---October 3th 2013---
Two Rides from the Same Guy
Once out of the Magic Bus, I got back on the interstate hooping to reach Rapid City by night. Through Couchsurfing, I had managed to find a place to stay for the two days I was going to take to visit de small city. The Sun was approaching the horizon, and a massif storm cloud was heading my way. I didn’t want to be stuck in the prairies under the rain, neither for hitchhiking, nor for camping, so I walked toward the next overpass to find shelter.
I could see the massif black cloud slowly moving toward me. I remembered a similar cloud a few years back when I crossed the mid-west for a school competition, and I can honestly say I didn’t wanted to go through that king of weather, especially without shelter. I may have being protected from the up-coming rain, but the wind had no problem pushing me and my bag around. The same mean wind had also all the fun it the world, throwing spiky sagebrush, empty beer bottles, and all the other trash you could find in the area.
The condition got so back that I had to give it up. I ran up toward where the overpass leaves the ground to look for a small opening I could use as shelter for the night. I knew I wasn’t going to sleep, but at least, no rain could hit me, and I was protected from the wind and its projectile.
As I ran down to pick up my bag and start what looked like a very long night, I notice someone waving at me from over the overpass; his name was Jonathan. Glad, but puzzled as to how from over the overpass he saw me, I ran toward him. As I got closer, I noticed a badge on his black jacket. “Oh no, not a cop”, I thought to myself, but what choice did I have; run away? So I kept on running toward the cop and eventually realised the he wasn’t a cop but only a electrician with a similar uniform; what a relief.
He was going all the way to Rapid City, but since his company prevented him from picking up hitchhikers, he could take me far in the city. I asked him the question about how he noticed me from over the bridge, to be responded by: “Oh, I saw you earlier. Actually, I drove pass you, and immediately after having passed you I turned my head thinking ‘Did I just saw a hitchhiker?’, but I was too far to pull over. So I drove all the way to the next exit, got out, and back on the other side to come pick you up. In other word, I already knew you were there.”
While I was in Rapid City, I dropped my phone with all the important information for my trip: finance, contacts, destination, maps, etc. So I got stuck in Rapid City and the Black Hills for two weeks, and a lot of things happened during these two weeks. Being all mixed up, I de threaded the story, meaning this chapter doesn’t necessarily follow a straight timeframe. Most of the stories happened before the end of this one and the next one.
Ten days later, as I was trying to head to Nebraska for a day to go visit the Toadstool Badlands, only to head back to Rapid City on the next day, Jonathan passed by me again. He was going toward the small city. He couldn’t believe it and neither did I, ten days had passed, and I was now on the other side of the state, I we meet again. He stopped, and we talked for a few minutes. Before leaving, he told me he was going for a snack before heading up on the highway. As for me, I stayed in place and kept on trying. Eventually, the very low traffic added with the short time window to visit the park I was heading for, I decided to change side of the road. I got a first ride the highway, and barely had I had the time to drop my bag on the ground that, you guessed it; Jonathan stopped by even more surprised than the first time. This time, we both had a common direction.
Not wanting to head back in town immediately, I asked him to drop me at a small intersection so that I could go visit the Rushmore Caverns.
When I got to the caverns, I asked if it was possible to leave my bag at the receptionist. The guy grabbed my bag, but failed to lift it one the first try; actually, it took him two or three tries before he got to put it on his back. He looked at me and asked what I was doing to carry such weight. I started telling the employees about my trip, and all the crazy adventure I had being through. They got quite impressed, enough so that when I got out of the cave, after a guided tour, they gave me a little bit of food, and $20. Only costing $8 for the tour, I actually made $12 by visiting that cave.
