South Dakota

So I made it. I drove across Wyoming pulling the new home Erin and I bought, a moving home for a modern nomadic life.  It’s a ’63 Shasta Compact. At the moment I’m staying with my grandfather in the house he built himself, adding a little here and a little there when he could afford to.  The plan is for us to live in the camper full time eventually.  We have some work to do and it’ll be an adjustment from living in a normal sized apartment or the cabin we had in Ecuador.  In the long run though, the simplicity and smallness of the camper should minimize our attachment to material goods and encourage a life embracing simplicity and freedom.  It’s just a coincidence that we’re embarking on this life just after the new year but it does seem an auspicious time to embark on a new way of living.

So far since I’ve been to South Dakota I’ve seen several bighorn sheep right by the road, where reputedly they eat salt when the roads are salted.  I’m looking forward to seeing bison again, considering I’m very near Custer State Park.  Custer state park has one of the largest publicly held herds of Bison or American buffalo.  I’m also looking forward to working for Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, where I will be working with a huge range of extinct wildlife.  Anyways, I’m excited to see the landscape and the wildlife, to see a new place. I would put up some interesting photos of either the camper or the place but it turns out I don’t have any good pictures of either and I’m at the public library writing this.