Rapid city, South Dakota

11:11 pm

Driving back from Sally O’Mallie’s Pub and Casino, the weight of our decision to drive thousands of miles fell heavy on us. The early mourning enthusiasm accompanying our departure from Rochester, Minnesota had dissipated. In its place hung the smell of cows and manure, the open sky untouched by city lights, and the dread of another 9 hour drive.

Earlier in the day, passing the frozen Minnesota fields, the wind gathered snow into streams that flowed across the highway. The continuous gusts intensified the white river, obfuscating the road entirely. It was beautiful and threatening. An alien ground emerging from the asphalt. We drove suspended yet fixed to the ground, relying on the unchanging straight line of the road.

Alice gazed out the window. She remarked on the beauty of the windmills that populated the landscape. Their tenacious rotation the elevated compliment to what flowed beneath us. The windmills offered a welcome break from the icy fields. A verticality that dwarfed the grain silos and barns. Soon enough, there would only be the horizon slipping into darkness, a flat drive for hour and hours.

Some of our listening:

Sun Ra - Sleeping Beauty

Albert Ayler - Love Cry

XTC - Black Sea

Minutemen - Double Nickels on the Dime

New Order - Power, Corruption & Lies

Lucretia Dalt - ¡Ay!

TrueAnon - Bush Did 9/11 (part 1)