ADVENTURER’S LOG: EARTH CYCLE 17 - TUESDAY #1702

DEADWOOD, SOUTH DAKOTA

Where they have not one, but two hotels where Wild Bill Hickok was shot dead.

Last night in whatever town we were in, the hotel was very serious about protecting their TV's...

 That's a chain and padlock.

This is a screaming naked lady...

 And to think, that woman used to do things that would make a porn star blush...and do them well.

Now let me tell you a little story. In the South, there is much to do. When growing up we children spent a lot of time standing beside the highway waiting for a semi to pass. Big truck have air horns that are activated by a cord running above the driver's head. To get him to blow the air horn, you simply mimicked his movement.
Friendly army man will illustrate...

Well, during this trip, my wife has attempted to get passing trucks to blow their horns with this hand gesture...

Which is, I think we can all agree, the international symbol for a handjob. I saw no good reason to correct her.

Upon departure this morning, we got directly on one of our beloved backroads...

Some of the counties we entered had a drive thru guest register and when we left there was a sign asking us to close the gate.
Seriously, at the few, very few stores we came to, the gas was $5 a gallon and candy bars were $2.50.
There was so much construction that I figure it cost us at least an hour on our ETA...

 I was once the first car in line, as I was during this photo, but the man was standing in the middle of the road. I looked at the man and said, "I want your job!" (meaning that it looked very easy to do), whereupon he ripped off his vest and threw it through my window, then began to jam the stop sign in with a "You can have this fucking job!"

Not that I'm complaining, but every mile of the first 170 looked just like the others. I didn't care. But the first place I found to pull off, I tagged the fence...

With "Spoon Number 132"...

And there is more fencing than you can imagine...

 Spoon Number 132 will be, by far, the most difficult tag to locate...like a needle in a haystack...and I fucked up photographing the Garmin...sorry...

 But it's about 5 miles outside of Rawlins, Wyoming on Highway 287 north...on the right....can't miss it...it's the only fence post with a large spoon on it.

 After a few hours we hit the mountains. These are views of the road that led us there...

When we pulled over to take the images above I saw this. Some people, and by the depth of the path there were many, climb over the guard rail and go out on that jutting  rock...

 The drop off is about 9 million feet.

Saw this on the ride into Deadwood, South Dakota. I can only assume the white rock on the top is more resistant to erosion than the red rocks below it. But what I found interesting is the thick carpet of grass on the very top...

So after a very long drive today (seven hours) we arrived here. It is posh as shit, not that expensive and they give us free shit...and it's a smoking room (more about that later).

We have our room booked for two days to rest up before our trek homeward.
And here's the view out of our 4th floor picture window...

Also, their pamphlet says that there are massages available for all your tensions....ALL....mmmmmmm.

My wife asked for a condiment and the waitress spelled it: horesraddish. I guess that explains the waitress job.

There was a fancy pull off labeled: Animal Viewing Area. We pulled in and sat there waiting, feeling very much like the first disappointed visitors to Jurassic Park.

I know I'm an old man, but it concerns me that young people aren't more concerned about the freedoms that are being chiseled away every day...

I guess it's because they have never known anything different than the government controlling so much of their lives.

My first job in the classroom I wore blue jeans and was told that blue jeans were not allowed. I could wear black jeans or corduroy jeans, just not blue, blue jeans. I, of course, asked why and was told that a few years prior they had some teachers who wore skin-tight blue jeans with slashes in them and that caused the ban.
I asked, "Why didn't you just ban skin-tight blue jeans with slashes?"
I was told that the decission had been made and I was expected to follow the rules.

Which brings me to smoking in motel rooms.

Personally, I think the whole smoking/non-smoking debate could be settled by the free market. If you don't like smoke filed bars, then don't go to smoke filled bars. If the owner suffers from loss of clientele, then he may choose to ban the evil weed. Or better fucking yet, why don't you, as a non-smoker, open you own goddamn bar and invite all your little non-smoking buddies.
But with smoking only motel rooms, I'm not ever going to subject non-smokers to my vile fumes. I assume here that the laws of physics still apply and a smoke particle can't penetrate a concrete block wall unassisted.
But it seems that in this country today, the only remedy for any problem is to lobby the government to ban something, like we are children in need of supervision.
You hate smoke? Fine. Go somewhere that is free of it. Problem solved.

Very strange image...

I heard somewhere that the black hole in the middle of the Milky Way is only .5% the mass of the rest of the galaxy.
Could that be true?


Took me a minute to figure out what was going on...

"Why is gay marriage even an issue?"
  "Because people are fucking assholes."
(read that again...or maybe twice, to get it)

This thing has a false head to fool predators...

For every Trayvon Martin story I think there are dozens of these that go unreported. Shame, that...

My La-Z-Boy is a magical place where I suddenly remember everything I was supposed to do.

This is the toolbox on the International Space Station...

My wife confessed today that when she gets home she thinks she's going to start breeding poison fart frogs.
Should I start worrying?

Look very carefully...

I once told my boss that three companies were after me and I needed a raise to stay at my present job. He asked me which three companies and I said, "Gas, electric and cable."

I can't stand people who are intolerant!

Well, I guess that depends on how well-armed the trespassers are.

It's Charles Lindbergh playing "airplane" with his wife, Anne....

(not really)

Photos like these never cease to amaze and sadden me...

Rather nice way to look at it..

You know it's going to be a bad day when you put your pants on backwards and they fit better.

Life teaches us to get back up after countless falls...then someone invented Tequila.

Brunch without a screwdriver or a bloody Mary is just a late lunch.

Got this comment about the pile of sand grains...

Regarding the pyramids...

the property of a granular mixture to be poured and maintain a certain shape is called its "angle of repose". This is utilized quite often in the pharmaceutical industry when formulating powders for tablet manufacturing. Certain additives will make the formulation more or less slippery, allowing it to be most suitable for pouring into the tablet press. When poured onto a flat surface, the mixture will form a cone in which the angle of the sides can be measured against the horizontal plane on which it is poured....the angle of repose.

(I always thought the angle of repose refers to how far back I lean in my recliner when I take a nap.) 

[that is how you steal a joke like a pro, BW]

THE BABY: So apparently, the whole world has been waiting to see what would pop out of this woman's vagina.

My ancestors found a whole revolution so I don't have to give a shit.
But the queen seems to be taking it all in stride...