Jack’s Wednesday guest blog post –

When I realized that Wendy had the bit between her teeth and was well down the road to organizing an extended road trip starting just a week after I got back from Scotland, I admit that my heart sank just a little.

What I hadn’t appreciated was that it had all started back in February with a comment from me: “I have always wanted to see the Mount Rushmore National Monument”. So Wendy set out to pull together a trip that would include that, as well as other sites I had mentioned in passing, such as the Buffalo Bill Museum in Cody. She added in places she knew I had to see along the way, including the South Dakota Badlands and the Black Hills.

The truth is that I shouldn’t have had any misgivings!

This has really been the trip of a lifetime and I wouldn’t have missed it for anything. From the delights of downtown Sioux Falls, to the birthplace of Carl Sandburg, the home(s) of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the amazing Badlands (even more so in an evening violent thunderstorm), Mount Rushmore and the natural sculptures and wildlife of the Black Hills. The equally unforgettable Minuteman missile site – – –

Perhaps most memorable has been the wildlife – the delightfully domestic prairie dogs, ponderous bears, athletic deer and regally oblivious bison!

I had already experienced much of the eastern states and some of the west coast, but the mid-west is new to me.

East, west, hame’s best? Sometimes east and west can give hame a run for its money!

PS – I forgot to mention that my grandad saw Buffalo Bill’s wild west show, complete with the Deadwood stage, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull etc. back in my hometown of Dunfermline in 1903!