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| Rushmore Caverns |
Same Guy, Same Place
The next morning, I manage to get a ride from a guy fairly quickly. My target for the day was to visit the Needles. A few days before, I decided to take a helicopter tour to see the Black Hills from the air, especially with all the snow left from the massif snowstorm (which I will come back to later). So when I entered in the stranger’s car, he looked at me which the biggest questioning look on his face and asked me: “Did you go on a helicopter ride a few days ago?” I responded with a “Yes”, and he continued with: “That’s what I thought. I’m an electrician and the storm snapped the electrical wire passing through the forest. To find where they are broken, I have to take a helicopter, and yesterday, the pilot told me he had picked up a guy how was hitchhiking in the region, even with all the snow. When I saw you this morning, I just had to see if you were that guy.” I knew by now never to expect anything while hitchhiking because of how random things can be, but I never would of imagine going on a helicopter tour, would get me a ride a few days later.
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| View from the helicopter |
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| Silvan Lake |
When I got to my third climb, and about 5 feet off the ground, I heard a cracking noise. Immediately, I look at my left hand, and I saw, right before my eyes, the rock I was holding on to cracking down. I wasn’t in any position to rapidly change my hold, so the inevitable happened, and I fell backward. Obviously, I pushed my body outward with my legs to land on my feet. The fun part of that small fall was the mental picture I got from it. At the exact moment, I was completely off the wall, with the boulder in mid-air, still leaning slightly backward; my brain took the time to photograph the moment. I got to say, it’s too bad you can’t share a mental picture, because that would easily be the most beautiful picture I would have from my trip.
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| The Needles |
They ended up dropping me at the exact place my first ride at picked me up. I raised my thumb, and a police car stopped. I did like every other time; took my earphones off, left my bag behind, and with the friendliest looking smile greeted the officer.
“Good afternoon sir. Is there a problem?” I asked.
“No” he said with an intrigued look. “What are you doing out hitchhiking in this weather? Everything is covered in snow; shouldn’t you be trying to find a place to relax until the snow melts?”
“There might be snow all over the place, but the sky is blue, the Sun is shining, and I like winter. This is perfect weather. In fact, when the Sun gets too hot, all I have to do is grab a snowball and sponge my head.”
“Well my friend, you are a weird fellow. I’d offer you a ride; it doesn’t look like we are heading the same way. If you want, I have a few water bottles. It’s not much, but water is always good” he said giving me a water bottle. “Alright then, have a good day, and be careful.”
I kept on hitchhiking, and eventually, a familiar car stopped a few feet away. I ran toward it, and as I thought, it was the guy who started my day. He looked at me and said as a joke, but not sure if it was the case: “Did you stay here all day? I dropped right on the other side of the road, and you haven’t moved.”
I hopped in and told him about my day. He was heading back to Rapid City, and dropped me right in front of the house I was staying at. He turned out to be my first and last ride of the day, while picking me up where he dropped me. What are the odds?
The ghost
We need to jump back a little bit. I had just being dropped in Rapid City by Jonathan (the first time he picked me up), its night, and I know I have a place to stay for the night. That being said, the guy I’ve being communicating with (Arik) isn’t home. Instead, he sent me this email.
“Hi Eric,
I will not be in Rapid City while you will be there [I was supposed to stay for 2 nights], but if you want, my back door is unlocked. Nobody will be there, so all you have to do is to head for [his address], go to the backyard, and once inside, there is a bed waiting for you. Feel free to take the food in the fridge as it might go bad by the time I come back. If you need to, the washing machine is in the basement. Finally, when you will be leaving, leave the back door unlocked, just in case another couchsurfer needs a place to stay.
Enjoy Rapid City”
I crossed town, and got to his place. Just in case, when I got in, I threw a few hellos to make sure nobody was there, and I went to sleep. I must add that I felt very weird entering and using someone’s house; someone I had never seen, and that I was never going to see of my live.
The next day, I put my music on, and headed downstairs to do my laundry, and dry my tent. Two things I had noticed were the dirty dishes in the sink and the empty table. Once downstairs, I put all my cloth in the washing machine and I put up my tent. The basement was in construction, so it was perfect to let it dry as water couldn’t damage any floor. I sat down next to the washing machine and read my book, only wearing the towel used after my shower. Once the washing was done, I put everything in the dryer and headed back up, hoping to use the computer. As I got up, all the dirty dishes from the sink were gone, and there were fruits on the table. Very intrigued, I once more threw a few hellos, but no answer!! How did that happened? My first thought was that I may have missed looked. I then tried to use the computer, but it was locked.
