My Great American Road Trip – Part 2. South Dakota, Wyoming, Nebraska (and bonus Georgia)

It’s taken me a while to want to revisit this project. I knew I’d want to, and I knew that the way I’d want to is to go to all the places and eat the food that I’d made and see how well I did. It’s gonna take me a while, but here goes.

If I were a better writer I’d be able to sum up the crazy symbolism of the last little bit of my life and suss out what it means in the greater scheme of things (my things only – not cosmic things).

It’s only really happened once before that I’ve had a week that has been so filled with what should have been a metaphor for something if I was just clever enough to figure it out. That was in 2012, when in the course of one week I went from the the top of the world – Mount Everest – to the bottom of the ocean – scuba diving in the Bay of Thailand. And while I’ll never, ever scuba dive again, that was a very good week.

This week started with a dumpster fire at work. No really, a literal one. And somehow that very literal dumpster fire made any figurative dumpster fire going on in my life seem so not important anymore.

And with that cleansing fire, our school year ended and I had a brief, spontaneous week off. Granted to staff since the last few months have been rather stressful (google it). Since it was last minute and before Memorial Day, it was not the kind of trip you spend a lot of time planning, I decided to spend a few days in a corner of the country I’ve always wanted to visit, but isn’t really on a lot of my friends’ bucket lists. And while I was here, I would start revisiting the food of my Road Trip project.

First stop the historic and historically haunted Alex Johnson Hotel in Rapid City South Dakota. Here’s what I can tell you after 4 nights there – ghosts aren’t real.

Day one I hit the first round of hot spots – The Crazy Horse Memorial is epic in it’s scale and thrilling to see in person, though it is unlikely any of us will live to see a completed artwork.

The Needles Highway from Crazy Horse through Custer State Park was a spectacular winding road full of switch backs and treacherous drops. Custer State Park was glorious and, after a twisty drive and some turn offs to hike around beautiful lakes and along lovely paths, I suddenly found my car surrounded by bison. I was warned of course, there are signs everywhere saying stay in your car, and don’t approach, but there were none and there were none and there were none and then all of a sudden they were everywhere and it was amazing. As I was leaving the park, one popped up out of nowhere on the road ambling slowly towards my car, taking his sweet time. I could not have written it better.

Then I drove the very exciting Iron Mountain Road that takes you through several one lane tunnels that give some great sneak peaks of the stone heads before I got to the main event of the day – Mount Rushmore. Mock me all you will, but I’ve always wanted to see it. Now I have, I got the selfie and I don’t need to go back, but alongside Crazy Horse, Custer and the two great drives, it was a very fun day!

For dinner, it was time to see how I did in my cooking for South Dakota. I had to go back and look and I cooked something called chislic, which is basically fried meat. Interestingly for something I’d never heard of before, in my research on SD, I learned it was something you’d find at every bar or restaurant. My assessment was that it was tasty but a waste of steak. I was a little nervous I wouldn’t be able to find a place to order it, but indeed, it was on just about every menu. I picked a nice looking restaurant and ordered it with an old fashioned. I did mine slightly wrong. I did not dust mine with corn starch before frying it, which definitely made it better, but in the end, I hold to my initial assessment. It is a waste of good steak.

Day two and the chance to see the natural site I’ve most wanted to my whole life. I don’t know why – but I’ve always wanted to see Devil’s Tower, Wyoming. And now I have and it is even better than I expected. On the way I stopped at the exact mid-point of America, Belle Fourche, SD, and got a remarkably good cup of coffee in Aladdin, WY, population 15. Devil’s Tower is not what I expected, though I don’t know what I expected, but it is breathtaking. I did the 2 mile trek around the base (to climb on the tower requires a permit – and skill). From every angle I was in awe. I wanted to stay there forever and I did stay for far longer than made sense, but I was so overcome. On the way out, I passed a field full of prairie dogs and I had to stops and watch their antics for a while. It was all joy.

On the way home, I stopped in the tiny town of Sundance known for putting that one guy in jail and earning him his nickname (he’s from Philly y’all). In Sundance, I looked for a place to celebrate my Wyoming meal. I cooked bison for Wyoming. Having just had steak yesterday, I was not into having it again, but its all in the name of research. It was not quite dinner, not quite lunch, I couldn’t bring myself to have a full bison steak, so a bison burger it was. My assessment is the same as it was for the bison steak – I’d just as soon have cow.

On the way back to Rapid City, I made the obligatory stop in Deadwood. I’m not really into Frontier lore, and I never watched the HBO show, but at the risk of veering into inappropriate appropriation territory in the territory where its least appropriate to do so, the best thing about Deadwood was the chance to pay tribute to my spirit animal.

As I was planning day 3, I noticed how close I was to Nebraska, so I figured I had to add another state to my trip. I drove for hours in the Oglala Grasslands area of Nebraska and never saw anything. Not a car, not a person or a building. Nothing. I sometimes found myself driving 100 miles an hour, which is unlike me, but there was nothing out there and just road and I didn’t even notice. Just when I was bored with Nebraska and about to head back to SD, I saw a sign for CarHenge, and that seemed like a necessary hour and a half detour. And it was.

The detour brought me to a little town, and since it was close to lunch time, I figured I’d hit my Nebraska meal. It was another steak. I couldn’t eat a steak at lunchtime, so I ordered a ceasar salad with marinated steak. I asked about the marinate and it was basically the same as I used – worcestershire sauce, red pepper, and garlic. It was perfect. Honestly, my best meal of the trip.

From Nebraska, I visited the incredibly moving site of the Wounded Knee massacre and the beautiful Badlands National Park.

What an amazing, spontaneous few days seeing a part of this country which which I have no experience. I’m feel revitalized.

*** BONUS – A couple months ago, I went to Savannah, Georgia with my friend Gene. I got there the night before he arrived, so I figured I’d eat the meal I cooked for Georgia. Looking back, I kind of cheated and made pimento cheese, which I served with fried green tomatoes. At the very touristy Pirates Cove retaurant, which was near the hotel and low effort, I ordered fabulous crab soup, fried green tomatoes, and pimento cheese – turns out that is how one is meant to serve the FGTs in Georgia. I enjoyed them while the charming bartender regaled me with stories of Savannah’s haunted history. Two things I love – a charming bartender and haunted history, though, as mentioned above, ghosts aren’t real. And bartenders lose their charm, so but for the night it was fabulous. Also fabulous – Savannah. What a beautiful city.