Dakota

Have you ever wondered why its south and north dakota? and instead of asking the locals you decide to google it and find an answer that reads as bad as whatever this travel thing is. Well i did. here's what i do but on shrooms i think: https://quocthoughts.com/2018/01/28/which-came-first-south-dakota-or-north-dakota/

TLDR: Spain took over the land kinda the same way the US put a flag on the moon. Spain then sold the land to the US  the same way I can sell your house to another country; illegal and crazy unless the goverment does it. Then white miners illegally dug for gold in a part that was supposed to be the native americans land. Which then led into the US getting into a(nother) war with the native americans... a few war crimes later the US won. Something,  something (mostly more war crime somethings).. the people of now north dakora voted to split dakota into south and north due to political and poplance unrest.

Back to present day.

13 hours

We have approached my limit of driving capacity. For a 13 hour drive; wake up at 6:30 (central time), hit the road by  7:15 am, and arrive around 7:30 pm (mountain time). All in all I think I made good time, even, kind of dumb speeding warning aside.

The drive was neat and a little long once i got to the 6 hours remaning part. the view went from the green part of the states that I remember to lumpy yellow dirt. the weirdest part i think is the sky, it feel unerving and kind of an uncanny valley feel (even if there are no valleys until rapid city). something about having a lot of sky and being able to see the entire city from your backyard is distrubing to my city  slicker brain that grew up in philly.

rapid city

So techically im staying right outside of rapid city. the place is actually really neat and defintily one of the best (least sketchy) Air bnb's that i've stayed at.

Rapid city being the second largest city with 74,000 people in it (20k more people than harrisburg but literally 5 times the size), is a relatively small tourist town. it gives off less tourist vibes the farther you get from Mt. rushmore. It does have a good amount of stuff to do.. like climbing... or hiking.... or outdoor cloth shopping. like i said, lots to do.

The Black Hills Dirtbabes

So climbing has the been the big thing here, and i've joined my 4th cult at this point and im running out of souls to give away. This cult being the Black Hill Dirt Babes. Referencing dirtbag climbers; the original climbers:

These climbers generally originated in Yosemite where you'd live the van life in the a community of fellow climbers. You'd see the wall and you'l want to traverse that wall. its a spirtiual thing in a way, and very litteraly when you realize that its a literaly mountain. Now a lot of original culture looked down on the crazyness of  "saftey gear" and "ropes". so you'd free solo it. Really taking therapy to the extreme. I imagine it's effective if you live to tell the tale.

Now thats a quick rundown but there's a whole other story about dirtbags thats all about climbing in the middle of winter to find thousands of pounds of illegal weed soaked in oil that got distributed to local users. its a wild story that i wont butcher like i've done with everything else here:
https://theplaidzebra.com/1977-marijuana-fell-sky-yosemite-valley-now-climbers-legend/

So to wrap it up. Through the dirtbabes and other people I met here I learned a few things about this state. I was told that there are only 6 things i need to know, 0 of which i was actually told so i'll be making my own up.

1. The state is red, pretty common for the south.
2. It has the afront on nature with the presidential faces (though teddy does look cool).
3. This is the state where it is normal for you to go into the woods and come back out with bodies and bones... of elk, deer, and other animals. which you can clean and hang on your wall?
4. Climate change is real, it should have snowed by now. like properly snows. it shouldnt be 46 F today. And we arent even talking about chicago or that this has been a running theme in every, single, state, I, visit...
5. Weed is legal... i think, which is odd for the south.
6. Of the 56 states and territories, south dakota is 47th, followed by north dakota. whodathunk
7. I'm out of fun facts and we are 7, though i will say that it is weird to me that kids can just leave their house at like 10 or 11 at night and go play at the park and thats... normal?