To The Hundredth Meridian: DAY 10 FRIDAY, AUG. 30 RAPID CITY SD

The Millenium Falcon was in need of an oil change and we took care of that at a Rapid Lube in Rapid City. The courteous staff had us on our way in less than an hour.

The heat built quickly and this proved to be our hottest day yet. Familiar range land then slowly gave way to the rounded shapes of hoodoos and, before we knew it, we were swallowed up by the badlands. Unlike the scene in North Dakota, these in Badlands National Park were huge and seemd to reach up in giant pinnacles as though trying to catch the sun. It was unbelievable, a veritable lunar landscape of grey-brown towers anb battlements, highlighted with subtle pinks, greens and gold striations. We were reminded of an older, more wizened Bryce Canyon in Utah, and, again, we marvelled at the tenacity of First Nations and early settlers who fought grimly to survive here.

At one point, we came upon a slight path leading down from the tops of the hoodoos to the wide valley below. A plaque told us that it was here, in the terrible winter of 1890, that Chief Bigfoot led what was left of his people through to what they hoped would be shelter and food at a small settlement called Wounded Knee. The journey was arduous enough in the best of times, but in the teeth of a severe winter, and with starving and ill people as part of your group, the trip must have been hell. But to stay where they were would mean certain death, so they tried. The rest will be discussed tomorrow.

The afternoon grew oppressive and we headed north to Wall. The skies grew grey and clouds rounded in threatening warning, but the storms passed us by. The television in our hotel, though, constantly blared storm warnings and we waited for the anger of this giant land to hit: it never did, at least not here, but Rapid City was hit, and tomorrow's stop at Wounded Knee, which should have been a stop today, was also hit. The oil change may have spared us! One thing is for sure: when a storm approaches in this part of the world, people pay attention !

Wall is a bizarre little town that features the block-long Wall Drug store. It is a monument to kitsch, founded as a real drug store in the 1930's that drew visitors with the promise of free ice water and 5 cent coffee, which it still does. It is now a carnival frontier town that sells, literally, anything as a souvenirto tourists from all over the US and beyond. Spiritual ? Other worldly ? Magical ? Not in Wall. Hucksterism abounds, but it's all good natured, self-effacing and unabashedly hokey. Some good fun after our trip to a ghostly lunar inferno.