The next day, when I woke up, I noticed the cat’s food bowl was empty. I quickly looked around, but could find the food. I decided to head for downtown, and search in more depth once back home.
I had just learned that the government had just gone under shut-down, meaning all the national parks were to be closed. Being particularly mad, I tried to find a tourist information center to asked them a few questions. And as I took my phone off of my pocket, I dropped it on the ground exploding its screen. As I mentioned before, I had all the important information for my trip on it, so I looked and looked around town, until I find a place that could repair it. They told me it was going to take up to two weeks. I ran to the library, and sent an email to Arik, explaining my situation, and asking if it was possible to stay at his place until I were to get my phone back. He said he didn’t mind, and that he was looking forward to meet me. I headed back home and as I entered, I noticed the cat’s food bowl was full again.
As the days would pass by, things would change in the house, mostly the cat’s food bowl who kept on refilling itself. But most of the time, they would happen has I would be out of the house. That being said, one morning, I got up and took my shower, about fifteen minutes, and when I got out, the computer was open and unlocked.
To make things worse, the massif snowstorm took the power out. So I ended up staying into this house with a “ghost” moving things around while I wasn’t watching, and all this in a dark and cold house. To kill time, I would read, but my book was And Then There Were None of Agatha Christie, a book about a killer on an island which no one has seen. Everything was set for the perfect horror movie, and even though I don’t believe in ghost, I was still a little scared.
When Arik got back in town a week later, he invited me to come to his girlfriend’s house, Karen. I mostly hitchhiked small two days loop around the Black Hills, but I would still take a day off here and there to hang out with Karen’s four kids. I liked hanging out with them, but knowing I was obligated to stay in the region, I thought it was a good opportunity to fully explore the area. One thing I noticed is how friendly the people are living around the Black Hills. I wanted to do a little winter camping, but I never got the opportunity as every night I was out, someone would invite me over at their house. I also took the time to tackle winter a little bit better as I realised I was going to needed it. We still hadn’t reach mid-October and I had already being hit by two snowstorms.
On my last day in Rapid City, as I was playing Scrabble with Arik and Karen, I told them about the ghost, and Karen started laughing. She told me she was the ghost. She would go to Arik’s house to take care of the cats and make sure everything was good. When she would come, she didn’t want to bother me, so she stayed discrete. That being said, if she were to run into me, she didn’t mind. But it turns out, that every single time got there, I was doing something else; perfect synchronization.
There is Always a Positive Side to a Bad Situation
As I mentioned, one morning, as I was going through my emails, my dad as well as Neon had asked me what my plans for the governmental shutdown were. This was a huge deal for me considering I took a full year off from school to visit the national parks, and now they were all closed. To add insult to injuries, as I was trying to find a solution, I broke my phone delaying my trip for a little while. I got mad, actually furious, which I’m never. I had no control over myself in rage.
I sent an email to my dad, how follows actuality with much attention, and he told me that based on what he had read and heard, it was going to be only for 17 days, but he wasn’t sure. So, eventually, I took the time to look at my original plans; more precisely, which park were national, and which one belonged to states. I was quite scared. Mount-Rushmore was going to be closed, with Natural Chimney in Nebraska, Great Sand Dunes, Black Canyon of the Gunnison and Colorado National Monument in Colorado, but mostly, the big five, all of Utah’s national park, which were the main reason for my trip. I looked at my map, and saw that Rushmore and Natural Chimney were right next to bigger road, so I could see them without entering the park. As for Great Sand Dunes, I didn’t mind skipping it, but for the rest, it was going to be quite problematic.
Eventually, I realised that I was stuck in Rapid City for 12 days. Meaning that if my dad was correct, all I would miss would have being Rushmore, Natural Chimney and Great Sand Dunes. That was not too big of a problem. Instantly, my inner rage disappeared, well it stayed all the way until the government reopened, but at least, it faded a little bit.
