Part Nine

"Peace be with you”

   

It is Sunday morning in Pierre and soon I will be heading southwest to my next stop in Gordon, Nebraska. But before that, it’s the 10am Mass at St. Peter and Paul Church, a beautiful yellow brick structure up on a hill in Pierre.

A full house was in place for the 10am service. And during part of the Catholic mass, there is a point where the pastor will ask everyone to show each other a sign of peace. And you greet the stranger next to you, shake their hand, and simply say, “Peace be with you”. You will hear no preaching from this writer, but just a note to say that whatever religion or following you do, peace be with you. And so it goes.

And before we leave Pierre, here are some pictures from along Lake Sharpe, which is actually part of the Missouri River from the Oahe Dam in the north end of Pierre down 80 miles to the Big Bend Power Generating Station in Fort Thompson, South Dakota.

Our tour begins at Hipple Park in downtown Pierre:

We have the U.S. Route 83/South Dakota State Route 14 highway bridge:

The Dakota, Minnesota & Eastern Railroad Swing Bridge, originally built in 1907 by the former Chicago & Northwestern:

Fishermen doing what they do best:

And some views of Fall:

And an additional fact about these areas in Pierre: every one of them where you see land in the foreground was under water during the spring and summer of 2011. Seems that more water came down the Missouri River due to a lot of snow pack melt and heavy rains in Montana. The flood gates were practically opened all the way at the Oahe Dam and down at the other end of Lake Sharpe at Big Bend in Fort Thompson. According to Jenn, anyone and anybody pressed themselves into service from bringing sand in to making sand bags to palleting sandbags and loading these pallets onto flatbed trucks for delivery to homes in the flood plain to any dump truck from just about anywhere being pressed into service to build levees made of rock riprap and tons of dirt. It wasn't until some time in the fall that the water levels started to recede. I walked around these areas and you wouldn't have known anything had happened. Kudos to all involved to save Pierre and Fort Pierre.

At 1:30pm CDT, I say bye to Jenn, Rebecca and the dogs and worked my way south to and then west on I-90. And yes, this is the same I-90 that begins in Boston, Massachusetts. Soon I arrive at the town of Kadoka, South Dakota and we welcome the Mountain Time Zone, which will host us until this coming Friday.

Heading south on South Dakota state route 73, you start seeing these buttes that pop right out of the prairie about 10 miles from Kadoka:

Welcome to the Badlands on the Pine Ridge Historic Reservation: some of the most beautiful, and at the same time, most desolate areas of our country. These formations are buttes and mountains that have been sanded by the prairie winds over time and you see the layers upon layers of different colored rock. And in about 10 minutes, you climb up a hill and they are gone. Absolutely amazing!! Take a look:

About 20 miles later in Long Valley, the road soon goes from pavement to something that looks like baked clay. Seems South Dakota DOT is rebuilding state route 73. And we're not talking about asphalt; this is a base of gravel somehow pressed into that clay and then you spread out oil and a thick layer of sand:

Parts of the road not rebuilt cause a lot of road noise and enough jittering to loosen your fillings. Sixteen miles later, I am back on solid pavement and soon my hearing goes back to normal.

Finally, the turn onto South Dakota state route 18 approaches and we are getting closer to Gordon. And BTW, cell phone service is quite good around here. Very good 3G service courtesy of these very tall towers like this one west of Martin:

I have to say that I very rarely lost any Verizon service. With all of the flatness of the prairie, there is nothing to get in the way of the signals other than the curvature of the Earth between towers. Quite remarkable.

Soon after, we take a left onto South Dakota State Route 391 and we are back in Nebraska:

Which becomes Nebraska State Route 27. In a matter of 20 minutes, we arrive in Gordon:

And here we have a get-together with our friend Ray Waldron, former maintenance engineer at News 8 (then Newschannel 8).

In his time at Newschannel 8, we had several names for him from Ray to Raymond to The Ray Man to Ray Ray to Mr. Ray.  But when we called him, he sure came running. Ray was certified in fixing any broadcast gear made by Sony and was one of the best IT guys when it came to any of the computers and the computer networks that we used in News or Engineering. A few years ago, Ray came out to visit his folks in Chadron, about 20 miles west of Gordon. And Ray met an old high school girlfriend of his named Elaine. Well, one thing led to another and Ray and Elaine ended up getting married and Ray moved back to Nebraska. Ray formally worked for Gordon Memorial Hospital as their computer IT guy but he owns and runs his own computer repair store just west of here in Rushville. Ray says he still doesn’t miss TV but he was attentive as I brought him up to speed with his former friends and colleagues at News8.

Soon I am back at the Jefco Inn and it appears I am the only guest tonight considering I have the only car in the parking lot. Yeah, me.

Monday is a full day on the road and we get back into train chasing following the BNSF from Ellsworth east to Thedford, Nebraska then south back to North Platte and then west following the Union Pacific out to Cheyenne, Wyoming. Please join us!!

I’m Philip J Zocco. On The Road. In Gordon, Nebraska.