The word from Pam, Cary and Mondo is that they will be picking me up at 6:30 am tomorrow. It was going to be today, but Pam had to take both her parents into Rapid City for doctor's appointments, and they didn't get back until it was getting dark. Instead of scattering ashes, I went to the Wasta Bar with Doreen, the owner of the campground. She and her family took her sister's ashes out to the hills above Wasta today, and most of the family went to the bar to continue the remembrance. It was actually my second visit to the bar today, since I went earlier after I walked to the post office and mailed some letters. At my first visit I had a good conversation with Roxie about the clique-y nature of the town, and how she didn't fit in with the women who meet every day for coffee and bitch about the people they don't like. Roxie is on the gossip list, as is anyone who lives in a trailer, or votes down the ordinances they try to pass about how short your grass needs to be cut, or not allowing unregistered cars in your yard. They also tried to change the zoning so there would be no eating places or bars. Roxie, who owns the bar with her husband Tim, voted against that one too. Doreen, as she was giving me a lift to the bar in her dune buggy, started talking about the same thing as Roxie. Apparently, after two days in Wasta, I am now in with the out crowd.
Tomorrow I'll be back on the road, heading west to Montana. I want to see the mountains in June. The last time I was here it was in August of 2008, and I was shocked at how little snow there was on the mountains, so different from the way I remembered them. Global warming is very visible here. I am hoping that this time of year the mountains will look more like my mental picture, but it is also 4 years later, warming continues, and glaciers continue to retreat...