But what if my dad was wrong? What if the parks were going to be closed much longer? I’m not going to cross Utah missing on all those parks; that would eat me from the inside. I thought the best solution was to head to Europe. I had a few things I wanted to see in Europe, and was actually thinking of heading there at the end of my stay in the USA. So I gave myself a deadline. If in eighteen days the parks are not reopened, I take a flight from Denver and head to Europe.
Now that I look back at all this, it feels weird to think that breaking my phone is what got me to stay in the United-States. As predicted, after 17 days, the park reopened, they opened the morning I got to the Great Sand Dunes, meaning that since Mt-Rushmore was very close to the road, and thanks to the helicopter ride, the only park I missed mas Natural Chimney. If I hadn’t broke my phone, I would of gotten to Utah, missing all their parks, and the one from Colorado, and probably would of left to have another completely different trip. As we say in math: two negative makes a positive!!!
The Incredible American Kindness
Stuck around the Black Hills for a little while meant I had the opportunity to explore the very touristic area. They have lots of caves, petrified trees, Mount-Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument, Mammoth Spring, etc. I took a map of the area and planned small loop trying to take every road possible, and seeing every attraction in the region. My first loop included the Chapel in the Hill, the Black Hills Caverns and a local Petrified Forest.
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| Black Hills Caverns, my first cave |
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| Petrifed Forest |
Once back, I watched a movie with the kids until they fell asleep. I helped them carry the kids (3 and 5 years old) and lay on the couch, with his big dog sleeping next to me. I was happy; sleeping in strangers’ house was still fairly new to me. Other than those arranged through Couchsurfing, I only had two previous experiences; one in Washington and one in Idaho.
The next morning, he gave me a little bit of food, and before we left, he asked me how much my bag weighted, I didn’t knew at that point; all I knew is that it was too heavy. We put the bag on a scale and got an overall 62lbs. Yes, I had just picked up some food, but I believe I kept a 60lbs average throughout the totality of the States.
Once he dropped me, I manage to hit my last stop of the loop, the Petrified Forest, and kept on heading south toward Rapid City.
My First Strange Ride
I had being on the road for over a month and still, I had no bad experience, well except Vancouver, but that was sort of self-imposed. I was starting to feel more and more comfortable with my rides, maybe a little too comfortable.
A few rides after my visit of the Petrified Forest, I got picked up but a local man. I instantly notice something was weird with him, but didn’t mind. I felt like he had always being excluded from society; causing him not to know of social norms. I wouldn’t say he was a bad guy, but he wasn’t someone inspired much trust, or at least to a hitchhiking perspective.
My destination was Rapid City, but he told me he was heading to the southern outskirt of the city. That was perfect for me as I would have any walking across town. I could head for my second loop instantly, an see Mt-Rushmore which I had looking forward to for quite some time.
As we were talking, I asked him one of my usual questions: “Do you have any kids?” He told me he didn’t. I responded in a sorry tone, but trying to lighten the mood: “I guess the stork never came”, but he didn’t understand the joke, and took it on the literal sense. Thinking I didn’t know how kids were made, he started lecturing me on the subject. I didn’t that part, but the problem, was that he just loved saying the word “penis” and he would say t at every occasion he could. I assume he thought it was a way to show me that he was mature enough to say it with laughing immaturely. To make me even more uncomfortable, he kept on using his finger to show me graphically how to do the dance of love.
I was squeezed on only half of my seat, with my hand on the handle of the car ready to exit the car, but he was giving me a good ride, so I just stared at his hand to make sure they weren’t approaching me. I tried to change the subject, but I guess he really wanted me to know how it was done.
Once again, I don’t think he was a bad person, but just socially awkward, but I was still very relieved to exit to car, once on the outskirt.
The Storm of the Century
October 4th 2013, the Atlas blizzard hit the Midwest with little warning. As for me, I got to enjoy it front row; well, second, Deadwood was front row as they got twice the amount of snow we got. They were buried under 4 feet of snow, in just 24 hours.
