Installment Two

I'm going to try and fit this one in before a trip to my very first county fair. I have been fearlessly calling everyone I meet and like at all and asking them to do things with me, it's been working so far. Some of these lucky phone call recepients are the people who saved me from certain death in Kennebec last weekend. They were in Rapid City (the city in the western half of the state) for Pride Weekend last week. I know, exciting! The gay community in South Dakota is really building their infrastructure for political organizing. Possibly because of Amendment C, which proposes banning not just gay marriage, but all civil unions and recognition of any relationship that is not marriage. People in SoDak are not taken by the proposal, and it looks like it won't pass. It is similar in principle to the whole banning abortion even in cases of rape and incest thing, people here are not thrilled about abortion or gays, but they are also not chomping at the bit to take away people's individual rights. It is also interesting that the Amendment C slogan is "neighbors don't discriminate." But I digress...

When my friends picked me up on the gravel driveway outside my motel room I was very excited. They felt really bad for me so agreed to stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchell. I don't know if you've ever heard of "the world's only corn palace" but it is a sight to see! Well, sort of, I mean half a million people see it every year, but I don't know that I would go out of my way. Basically one of the town's founders realized that there was nothing attracting people to Mitchell and not enough people for the town to prosper on its own, so he decided to construct the first corn palace. This is just a building (with a basketball court inside) that is decorated with panels of murals that are made out of corn. Each year a new theme is chosen (this years' is Salute to Rodeo). It turns out that was also the theme in 1995. There are not many themes that can be represented in corn that also have to do with the state of South Dakota. I guess Lewis and Clark can't be celebrated all the time.

When we got back to Vermillion I picked up Allison Higganbotham in the HyVee parking lot. My second visitor! She was also pretty horrified at the prospect of me living here for a whole year, but I am feeling better about it every day. Especially because I realized that I'm almost done with month one, hopefully the most boring month of the year because I have had very little to do and no one is around and I knew no one.

I guess the second part of my journey wasn't as interesting as the first, and certainly neither part is as interesting as what could have been had the car not broken down and I had been able to go out to Bear Butte. I heard from someone who had driven out to Sturgis that the bikers by and large were not going to the bar which just opened closest to the Butte. This means that the protesters actually were raising awareness and making the difference they were trying to make. Hearing about it made me happy, but also really frustrated because it is so rare to be able to take part in a movement that actually makes a tangible difference fairly immediately. Ah well, I still have a chance. I did register to vote in South Dakota, so technically my vote will count more this year then in any other year. Also, I get to vote in a booth! Enough about that, off to see some hogs.