news from Dot-upon-the-map, South Dakota

I was awake very early this morning, so I ate a quick breakfast, struck camp (quick and simple) and was on the water before the sun was shining directly onto it. I threw some streamers but only caught some little rainbows. When there were some bugs on the water I switched to dry flies, caught enough fish to feel good about my last day of fishing, and packed it in. I waded wet this morning, which means I wore shorts and got wet. I've done that several times this trip when it was warm enough to make the waders uncomfortable. It wasn't so warm this morning, and I did it just so I wouldn't have wet waders to deal with on the way home. It also had the effect of making me ready to quit after just a couple of hours.



I was on the road shortly after 9:00, and didn't feel like stopping until bedtime. I made it all the way to some dot on the map in South Dakota, with a short stop at Mount Rushmore.



I'm too tired again to deal with pictures. I promise I'll put up the rest of them, but maybe not until after I'm home. In the meantime, here are some thoughts about trivial things I noticed about the parts of the American West that I visited.

People out here are more into classic cars and trucks. You occasionally see one in the St. Louis area but out here, they are everywhere. I didn't get many pictures of them but I got one today I'll post later. There were a couple of classic trucks, pulling more modern trailers, in Yellowstone.

Also on vehicles: I was surprised how many Toyota Tundra pickup trucks I saw. They catch my eye because I drive one of course. It's Toyota's full sized truck, and it didn't surprise me that everyone out here has a full sized pickup but I would have guessed they would mostly be the American "big three" companies. Twice I heard someone refer to Tundras as Gibsons and I was pleased with myself that I knew why. All Tundras are assembled in one plant, in Gibson County, Indiana.

There are still places out here, especially in valleys in Montana (which is mostly valleys) where you can't get a radio signal. I hit the "scan" button and watch my radio cycle all the way thru the dial and start again without ever finding a station. In many other places, it only found one or two. I expected them to all be country stations and I enjoyed listening to some country music, but I also heard a jazz/Big Band station which really surprised me, and several gospel/church stations, and once a Spanish speaking station. It was near West Yellowstone which has lots of restaurants and motels which probably employ a lot of Hispanic folks. I listened to the music on the Mexican station for a while. I don't know if it's correct to call it salsa music? I enjoyed it and it reminded me of what you hear in Mexican restaurants sometimes. When I started craving enchiladas I turned it off.

One of the few times I heard a talk station, a rural area politician was talking about the growing cities in Montana, and specifically Billings, which he said is the fastest growing city in the US. He spoke in proper political tones about the economic opportunities that could benefit all of Montana, but he also spoke of taking specific steps to maintain the traditional cultural western aspect of the state in the face of city people coming from other cities to Montana cities. He spoke of states where this is a significant rift between the big cities and the rest of the state. The three states he mentioned specifically were New York, Illinois, and Missouri.

Are braids back in style? I hadn't noticed that in St. Louis, not that I'm much into fashion. But out here many of the women have their hair in one braid, two braids, or a French braid. Some are Native American women but many of them are not. I wonder if it's a regional fashion? Or if it's everywhere and I'm just that clueless?

A few years ago, Montana and a couple of other western states had no speed limit on rural interstates, it was just "reasonable and prudent." Well the court said that was unenforceable, so it got changed, most states to 75. That's a little faster then Missouri but what surprised me was, there are little two-lane paved rural highways with 75 MPH speed limits. I often drive about 9 miles per hour over the limit, and I've done that on the interstates out here, but I find that 75 is about as fast as I am comfortable on a little two-lane road! And I saw some fishing guides driving pickup trucks pulling drift boats on a trailers, going faster then I would be comfortable in any vehicle.