Rednecks on the Road

It has been nearly 2 weeks since I posted, but I really have been busy. The early part of the week following the last entry was spent on heavy duty library related work AND getting ready to leave for our big trip out West. MH and I left on Thursday, August 26th and we will return home tomorrow, Sept. 3rd. I guess the timing was about as good as it could possibly have been. We had meant to wait a little later in the season but as it turned out, Squirt had to have surgery on his right hind leg - a torn ACL. Since he was going to have to spend several days in the hospital anyway, we thought the time might be right. Our vet has a lovely boarding facility called “Petcetera” and Squirt always has first dibs on the Grandmother Suite, so he had a couple of days of care in the hospital and then he moved on to what we are calling his rehab experience. I have called to see about him daily and all reports have been good. It will probably take several more weeks before he will dare to bear weight on that right hind leg, but our vet feels that the surgery was successful. We’ve been down this road with the other hind leg several years ago. I asked the vet if this was somehow our fault but he assures us that it is not. He says that Squirt is just such a busy little dog and always getting into mischief, therefore his risk of injury is high. I suppose we are lucky he is well trained to stay out of the road.

On to the trip..... we headed up to South Dakota and did the Badlands first. It was as hot there as it was at home. I couldn’t believe it when I looked at the car thermometer and saw it register 100 degrees. And the wind was unbelievable. It was the strongest, hottest wind I ever experienced. I got a few photos of the Badlands, but my tripod would not have stood up and, needless to say, it was impossible to hold the camera real still in that kind of wind. I’ll post a couple of the best ones and then tell you about our next stop in South Dakota tomorrow. After South Dakota, we did Montana and Wyoming. It was a great trip!


I know this must be some kind of a deer. It doesn't look like the kind of deer we have at home, but I know this is not a prong horned antelope either. If anyone knows exactly what kind of animal this is, please tell me. We saw him grazing on a ridge just as we were driving into the Badlands National Park. This is a beautiful animal.



It was a real cloudy day. In fact, most of our days out West were cloudy. At least I wasn't dealing with the dreaded white, featureless sky, which I don't know how to fix in Photoshop. I did like how the sun rays were pouring through this break in the clouds. And this photo is a broad sample of the Badlands. I read that the area got its name because the French fur traders referred to it as "bad land to cross". Badlands is a translation of their description. If you will click on this picture to enlarge it, you can see the highway with a car driving toward us in the distance. You can even see a highway sign. Can't remember if it was one of those "beware of rattlensakes" signs - probably not, but we did see some of those. It seemed like there were miles and miles of this exact landscape. Seeing pictures in books could not have prepared me for what this actually looked like.



We were driving out just as the sun was getting lower and providing more color. I bet that place is spooky after dark and I wouldn't want to be caught there, but I sure am glad I got the chance to see this amazing sight (in the daylight hours).

As an aside, MH has a wicked sense of humor. After seeing those numerous "beware of rattlesnakes" signs, we didn’t venture more than a few steps from the car while in the Badlands, and we kept a keen eye on the ground when we did get out. As I said, the wind was fierce. We saw a man’s glasses get blown right off his face. MH deadpanned (not in the poor fellow's earshot) that a rattlesnake would be wearing those spectacles the next day. I sure did feel sorry for the man and watching that happen made me think twice before I got out of the car again. I’d be in a mess without my glasses.