Day Nineteen: Hot Springs, SD - Jay Em, WY - UWy Art Museum - Chimney Rock, NE - Scottsbluff, NE

It was a beautiful morning in Hot Springs, South Dakota


yes, they have bicyclists here in the middle of nowhere (except maybe "everywhere is somewhere")


I got up-close-and-personal with 4 pronghorn antelope - 1 male and 3 females. Hunting Season starts tomorrow in Wyoming, so I hope they scampered far far away!


I eventually arrived at Jay Em, Wyoming


and the woman running the Post Office couldn't have been nicer - she showed me a map of where John and Jane's place was - just up the road




Unfortunately, "just up the road" is 1/2 hour on unpaved roads (but beautiful country)


It was so windy, the tumbleweeds were getting caught in the barb wire fences


I eventually made it to their place


and Jane was happy to see me!


John and Jane are doing Great!, and John has a little work space out back


To make me into a real Wyominger, um, Wyomingite, um, Wyomingian ... someone who lives in Wyoming, they even had me shoot off 2 guns and a rifle (my eardrums recovered after a couple of hours)






On my way down to Laramie I saw a herd of pronghorn antelope - they are all over southeast Wyoming (which is nice)


the University of Wyoming Art Museum (Laramie, WY) has a lovely Bierstadt painting, one by Thomas Moran, plus some of his chromolithographs and sketches

"In The Tetons" by Albert Bierstadt


"Grand Canal, Venice" by Thomas Moran


"Cliffs of Colorado" by Thomas Moran (chromolithograph)


I got to Chimney Rock, Nebraska, just as the sun was setting ("who did the lighting?"). NOTE: I DID NOT IGNORE THE WARNING SIGNS






and the end to another great day


Monday, Sept. 30
Super 8, Hot Springs, SD
2 3/4 hours -- visit John & Jane, Jay Em, Wyoming
3 hours -- UWy Art Museum, Laramie, Wyoming
2 1/2 hours -- Chimney Rock National Historic Site, Nebraska
1/2 hour -- Super 8 Scottsbluff, Delta Dr, Scottsbluff, Nebraska

here is today's playlist:

soundtrack to Cocktail (with Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry, Be Happy)[or, as people from the Vineyard say, "Don't Worry, Be Chappy" which was on the Beach Club workers' t-shirts that summer of 1988]


The Beatles - Revolver [UK version]


The Beatles Revolver [Capitol Records version] [lyrics for "Got To Get You Into My Life" start off with

I was alone, I took a ride
I didn't know what I would find there]

Paul Simon - Rhythm of the Saints


Rod Stewart - Every Picture Tells A Story ["Maggie May" is my favorite running song - has been for 40 years]


Delaney & Bonnie & Friends - On Tour ["Poor Elijah – Tribute to Robert Johnson Medley" is my 2nd favorite running song][the Friends include Eric Clapton and Dave Mason]


The Cure - Galore


Steely Dan - Gaucho


Genesis - Genesis


Gettin' More Rowdy


The Police - Ghost in the Machine


It's my blog, so I get to be as hokey/sentimental as I want. These are the lyrics to "Tomorrow is a Long Time" (by Bob Dylan as sung by Rod Stewart on "Every Picture Tells A Story")[and they are, of course, for my lovely bride Wendy Cole Dixon]:

If today was not an endless highway
If tonight was not a crooked trail
If tomorrow wasn't such a long time
then lonesome would mean nothing to you at all

Ah but only if my own true love is waitin'
Yes and if I could hear her heart a softly poundin'
only if she were lying by me
would I rest in my bed once again

I can't see my reflection in the mirror
I can't speak the sounds that show no pain
I can't hear the echoes of my footsteps
and can't remember the sound of my own name

Ah but only if my own true love is waitin'
Yes and if I could hear her heart a softly poundin'
only if she were lying by me
would I rest in my bed once again

There's beauty in the silver singin' river
There's beauty in the sunlight in the sky
But none of these, and nothing else
can steal the beauty
that I remember in my true love's eyes

Ah but only if my own true love is waitin'
Yes and if I could hear her heart a softly poundin'
only if she were lying by me
would I rest in my bed once again