it's amazing what restarting your computer will do.
anyway. here's a continuation of the badlands.
they may look like the same picture, but they're all from a different angle.
(once again, click on all the words.)
most of those hills led from a plateau down to a little valley area, but some stood alone.
this shit is like cement, so it holds well. some weathered in very odd ways; enough to get holes worn through them.
some had thick ass red stripes going through them.
i thought this was the most picturesque photo i took of the badlands.
i like how the light only hits on the background.
coming to the end of the park, the red began to be accompanied by yellow, which added a whole new flare to the ordeal.

from there we headed deeper into the Black Hills of South Dakota. over yonder to Mount Rushmore. last time i was there, they didn't have this giant fucking parking lot to fill up from the capacity crowds. we came at a good time. late summer, not too many ooglers. but there were these two fuckers. no one else was around to see these guys. i walked up toward them, and they took no notice until i was about 20 feet away. then they booked. if it weren't for those hooves and horns, they almost look like dogs.

ok, this is what we came to see. that walkway has all the state flags and when they were inducted into the union. how about a closeup? i see how it is. you want the whole damn mountain. still bitching? i bet you want a vertical view. goddamn! can't i placate you? what more can i offer? george and abe's profile?! shit!

MOVING ON!

no wait. i know what you want. you want to go back to those goats. am i right? yeah, i kinda pegged you as a goat fucker. well, there you go!
. . . jackass.

well here we go.
not to be outdone, the indian tribes of South Dakota stepped up and demanded a sculpted mountain of their own. so, they got one. and they decided to put one of their pimpingest, most legendary red mans of all time on it: crazy horse.
now, don't scoff. they aint done yet. granted its already been 50 years and they only got the head, top of the arm, and outline of the horse's head, but once i tell you that all four prezzes (george and the lot) could fit comfortably on crazy horse's own head. b'damn.
so yeah. here's what the finished product will look like.
my apologies for the fuzziness. with the flash the mountain in the back didn't show.

now, we're in the heart of the Black Hills. still in S. Dakota. what we got here, you ask?
well. its infamous for where Wild Bill Hicock was shot. you know, aces and eights, the "dead man's hand". that building was the name of the place he got shot: saloon #10. but actually there was a fatty fire that tore through the town and burned down that saloon. they moved up the street a bit because they were formerly in the seedy part of town. actually, where the man got shot was here; still a bar, still seedy, just a different name.
oh and btw, that bust you saw earlier was actually Wild Bill's tomb stone. if you can't read the inscription, here you go. damn i got my bases covered. oh, and i guess that was Custer's territory. he got shanked just a bit east of there in Montana at the Little Big Horn, as you might know. we didn't visit there though. next to Wild Bill was buried calamity jane.
now i didn't get any pictures of her, but i think you deserve to catch a peek. that picture doesn't do her hideousness justice. at least from what i saw on some of the tee shirts they were trying to sell. i think the selling point was the ugly that she exuded.

just under 5 miles from Deadwood (which is what this town was called) is another city called Lead. my dad informed me that it's not pronounced like the metal, but rather more like the opposite of follow: leed.
here they literally struck gold. the fattest vein found anywhere in the world. but it didn't come that easy. they made a hugeass pit in the side of a mountain. with a closer photo, you can see two little openings on either side of the picture. i'm sure when being mined fatty machinery had to make its way through those. so you can get some sort of idea just how large this pit really is.
i think they had some stats at the gift shop nearby it. i guess for every ton they unearthed, they got a seventh (1/7) of an ounce of gold.
go team miners.

i think i'll stop here for tonight. for the next time i post, we shall be in a different state.
can you guess which?
i bet not. . . dumbass.

(was i a tiny bit too saucy tonight?)