Daniel Cann

We arrived at Rapid City just after 11am. Mike was there to meet us, his ever-present baseball cap and glasses on. ‘How’s it going gents?’ He asked in his relaxed Mid Western drawl. ‘Good thanks Mike! Thanks for this.’ I replied. ‘No problem.’ A wonderful sentiment that I frequently heard from American’s if you were a friend or someone they knew.

We loaded our heavy backpacks into the boot of his four-wheel drive and set off. So it was the ‘Byron Boys Reunion!’ We caught up on our lives since the few months since we last saw each other. Mike was working in construction and supply and back into the swing of things in the ‘real world.’ He had taken some time off work to accommodate us.

Ben and I were very tired from our long overnight journey. How he had managed to do five in a row (from South America) I will never know. Once back at Mike’s place, which had a nice rustic, log cabin feel to it we opened a few beers and talked. It was an early night for Ben and I we were that tired. Mike said he would take us to see Mount Rushmore the next day remembering a conversation with me that I had drawn a picture of it as a nine-year-old boy and had always wanted to see the real thing.

So, early the next day the three of us headed to the famous granite landmark carved and blasted into the rock by Gutzon Borglum (nice name!) between 1927 and 1941. Two million tons of rock was blasted from the mountainside to accommodate the statue. Remarkably there were no deaths or injuries during this hazardous undertaking. Looking up from the ground below it was a truly awe-inspiring site. Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln all stared impassively down at us. We stood and looked at it for a long time.

‘I wonder if we will ever build something like this with John, Paul, George and Ringo?’ I asked breaking the silence.

Mike laughed (thankfully) and we walked around the park for a while, enjoying the fresh air and the tranquillity of an early morning with hardly any other visitors.

Mike explained that the statue did not go down too well with the local Native American population and as a response and as an act of conciliation there was a statue of Chief Crazy Horse ‘The Crazy Horse Memorial’ under construction. Work on it had begun in 1948 and when completed it would be the largest sculpture in the World.

Mike was the perfect guide. He was fond of his area although he dubbed Rapid City, ‘Rancid City.’ He loved the black hills and the Badlands and knew an awful lot about the Native American culture and beliefs. As a boy he had grown up among some Native Americans and knew their ways and culture. I was fascinated by all of this as it was interesting to hear the other side as well as having a lot of ‘White’ American history debunked.

Mike had no love for General George Armstrong Custer and his Seventh cavalry for example, who famously met his last stand near where we were at the ‘Battle of Little Big Horn.’ He was a homicidal shameless self-promoter in Mike’s opinion and I respected that.

Afterwards we went for a drive in the National Park and the South Dakotan countryside my head full of images of Sioux warriors. Mike was an Irish-American and he played Irish folk music and some Dixieland jazz as we drove by. It made a change to the usual stuff I listened to! Trees and rock were the main features of the landscape, at one point Mike and I spotted a wild deer running right across the dirt track in the wooded area we were driving through. It was an amazing and unforgettable sight, seeing something wild and free so close. Luckily we did not hit it!

We saw the ‘Needles’ a group of vertical rocks that looked like stalagmites and the impressive Sylvan Lake. I felt I had really hit the jackpot with Mike as he was showing us things we would never have found by ourselves. His knowledge of this area and the culture was extensive and impressive. I found myself listening more and talking less.

The next day was equally rewarding as Mike took us to see the Badlands. The lunar type landscape was like it was from another planet. I felt as if we had walked onto the set of a ‘Star Trek’ episode and it was in fact later used as the backdrop for the movie ‘Starship Troopers.’ You didn’t need drugs out here I thought! The place was so unusual and unique. We went fossil hunting and after a while we were rewarded with the remains of a turtle. The area was rich in minerals and Jurassic artefacts Mike explained.

South Dakota was throwing up lots of surprises and fascinating new finds and facts. It also helped being out in the peaceful fresh air every day. Time and schedules simply did not matter out here and for the first time on the trip I really felt myself relaxing and my fears and worries evaporating. We all seemed so small and insignificant out here. Nature is much bigger than us. We are mere ants making our temporary nests on the earth’s surface. Everything I was walking on would be here long after we have departed this World and I took a strange comfort in that.

The following day poor Mike seemed a little tired and run down from being a guide and explained that he had a cold so Ben and I decided to let him get some rest while we headed into Rapid City.

It was a pleasant enough place with the feeling of a country town rather than a cosmopolitan city. It was a lot more bustling than what we had been used to the last few days but it was still quiet in comparison to most of the other cities in the World we had visited. In fact these surroundings were perfect for Ben and I to reconnect. We had a big breakfast at a diner and over some coffees we talked about the trip and our hopes for the future. He seemed to recapture a lot of his old form, which was great to see. He had seemed a little jaded and shell-shocked for a while. It was good to see him laughing and joking and back to his old self.

Afterwards we visited the Prehistoric National Museum that boasted the imposing sight of a T-Rex among other exhibits like the sea creatures. I had discovered that there was a lot more to South Dakota than settlers and Native Americans! On the way back into downtown Rapid City we witnessed a bad fire on Main Street. Watching the news later that day we learned that it was one of the worst to ever hit the city. It had destroyed a quarter of a block, at least six buildings would have to be demolished and then rebuilt!

Ben and I joked that one of us must have been the Anti-Christ as so far on the trip we had been witness to the following: Hong Kong – a building on fire; Uluru – a tourist had died; Cairns – sunstroke victims; the Canberra to Melbourne road – overturned burning lorry; Queenstown – rock jump accident; California – a religious cults mass suicide and several freeway accidents and collisions; Mexico City – a volcano had erupted four times; Boulder – three days of rioting and now this fire at Rapid City!

Trouble just seemed to follow us around! Or so it seemed in our young overactive imaginations!

That evening Mike’s brother Dan visited. Unlike Mike he was a tall mountain of a man with a thick moustache broad shoulders and shovel-like hands. Not surprisingly he worked in construction and was the quintessential ‘Alpha Male.’ Fortunately for us he was also a gentle giant with a thirst for knowledge, a quick wit and a lot of intelligence. He just seemed to enjoy his job and told me ‘Corporate America sucks!’

He seemed quite happy and content with his lot and Ben and I warmed to him very quickly.

Our last evening with Mike passed pleasantly with plenty of beers and banter. Mike and Dan were working on a book project about Stonehenge in Salisbury, Wiltshire. Both men and their knowledge fascinated me. Although highly intelligent they were both still ‘regular’ people with no airs, graces or arrogance about them. It was all very refreshing. I reflected later that night that I had been very lucky indeed to meet such fascinating individuals and to see such an amazing place. We would be hitting the road again the next day.