As I was heading to the famous faces carved mountain of Rushmore, a police officer arrested me. He told me hitchhiking on the road was illegal since we were in a national park. The park itself was closed, but behind an important road, the one I was on was kept open. He gave me permission the walk on the shoulder, but both hands had to be down. Right before he left, he asked me what were my plans for the night. I told him I was thinking of camping, but wasn’t sure. He looked at my with an odd look and finally responded with: “You know there is a snowstorm coming? Meteorologist aren’t sure how much snow, but they said there might be a few inch. If I were you, I’d try to find shelter, it will be cold, and camping under the snow might not be a good idea. But that is your call.” I must say, I thought a few inch was two-three, plus, we are very early October, how bad can it be. That being said, with the help of my weird ride crossing town for me, I had enough time to hitch back to Rapid City by night, and so I did.
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| Mt-Rushmore |
As I got closer to the road, I saw an apple tree fully de-rooted. I thought the apples were going to grow bad, so I took a few, and I got to admit, they were the best apples I’ve ever eaten. The wet snow made them extra juicy, while the cold had only just managed to freeze the peel making them extra crunchy. I took a few for the rest of the day, but couldn’t resist devouring them.
The four inches, were now six, and I had just found the best place to hitchhike. Right on the edge of town, an overpass made the blizzard less intense. I took my camera to immortalize the moment, but ended up having to tie my tripod to the concrete pillar holding the overpass.
Based on my research, made after the snowstorm, 125km/h winds were registered that day, and it felt that way. Even with my glasses, cap, tuque, and hoody fully tied, the snow would find a way to hit my eyes preventing me from opening them; and that is protected from the overpass. As I would count the minutes on the side of the no longer existing highway, I could count the amount of car crashing in the ditch or going the wrong way on the highway because of the icy condition. Looking at the mayhem around me, I realised that it may not had being a great idea. I couldn’t see people coming, they probably couldn’t see me (that was confirmed to be the case), and people were crashing all over the place. Finally, my pants, which were selected to breathe for the desert, were frozen solid, and the tap on my shoes had fallen, so I could feel the ever agonizing pain of freezing toes. So, I decided to call it a day, but just as I was getting ready to start walking back home, I saw a car on reverse on the highway. I thought, he was backing up for me, so I ran toward him, but he hadn’t seen me yet. Surprise to see a hitchhiker; he agreed to give me a ride, but back in town. That was perfect.
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| Winter hitchhiking |
“You look like a guy who is lost”, said the driver teasing me.
“What gave it away”, I responded jumping into his game. I knew the big backpack mixed with being still outside in the storm gave it all away.
“Where are you trying to go? This is no weather to get lost.”
“Well, I’m new in town; I’m trying to find the house of a guy I’m Couchsurfing at. His nam…”
“You’re staying at Arik’s house” he interrupted. “Yeah, he takes every couchsurfer in town. You are luck, he’s my neighbour. I’ll drive you.”
Once home, I ran down stairs and put all my cloth in the dryer. Just as I push the start button, a branch gave up his fight against the snow and snipped the electric wire, cutting down the power. Great, no drier cloth and no more heaters. I ran toward the shower; there might be no more heaters, but the hot water will still be warm for a few minutes. Let’s use that hot water to its very end. Once out, I hung all my cloth in the basement, and grabbed my sleeping bag, made for winter. I jumped in, took my head lamp, and as you already now know, on that cold and dark evening, with only my headlamp to enlighten the “ghost” infested house, I started reading my horror novel.
The next morning, two feet were covering the city, we could barely see the cars, and I had to go tackle a new challenge. I had no more food, so I needed to head back in town. I went downstairs and took my clothes, but they were frozen solid; I could hold them horizontally. I cracked the ice, shook them a little, and fighting my own will, I put them on. And once outside, I met another world. The sky was shining blue, with barely any clouds in the sky. The temperature wasn’t so bad either. People look happy, as kids were snowball fighting, who those who had skidoos we enjoying their temporary private road. As for me, I walked to the main street, but realised everything was closed. The only thing open was a small drug stop in which two employees had being stuck overnight, and decided to open in the morning. There was almost nothing left, so I was stuck eating candy bar for the few days.
