i’m writing this on the road. the I-85 to be precise. somewhere between Montgomery, Alabama and Atlanta, Georgia. the last ten days have been a whirl, so writing this in the car, with beth driving and gillian welch singing makes sense to me. i feel like i’ve been living in a perpetual state of en route, which beats ennui, but is still a frustrating state of affairs. ten days ago i woke up in Hill City, South Dakota; a one-horse town in the black hills. we had hired a cabin in the snow and in it spent six days of bliss. i skied and beth snowboarded at Terry Peak for two days, we visited mount rushmore, drove a wildlife loop where we saw buffalo, deer, turkeys, antelope, goats, donkeys, horses. best of all, we stayed home: cooked steak, drank wine, read by the fire.
new year’s eve found us in Chute Rooster’s, the one establishment – if it indeed merits that title –we had driven past daily swearing we would never darken the door; the one establishment serving food in Hill City to two hungry creatures tired from another day on the slopes. upon entering we became the sudden focus of attention by virtue of the fact that we weren’t sporting mullets and after hearing the list of beers on tap –‘We got Bud, Bud Lite, Coors, Coors Lite and Miller. Oh…and Miller Lite’ – we won the drunken heart of the bartender, who invited us to go behind the bar to choose our beer. two swigs of Moose Drool later and we were happy customers. despite the earnest persuasions of a broad shouldered waiter named brad to stay for the karaoke and free breakfast served at midnight, we politely declined and returned to our fireside.
despite the mullet count, Hill City ain’t too far from sophistication, and we were glad to do a little wine tasting and drinking at the Prairie Berry Winery a few days later. we also had a fabulous meal in an italian restaurant in rapid city, where the world got smaller and we shared a table with the infamous will of Arizonan fame. and his cousin and his brother and his four friends! unexpected company in the black hill resulted in dinner table loveliness, laughter and a private resolution to watch more monty python and hugh and laurie. and all through the power of facebook!
there has been all the inbetween bits too. the endless miles, the drinking mountain dew, the eating caramels, the silliness, the singing, the playing of the egg shaker, the composition of jingles for various services advertised on the interstate, dodgy gas stations restrooms, the dodgy gas station coffee, dodgy gas station doughnuts that look like doughnuts but taste all cakey and chemically, the daydreaming, the map reading, the arm punching, the rediscovery of songs you forgot you loved with the shuffle setting, the talking about life, love and the universe, the downtown houston traffic, the giggling, the weird car smell, the loss of feeling in the posterior, the moaning about the loss of feeling in the posterior, you know, all that kerouac jazz.
we’ve been to Austin. didn’t find that much to do there, as it happens. though we made some interesting finds in Half Price Books. and nearly got tattoos! it seems like a city best visited at night. lots of bars and little music venues, but pretty quiet during the day. we spent most of it in halcyon on 4th street, reading the books we’d picked up in the morning, and indulging in a little early afternoon brie, hummus and wine. in the evening i had the best mojito of my life, followed by, well, the second best mojito of my life. good cocktails aside, we were drinking them in the company of two the shiniest, happiest people Austin had to offer. we hadn’t met Annie and Helen until that night, but after a few hours in Opal Divine’s we had all agreed to begin plans to start a commune in Canada and bring all the people we like the best to join us. did I mention we had been drinking? :-)
San Antonio, and a special deal at the Riverwalk Vista hotel, was a treat. we spent a couple of hours visiting The Alamo, which I loved; my American history dripping, rather than flooding, back to me. we dandered along by the river, continued our scrabble contest, ate cookies, watched Some Like it Hot with, aptly enough, a jalapeno covered pizza.
