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Monday August 10th Drove the rest of the way across Minnesota, nothing but corn, cattle and bales of hay. I stopped at a grocery store in a small town, as soon as I stopped in the parking lot a police car literally circled around my van. Signs in the parking lot warned that officers are authorized to ask anyone to leave for any reason and that the parking lot was for customers only. The policeman watched me intently as I walked into the store. When I came out a few minutes later, there was a warning notice that my vehicle would be towed if not moved within the hour. Strong messages here I left town quickly... As I continued down the highway I could only imagine how beautiful this area was, before fences, billboards and the eradication of the brother bison. My Native American brothers had good reason to love this land. Good thing the speed limit is 75 mph out here... However I did get followed by an unmarked police car on the interstate for over an hour, coincidence? I hope so... Due to police pushing and the lack of things to do in Minnesota I arrived in Souix falls, S.D. a full day early. I looked around awhile and decided if I didn't want to spend money I needed to go hiking. I was thinking that in the past few days as I hiked around the midwest, I hadn't seen anything akin to ditch weed. I decided hey since I'm in the midwest why don't I go look for some of that ditch weed that the DEA is so worried about. I drove out to the rural area and began my search... Only took about five minutes to find some, monster six foot plants with fully developed buds intermixed with wild asparagus and sunflowers. I picked a few buds to test Darkside's ditch weed theory. I then checked around and yes at least in South Dakota there is plenty of ditch weed, if you look for it. In one place I saw what appeared to be a small field of ditch weed, while I was snapping some photos a pickup truck came flying up and a man began yelling at me. I left rather quickly, either that farmer who then took chase after me knows that the DEA can take his entire farm or perhaps it wasn't ditchweed... What really bothers me about this ditch weed situation and the DEA is why it's called ditch weed and where it is. The ditch weed I saw was in the ditches right next to crops like sweet corn. The DEA sprays from helicopters. Are those nearby crops in danger? I would think so! Also since they are growing in ditches, which lead to creeks and rivers isn't the nearby water being put at risk? Lastly I noticed while driving around that at 40 MPH or faster there are several weeds that look like marijuana. How fast does a helicopter need to be moving to stay aloft? Are farmers warned that their crops, which could be for human or cattle feed, have been possibly poisoned? I devised a method for drying tomorrow I get to try ditch weed...
August 11th Got up early tried the ditchweed, Darkside is right , you don't get stoned but you do get high. I taped a number of my "business cards" to the side of the mobile unit and then I spent the day checking out the Souix Empire Fair. This was likely the best fair I have ever attended, lots of rides, too much food, plenty of things to do. I won ten dollars playing Bingo !!! I was going to attend the Sawyer Brown Concert, but as much as I like country music I decided to allocate the funds to seeing Foreigner on Wednesday. I thought perhaps I could get my old buddy Lou to let me address the crowd. I hung around until the fair shut down for the night, then smoked a little more of that ditchweed. While I am impressed, I realize my tolerance is down after being ten days without the sacred herb...
But this does put some things into focus, like the source of those low THC statistics. When I was in college I had a neighbor named Rick. He told me he had financed a great deal of his education while in Chicago. by making fall trips to Indiana. He said they would fill his van up with ditch weed and take it down to the inner city and sell the plants whole for $20 dollars a piece. I am sure that some of these inner city folks walking down the street dragging six foot tall pot plants got busted and contributed to those Statistics. I asked Rick if he felt guilty selling pot with no buzz and he said they only picked females and they did have a kick, more so in the buds than the leaves...August 12th Woke up sick (fair food?) so I called in sick for the day. That is to say I split my time between bed and the bathroom. I recovered pretty much by show time, so it was off for an evening of fun and music. The opening band was called the fireflies, their friends the glow worms joined them for a couple of songs. they were pretty good did originals plugged their "CD" and warmed the crowd up for the spectacular show to follow. I tried to get back stage but security would have nothing of it. When Foreigner came out I couldn't believe how much Lou Graham had aged. His boyish looks were long gone. His curly blond hair certainly has a touch of gray now. Still he put on a good show for an old hippie. I got to dance with three bikini babes and met a girl that said she had gotten to party with the band the night before. I tried to talk to Lou after the show same problem as before the show damn security folks wouldn't even give him a note...Having spent half the day in bed. I decided to drive most of the night, managed about an hour...
Thursday August 13th I spent the day driving across South Dakota, like Minnesota nothing but bales of hay and a few cattle, one large group was trying to huddle behind a billboard. They seem to have a fascination in South Dakota for giant statues of animals I saw Buffalo, cows and prairie dogs the size of dump trucks. There were billboards every few miles for something called Wall Drug. Half way between nowhere and nowhere, Wall Drug turned out to be a drug store in a place called Wall, it was part drug store part museum, sort of like Walmart meets the old west. It was an interesting and fascinating tourist trap that I almost passed by because of those damn irritating signs. There are two restaurants, a video game room, and lots of coin operated old west displays. The place was full of pictures of Indians, stuffed buffalo, stuffed bears and more jackalopes than I ever seen anywhere. Too bad all this history represented here is gone... too bad the Genuine Indian Art Replica's say made in Singapore on the bottoms. I wondered why hasn't anyone come down on them for their choice of name, doesn't their name alone send mixed messages? Shouldn't they change the name to wall museum and souvenir store...
As I continued across this desert like landscape I past by the famous Badlands. I saw a lot more hay, I also saw bill boards supporting the fur industry, they said things like, wear fur trapping controls the wildlife populations and wear fur, it's our economy at stake. I was wondering what kind of fur do you get from cattle? Because they are the only animals, I've seen around here...
When I reached Mount Rushmore it was early afternoon. I managed to get my van into a rather small parking space and when I got out a young man. stepped up to me and said man you are amazing. I thought perhaps he was a web station fan... but he was impressed by the parking job. He said he had tried that space and couldn't get in. I asked what he was driving and he pointed to a Toyota. I laughed and told him not to worry because I used to drive truck...
The other side...
Rushmore was cool, too bad someone defaced those wonderful mountains by carving faces on them.
Later in the afternoon I did some hiking in Wyoming.
Where I saw my first wild cactus. I also saw some mushrooms growing in cattle dung. But no I'm not that adventuresome or brave.
Drove for a while and stopped at a couple rest area's where my van drew some attention.
I spoke with several individuals about hemp and related issues.