Overall, it took three full days before the city reopened. For three entire days, I was stuck inside, and even if I wanted to leave the house, nothing was open. Also, after those three days, I finally noticed that the property had a cabin in the back, and once I got in, I finally found the shovel. So I spent a day shovelling the path from the back door to the street, and cutting all the branches that had fallen on the back yard. It was perfect timing, since Arik arrived from his trip in Louisiana just as I finished cleaning the mess left by the storm.
The Atlas storm was definitely bigger than I thought. Overall, 25’000 cows lost their life within those 24h. The small rain just before the cold got the cow’s leg to get stuck in mud which froze, leaving them unable to get away from the snow, thus freezing to death. As I hitchhiked along the prairie side of South Dakota, I could see huge tracked stacking piles of dead cows. It was a horrible sight to see. But, on the bright side, no human died due to the storm, the cold, or the falling trees. A few people got stuck overnight in their car, but were rescued in time.
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| Weather report |
After having said goodbye to Arik, Karen and her kids, I started hitchhiking toward the last road of the Black Hills I had yet to have driven on; the Iron Mountain Road. Despite not having any touristy location to visit on that road, it was magnificent. Based on what the local said, it wasn’t design by an engineer, but by an artist. Obviously the artist was probably was probably work with an engineer, but these are little details. Having that particularity, the road wasn’t design to make sense. Every now and then, the road goes on one of its famous 360° curve (actually 270°). The road turns, and turns while going up, to finally end up in a tunnel that aligns perfectly with Mt-Rushmore. In some other places, the two lane traffic road, separates and become slightly narrower to give the driver the feeling of rolling alone in the majestic forest.
Later that day, I got to highway. I my target was to reattempt heading to the Toadstool Badlands, but this time, from Chadron (Nebraska) rather than Hot Spring (South Dakota). Trying to hitchhike on the back roads of ranch land was intimidating. There was very low traffic, and I didn’t know how friendly people were in the new state, so I opted for the highway. I got picked by a local redneck heading down toward Chadron. He was a great guy, and we had fun talking all the way down. As we were getting closer to Nebraska, one of his friends saw our car. He wanted to make a joke to his friend, so he leaned his double barrel shotgun on the passenger’s window and rolled next to us, pretending as if he wanted to shoot us. I was looking the other side, so when my driver saw his friend pretending to shoot us, he tapped my shoulder to grab my attention. What a surprise when I turned. Luckily for me, as he grabbed my shoulder, when I turned, I focused on him, and noticed a smile on his face while his was turned toward the gun. I felt a little unsafe, but I least I didn’t panic. The other driver started laughing as mine jumped right in. He told me not to worry as he was a friend, before the other car speeded down the highway slowly disappearing.
Once in Chadron, I went to a local bar to eat something, and tackle the nightly challenge of finding a place to sleep. There was nothing in sight other than a small park, located right in from of the police office. I took the time to think, and decided to cross the street and say my usual mambo-jumbo to the police officer to see where they would tell me to stay for the night. The lady looked at my sort of intrigued as to why a Canadian would be travelling this way, but then simply pointed at the small park saying no one was going to bother me for the night. Most people fear police officer because of what we hear on the news, or how they are represented on TV shows or movie, but I got to discover a whole side as I hitchhiked. Still to this day, they have never given me any trouble, rather hitchhiking was legal or not in the state. At night, using your petty to explain that you are in a bad situation, while saying you don’t want to break the law, gives them much confidence in you and they let you sleep in park not to be bothered. As for on the road, if you greet them with a smile and don’t argue with them they will stop trying to arrest you, and only give you a warning, or in some occasion a ride. In other word, I think that most of the time, the police officer will give you problem not for what you are doing, but for how you react.
PHOTOS
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| License Plate |
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| Prairie Dog |
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| Badlands |
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| Badlands |
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| The mystical Jackaloppe |
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| Minuteman Missile |
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| Mt-Rushmore |
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| Atlas Blizzard |
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| Winter hitchhiking |
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| Helicopter ride |
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| Crazy Horse Monument |
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| Mammoth Spring |
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| Mountain Goat |
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| The Needles |
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| Lazy hitchhiking |
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| Arik and Karen's Family |
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