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Simple Desktops is a collection of desktop wallpapers curated by Tom Watson designed to make your computer beautiful without distraction.
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Nuggets
- I am now amongst Nashville’s glorious humidity.
- I’m excited to catch up on work for two days.
- Beth & I have taken Monday off for an extended weekend in Effingham.
- I am close to having photos wrangled from Badlands National Park.
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The flight out of MSP is overbooked. We would have stuck around till 7 but that flight only has one seat open. Goodbye free flight. :(
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South Dakota: Day 3
Yesterday we spent the middle of the day at Custer State Park. The hike up to Lovers Leap started with a steep trail through the woods and ended by crossing over a creek many times. The woods here are green from top to bottom, unlike Illinois or Tennessee where deciduous trees create a canopy, limiting light from above, and cover the group with their leaves. The experience has the honor of being my favorite hike. (We’ll see if the Badlands can top it today.)
After our hike we had lunch at the State Game Lodge and drove around Wildlife Loop Road. We saw a buffalo, pronghorns, burros, and prairie dogs. The beautiful landscape was probably more entertaining than seeing animals 0.25 miles from the road.
Lastly, we drove up Mt. Coolidge to see the spectacular views from the fire tower. From there we could see Crazy Horse, Mt. Rushmore, iconic Custer State Park formations, and Badlands National Park. The road up the mountain was narrow, rocky, and without guard rails. Holly didn’t have any problem asking me to drive up it.
We ended our day with pizza and Inception.
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South Dakota: Day 2
Yesterday started slowly with a little driving tour of downtown, a visit to the Rapid City Journal, lunch at Firehouse Brewing Co.. Then we drove up to Dinosaur Park for unbeatable views of Rapid City and quality time with friends of our past.
State buddies!
I am particularly proud of this photo. I walked down into the amphitheater and started aiming my camera up to exclude the stage. Eventually the wide lens caught the sun behind me so I recomposed to place it in the corner of the frame.
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South Dakota: Day 1
I realized yesterday that our evening departure and chillaxed attitude about leaving was approaching the bad dreams that Beth & I occasionally have about travel going bad. Air travel in the past had involved early mornings and long drives until we moved to Nashville. But yesterday we left our loft at 4:00 pm and was at our gate 40 minutes later. 40 MINUTES! At least we have a baseline for future trips to BNA.
The flights were cramped, hot, loud, and uncomfortable. The last flight had a couple of babies but they handles the hubbub well.
Funny Moment: As we descended into Minneapolis I noticed many ponds, rivers, and lakes. Then I remembered the state is also known as Land of 10,000 Lakes.
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Holly warned us about poor AT&T service. What does that circle mean?
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There was a moment of panic when we thought we had less than 30 minutes before our second flight. Our time zone boundary knowledge was wrong; we have over an hour.
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"
In the Midwest, where I grew up, the milestones of life — 40th birthday parties, 10th anniversaries, an honorable discharge from the military — are observed with a pig roast. The words alone invoke casual pleasure: the taste of draft beer, the smell of wafting smoke, the feel of a greasy T-shirt and the sound of flip-flops.
But this casualness should not be mistaken for nonchalance. Pig roasts are elaborate communal affairs requiring ingenuity and copious amounts of elbow grease.
Since moving to Brooklyn, though, I had suffered three years without a single pig roast.
"A Pig Roast or Bust - NYTimes.com
I have never heard of anyone back home home roasting a pig in the ground. I suspect that there would be many worries during the first attempt and that it would become the preferred pig preparation process. Who has the guts to try this with me?
There is a wonderful slideshow paired with the article.
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