we were right in the middle of the American heartland.
Some might call this “fly over” country, but this is the heart of America. From the fields of farmers who make this place their home and their livelihood, out go the exports to the rest of America and many other parts of the world, taking the abundant resources that are recalled anytime we sing about the “amber waves of grain” in the song, “America, The Beautiful.”
About an hour after we left Alliance, Nebraska, we arrived to the South Dakota border. My 46th state! Another photo op was in order. At this photo op, there was another sign posted saying we were not only entering South Dakota, but also the Oglala Lakota Nation, where many Native Americans of this tribe live. We saw some of them at a nearby gas station where I stopped to use the facilities and get a snack. About 15 or so minutes later, we arrived at the site of the Massacre of Wounded Knee, which took place on December 29, 1890.
At this skirmish, over 146 Indian men, women, and children were killed. In addition, 20 U.S. soldiers were killed on the field and 16 later died from wounds. We stop and read the historical marker, talked to a local member of the tribe who gave us an overview of the landscape (this all happened within a 5-mile radius of where we were standing), and pointed us to a big hill on the other side of the street, where there is a burial ground, which is where those bodies from the Massacre at Wounded Knee are buried. We went across the way and up the hill and paid tribute to their memory.
While we are celebrating the birthplace of America this week, it’s important to remember that American history, like all history, was not perfect. Much blood, sweat, toil, and tears were had on the way to creating this more perfect Union. Our ability to recognize mistakes in our past and reconcile them is part of what makes America so great.
In addition to the mass grave that is at that Indian cemetery, there are many more modern graves there too. I noticed an Indian grave with a Jewish star, recognizing a member of their tribe who fought for the United States in Vietnam. Many of these graves had American flags. These are a people who surely have some grievances against the U.S. government, but are truly patriotic Americans by their integration into this nation, while I’m sure remaining prideful in their own native heritage as well.
We left Wounded Knee and continued towards the Badlands. Within minutes, the topography started rapidly changing. We were leaving the abundant corn and wheat fields and into a land that was more hilly, more rugged, and more dry. It’s really hard to describe, but it started to look like we were on another planet. “Have we driven so far that we’ve hit Mars?” I joked to Marshall. It was nearly 6:00pm when we pulled into the Badlands Inn, which is just about a half-mile or so from the official entrance to Badlands National Park. We then went into the park, stopped at a few shops, and returned to The Lodge inside the park to eat dinner.
We caught some amazing views around the edges of the park that creates some unique light and shadows on the rugged hilly terrain. As the light in the western sky faded, we took in a presentation at the amphitheater, where we listened to a park ranger tell us how the Badlands was formed – it was once well under the sea, many tens of millions ago – which is what formed the crazy rock formations we are seeing (and at that moment, sitting on). Now there is very little water access in the Badlands. Another ranger gave us a presentation of the night sky. As it got dark, we could easily see three planets: Venus, Jupiter, and Saturn – all at the same time, very bright in three points across the sky. A bit later, Mars would come up over the horizon.
It was all really neat and beautiful. It was also just our first introduction to the Badlands. We would see more tomorrow. For now, it was time to head back to the Badlands Inn and get some rest. It’s quite dark out here. It’s nice and peaceful and quiet. The light pollution from the cities is far, far away. The time to declare our independence is growing nearer.