Tom McDonnell

We left Sturgis and went to Wall Drug, a famous landmark in the middle of nowhere. It seems the proprietors of Wall Drug posted highway signs offering free ice water and in the hot, dusty, pre air conditioned days of the 1930s, this was a real treat for thirsty travelers. Over the years the business expanded to consume city blocks. All because of a roadside sign campaign that has expanded to humorous proportions. That's good marketing. Read the history here http://www.walldrug.com/t-history.aspx

We visited the store(s), did our laundry, and went to bed.

This morning, we got up and had the nicest experience at breakfast. I'll tell a very short story first about Anna Brown.

We met Anna in 1991 while traveling in Casper Wyoming and by coincidence settled in Naples around the same time as she in 1994. Anna was the ultimate people person and always tried to instigate friendships. After her husband Dick died, she found herself eating by herself often and resolved that single people should never have to eat alone. To that end she would invite any loner she saw in a restaurant to join her to share a meal, conversation, and friendship. She was amazing. After several years of this practice, she told us that she had improved the quality of both her dining experience and that of the people she met and made some very nice friends allong the way. Theresa and I have taken up the practice and have improved many a meal by occasionally adopting a lonely single in a restaurant. It's one of those random acts of kindness that seems to work to benefit all involved.

Today, as we were eating breakfast a older gentleman came in and sat near us. Theresa and I remembered Anna and broke the ice with some friendly questions. We noticed the waitresses fawning over the man and we were told by our server that he was a local of 98 years who ate there every day. We started talking and soon found ourselves adopted by this man who had the same friend magnet skills of Anna Brown! After a few minutes of conversation he offered to show us around the town and country side if we had the time. Wow! We'd make time for that! We went back to the hotel, packed, checked out and drove to his modest downtown home.

Tom McDonnell was born near Wall, South Dakota in 1911 and has been working in the area ever since. He and his wife, who died 8 years ago, farmed homesteaded land and prospered. He passed his holding on to a nephew some years back and now enjoys bulldozing the land with his Caterpillar D-7. At 98 he still works, when not rained out like today, and loves it. Steven, his nephew, has done well with the farm(s). Tom drove us around and like a proud father showed us the 5,000 acres of spring wheat, then the 8,000 acres of corn. The cultivated tracts are so large and numerous, I had the feeling that the size of the whole enterprise might be a little smaller than Washington, D.C.! Then we saw the huge farm buildings and machines, most looked new as it is Steven's policy to sell them after three years and buy new tools. He had three, state of the art combines with air conditioned, GPS equipped cabs, and front end tools that are 36 feet wide. Together, they harvest an amazing 100+ foot swath of corn, beans, or wheat at 10 miles per hour! The family kids, drive huge track driven tractors with 1,000 bushel trailers to return the product to the grain elevators where is is stored for market. The scale of the operation was breathtaking. The machines are so large and efficient, they can manage these huge, multi square mile tracts of corn or grain with just a few employees outside the hard working family.

Tom showed us dams he had bulldozed into existence to allow for water retention and to give passage over streams. One large one took him two months to build with his Caterpillar and it stands firm today. He finished that project in 1948, the year I turned one. We drove from farm to farm, learning about wheat, corn, beans, combines, tractors, silos, people, history, we could not have had a better teacher. It was one of the best days of our trip. As Tom returned us to his house so we could beat the rains into the badlands, he talked about his father who's policy was to, "be a friend to man". He talked about how his dad would keep a place for people to stay if they needed a hand. I think he, his kin, and Anna Brown were all cut from the same cloth. We feel like friends after only a few hours. We said our goodbyes, mounted the Honda, and left him so he could go visit with his twin brother. Great genes in that family!

The Blackberry Storm cell phone is Internet capable and with it, I check weather radar. An ominous red spot on my screen was moving toward the Badlands National Park, our next destination, so we made a hasty dash to beat the rain. The park contains an amazing variety of land shapes, geology, fossils, animals, and tourists. We stopped at the first overlook to see why they call it the Badlands and the scene said it all. The terrain is so convoluted, bumpy, craggy, dry, rocky, crevassed, and tortured that farming would be impossible. Heck, walking is almost impossible. Hats off to the poor guys who build the park roads, overlooks, and visitor's center. This terrain is tough!

In the distance, a super cell thunderstorm was looking like a tornado maker. A dark conical finger pointed groundward from the leading edge of the huge cloud. It kept changing shape implying the violence of its winds. I figured we could keep ahead of it so we began the hour long trip on the park's loop through the badlands. On the map, it looked like a pretty straight road, so I figured I could stay well ahead of the storm; not exactly correct on that one. The sky overhead became dark. I don't know if it was a new cloud forming above, or if the huge super cell storm was catching us. Every time we rounded a turn and got on high ground, we checked the progress of the cloud. Was it a tornado yet? Apprehensive after Friday's encounter with killer hail, I had new found respect for South Dakota weather and decided to make a 20 mile dash for the visitor's center. We made it. Slightly wet but safe, we arrived just in time for an excellent movie in the center's comfortable theater. When we came out, the rain had passed leaving us with beautiful skys, rainbows, chirping birds, hopping bunnies, etc. We rode another 50 miles to find a nice hotel, a rib eye steak, and rest. It was a great day.

Instigated by a previous post, there seems to be some controversy about whether jackalopes are real or fake. Allow me to contribute a little information. I have never seen a live one, but I have been assured by two of the blog readers that they have. I have however, discovered that there are some crude children's stuffed jackalope toys which may have contributed to the impression that jackalopes are not real. Please, do not fall for it. These are obvious fakes and only the most gullible would be fooled by them.

A real stuffed jackalope would look like the one below.

I know, some of you will say they are fake like some ladies breasts. But I say, if I can touch them, they're real, and I petted that stuffed jackalope. It felt like real fur and real horns. I realize the glass eyes were a taxidermical necessity, but I found it to be strong evidence in favor of existence of the jackalope. I may use my camera to hunt one down tomorrow.