Since this is my first diary, the usual pleas for mercy and mentoring apply. I was moved to report on my family's recent trip to South Dakota after reading a series of Daily Kos diaries alerting people to the emergency conditions caused by the blizzards and ice storms occurring this winter in the Dakotas. I hope my photos and narrative help in some small way to bring to readers a sense of the frigid landscape and the dangers people face when they lose access to utilities, transportation, and communication. I also hope to convey the wonder and beauty of the prairie and the capitol city, Pierre, in winter and shine a light on an independent bookstore and a couple of literary discoveries we made there.
I've followed the South Dakota diaries with interest since my family traveled across the Plains to visit our younger son in Pierre in late December and early January. We skirted the edges of a record-breaking blizzard to get there. I thought our Subaru Forester, Kirby Puckett, was going to blow off the highway in eastern Colorado (winds reported around 40 mph), but fortunately we encountered only intermittent puffs of blowing snow all the way to the border with Nebraska.
As we approached North Platte after dark, however, we encountered the tail end of a blizzard and could barely make our way with our suitcases from the hotel parking lot into the building. A pillow and blanket got loose from the hatchback in front of us, and my husband made a daring rescue as they quickly billowed away into the night. Once ensconced, we enjoyed watching (and hearing) the blizzard blow by as we relaxed in the hot tub inside the glass-enclosed pool room. Nevertheless, it was chilling to think about people stranded on the highway or in the countryside, having to endure such brutal weather conditions. This particular storm was reportedly one of the worst in decades, and there were more to come.
The next morning, the best information we could get suggested the road north was passable and the weather clearing, so we set out, only to be stalled at Valentine, Nebraska, where we learned from the locals that the road crews had not yet been able to clear the highway into South Dakota. Besides, we had missed the crucial piece of information that a section of I-90 was still closed, a 20-mile stretch necessary for us to reach our destination, so we were forced to spend another night in a motel.
It was early, so we explored the town a bit and shopped for a warm hat and a bottle of wine. We noticed a Walmart truck parked on a side street, apparently also stranded by the road closures. This truck became a small part of our story later on. One day, we will return to Cherry County to explore the Niobrara National Scenic River, two national wildlife refuges, and the beautiful Sandhills of Nebraska, which cover 19,000 square miles. Just then, it was enough to be inside a warm hotel with another inviting hot tub and travel brochures to peruse.
The following morning, a rancher who had just driven down from South Dakota arrived at the hotel with a positive report about the road conditions. He warned that there were a number of "finger drifts," but nothing too alarming, so we went on our way. Valentine is just south of the Rosebud Reservation. We played hopscotch all the way to Pierre with the Walmart truck as we drove through miles and miles of conditions such as these (and occasionally worse):
It snowed intermittently and the wind blew hard all the way across the Reservation. We saw little activity as we drove through the tiny town of Mission. The Walmart truck pulled into the gas station at Vivian as we were filling up. Nearby, an abandoned semi-trailer loaded with new cars was in a ditch just off the Interstate. We had heard of a fatality on I-90 the day before, and as the afternoon wore on, I began to sing sustaining songs. Finally, we reached the bridge over the great Missouri River, gateway to the city of Pierre (pronounced "peer"). Once in Pierre, the capitol of South Dakota, we were able to relax because the streets were plowed, and we saw no signs that the blizzard had damaged the infrastructure.
After a happy reunion with our son, we decided to stock up on groceries in case the blizzard circled back around. There are only a few grocery stores in Pierre, and the nearest one to our son's apartment is Walmart, so, tired of driving, we agreed to go there for supplies. There was hardly any fresh food in the produce section. Our son said the stores in town had been out of potatoes for days. The weather had been terrible for over a week, and even the capitol city was running low on staples! I wondered how people who didn't live near a grocery store were faring.
We had a lot of items to purchase for various reasons, so our shopping trip around the "superstore" took quite a while. As we were finally entering the check-out lane, a small cheer went up nearby! The produce section was being restocked, and once again, there were potatoes in the town! I began to think of the Walmart truck driver as some sort of intrepid folk hero: "Neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds."
