It was a great pleasure meeting y’all, C-Cat, Defconw, Cibco, AZLiberty and the wonderful non-freeper (so far) aunt. I enjoyed the meal, and most definitely enjoyed the company.
A very interesting array of people with some, I’m sure, compelling life stories among the group. We all have our own histories, our own way of arriving here, but we all share the common goals of maintaining freedom, seeing TRUE justice being served, and mostly just getting the government out of the way to the greatest extent possible.
I have to speak about the area - if you haven’t been to southwest South Dakota, put it on your list of good things to do. I arrived a couple of days prior to anybody else and just toured free-style. In my travels, I visited a couple of sites that I highly recommend. Badlands National Park is just amazing. After I get home, I’ll find my picture hosting site and put up a couple of photographs of the wonderful natural beauty that exists there.
One note about Badlands, and just about any attraction really - crowds are very, very small in the very early hours. We were blessed (cursed?) with an extremely early sunrise, something like 05:15 Mountain Daylight Savings Time, and that allowed me to get to the park at 6:30 AM, long before it started getting crowded. It also allows some photography when the sun was low in the sky, the coveted “golden hour” as the real photogs like to call it.
Mount Rushmore is, of course, a man-made “facelift” on a great natural site. It is worth seeing, though I recommend a couple of different time frames for the ideal visit. Early morning, prior to 9 or 10 AM or so gives you very good light on the faces. Too early and Lincoln’s shadow hides Roosevelt, but late in the afternoon, you get the sun working its way around to the left side and eventually behind the monument. Morning also affords the smallest crowds.
The other time to visit Mount Rushmore is near nightfall when they do the lighting ceremony and then turn on the lighting that highlights the 4 presidents against a dark background. This is quite picturesque and really stands out when viewed between the also-lit state flags on the walkway leading to the monument viewing area and amphitheater. The ceremony was very positive, patriotic, and uplifting, and included singing of the national anthem, and the recognition of people in the audience from all branches of the military.
I didn’t have time to stop, but the drive through Deadwood, where C-Cat was staying, showed a very, very vibrant tourist town. The small town atmosphere was coupled with an enormous number of visitors. Sidewalks were crowded with people. They really ought to consider renaming the town “Livewood” because the place is definitely alive.
Today’s my last day in town - I’ll be packing, doing a little important shopping (picking up some local beers that I want to take home), and dining one more time with AZLiberty (who himself has a fascinating background). To say that I’ve enjoyed this trip is an understatement. Even with a smaller group of FreeQs, it was worthwhile.
If we decide to do another meetup in the future, as C-Cat suggests, I would say that it would be a very positive experience.
Freegards,
Meyer
I am very glad to have met you fellow Freepers. I look forward to the next time when I might be able to talk to everyone. ‘Til then - cibco
It was wonderful to meet you all and put names with faces. I would totally love to have another meet up one day.
Yes, it was really great meeting everyone. Hopefully things will improve in the world and more people can make it next year because such things as car rental fees will be more reasonable.
I still have a few days before I am back in Ohio.
We had to spend yesterday trying to get my aunt some emergency medication since hers was left in our room. That took a while to sort out with the dingbats who work at the call center of the pharmacy benefits provider. The pharmacists at a couple of the big chains that have branches here have been helpful as have the staff at the hotels.
Deadwood, however, apparently has very limited FedEx and UPS pickups.
I’m pretty exhausted and have miles to go, literally, before I can get a good sleep. I should go to bed soon. I probably won’t be able to post any kind of lengthy report on my travels until after I have slept in my own bed a couple of nights.
I don’t know about you, but one thing that haunts me is the masking of the little kids I saw at Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and the other tourist hot spots.
While the vast majority of people are not masked, there were an uncomfortably high number of kids under 12 who were. The signs said the unvaccinated should be masked and kids under 12 can’t be vaccinated. I don’t know how many parents thought they would be stopped or get in trouble if their kids, who are and clearly look to be ages 4-11, weren’t in masks. There were kids in that age group who were not masked, but I would say half were masked.
In only a few instances were others in the family masked.
If I believed I could “get in trouble” for not making my kid wear a mask, I think I would have the whole family wear a mask because it would suck for my one kid to be the only one to not get to breathe the free air.
(Of course, upon seeing other kids the same age not in masks, I would de-mask everyone.)
I would really be afraid of the neurosis that could develop in my kid if he or she had to spend the family vacation un-masked when the rest of the family got to be mask-free. What kind of resentment could that cause in a child?
And the family photos! I saw families taking pictures where the one kid was masked for their photos!