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For Story Shuffle 7, held in a fine rowhome in the Newbold section of South Philadelphia inside a beautiful and eventually stormy night, I told the story of my first hitchhiking experience in South Dakota.
My lesson: trusting in strangers is a great risk that often comes with great reward.
Check out all the stories here. Listen to mine here or by using the player below.
I WAS FIRST IN SOUTH DAKOTA in 2005. I returned in May 2006 for a service immersion trip with a small group of Temple University students. It was then that I met a gaggle of friends from the Lakota Rosebud reservation near White River, S.D. It has led to lots of adventures, including two years and nearly 600 miles of hitchhiking, but that’s for another day.
Since Monday I’ve been traveling back there again and, if all went correctly, I should be in White River now. Check Google Maps here.
Read my reflections after first interacting in an American Indian community two years ago.
This region of Dakota’s limitless expansion is only interrupted by flurries of elevation change. Once on ground, the pavement of interstate 90 appeared to have tamed the land into a consumable table of gentle slopes and caressing ridges. All of which leads me to offer muddled explanations of the region’s geographical features: endless plains with small, yet punctuated elevation changes interjected regularly. Read more here.
I have been traveling since Monday, I should be at my destination, White River, S.D. sometime this afternoon.
TODAY I AM LEAVING TOWN in a Subaru. An older friend and I are headed to White River, South Dakota (Google Maps), just north of the Rosebud Lakota Reservation, to which I’ve gone each of the past two years, including an initial trip with a Temple University service group.
We’ll do some community work, meet with friends, learn and I’ll be sure to clear my head.
I am done with my college career and have my graduation looming.
Indeed, I am returning on May 21, the day before I am set to graduate. Asking for trouble, I know. We’ll see.
Anyway, don’t you worry. This baby will keep cooking, as I’ve forward posted lots of stuff I have been meaning to get up here. What you can be sure of is that it won’t be on anything breaking.
Be well and good thoughts.
I did my best to see as much of the country as I could in the beginning of my college career. Here are some notable examples.
By Christopher Wink | May 25, 2006 | Travel Reflection
I have proudly represented Temple University on service immersion trips before. I have had South Dakotan ground beneath my feet before, too. Moreover, I have been with Jason Riley in a rental car and with John Dimino on an airplane before. Still, it is easy to understand that some experiences, no matter the similarities, can never be fully replicated.
Our group of ten administrators and students flew into Rapid City, South Dakota in May 2006, destined to work on the Rosebud Reservation of the Lakota Nation. While nearing the airport from above, below me South Dakota appeared wrinkled and aged. As we further approached, her features took form: trees that survived passed generations of agricultural clearing and beef cattle that survived passed days of agricultural slaughter.
This region of Dakota’s limitless expansion is only interrupted by flurries of elevation change. Once on ground, the pavement of interstate 90 appeared to have tamed the land into a consumable table of gentle slopes and caressing ridges. All of which leads me to offer muddled explanations of the region’s geographical features: endless plains with small, yet punctuated elevation changes interjected regularly.
Continue reading Lakota Reflections from the Rosebud Reservation