The weather improved over the next several days, so we were able to enjoy the area and explore a bit, although it was breathtakingly cold outdoors. The city sits along the Missouri River, just below the huge Oahe Dam, officially dedicated by President John F. Kennedy in August of 1962. Below the dam, along the river, we saw waterfowl and a number of bald eagles, as well as a few other raptors and some ring-necked pheasants.
The Capitol building is beautiful whether viewed up close or from afar. Here is a shot taken at dusk from across an icy marsh:
The building was decked out for the holidays:
A veterans' war memorial stands among the vapors of a hot-springs-fed pond, next to the building. The warm water attracts many Canadian geese. The governor's mansion is on the other side of the lake. I doubt if he ran out of propane during the blizzard, but he might have been short on potatoes.
We are always thrilled to locate an independent book store wherever we travel, and the Prairie Pages in downtown Pierre did not let us down. We left with a sack full of books, some of which were recommended by the knowledgeable bookseller. We passed them around during the week, since we spent most of our evenings indoors reading. I laughed and cried my way through Jim Northrup's book, Walking the Rez Road. The blurb on the back cover reads: "Forty short stories and poems featuring Luke Warmwater as a central character. Luke is a Vietnam veteran who has survived the war but is 'having trouble / surviving the peace' on a reservation where everyone is broke and where the tribal government seems to work against the interests of the reservation folk. Throughout Walking the Rez Road, it is humor that holds the people and their community together." Jim Northrup is a masterful storyteller; I will look for more of his works.
Buffalo for the Broken Heart: Restoring Life to a Black Hills Ranch, by Dan O'Brien, was the 2009 selection for the One Book South Dakota program, sponsored by the South Dakota Humanities Council (http://www.sdhumanities.org/...). From the jacket cover: "For twenty years Dan O'Brien struggled to make ends meet on his cattle ranch in South Dakota. But when a neighbor invited him to lend a hand at the annual buffalo roundup, O'Brien was inspired to convert his own ranch, the Broken Heart, to buffalo...a tender account of the buffaloes' first seasons on the ranch and an engaging lesson in wildlife ecology."
One morning when our sons were still asleep, my husband and I decided to go birding. Who cares if it's five below? It's sunny, our car is warm and reliable, and we have a good lead: Someone has posted enticing information about the possibility of seeing raptors galore on the nearby Fort Pierre National Grasslands (South Dakota Birds and Birding) so off we went. We read that "gyrfalcons can often be found in this general vicinity in the winter. Other raptors are commonly found in the area, especially the ever-present winter Rough-legged Hawks. Keep an eye out on the fence posts and telephone poles in this area. Also note the schoolhouse itself has a chimney, which often seems to have a raptor sitting on top of it. On that one chimney, I have seen Gyrfalcons, Prairie Falcons, Golden Eagles, Rough-legged Hawks, and Ferruginous Hawks."
Here is what we saw instead:
We were amused to find streets signs at a deserted "intersection":
Here's the chimney with no raptor on it!
You can imagine this road in a blizzard!
What if you ran out of propane or needed to get to the clinic?
The Missouri River divides Pierre to the east from Ft. Pierre to the west and marks the boundary between the Central and the Mountain time zones. All the bars in these two cities close at 2:00 a.m. We accompanied our two sons to the Longbranch Restaurant and Bar to ring in the New Year. Adults from several generations were greatly enjoying themselves when it came time to close. We were ready to go home, but the younger crowd were preparing to head over to Ft. Pierre to continue partying, in the other time zone, where they still had another hour left until closing time!
Here's the view on the street outside the Longbranch just into the New Year. There's no milling around when it's 2 degrees out!
Traveling across three states and back during and after (and back into) record snowstorms may not seem like the ideal vacation, but our experiences were powerful and enriching. They also gave us a window into the dire conditions people might face when confronted by such austere and damaging winter weather.