The Badlands

What can I say about the Badlands in South Dakota, Freakin' Awesome. My first look at the scenery blew me away.  What a wonderful thing nature is, this planet of ours is spectacular. At first glance you think you are possibly on Mars, the rock formations are so majestic and the stripes of different colored rocks so intense. The experience for me was strangely spiritual, one I'll never forget. Seeing the Badlands made me forget I had just left dialysis.

That was a great experience too, it was on the Rosebud Reservation, part of the Sioux nation in S.D. Great people, very friendly, professional, super treatment. I'll let Gabriel go into a little more in depth in his blog about the dialysis center. He has some great pictures to share, so stay tuned. I wanted to mention the difference between the two dialysis centers I have visited on reservations. The center last year in the Navajo Reservation, located in Tuba City, Arizona, was so impoverished, with wild horses and packs of dogs running in the streets. Bleak is the word that comes to me to describe the area. The center was very adequate, the staff very professional.  Perhaps the landscape made all the difference this time, South Dakota being way more green and welcoming as opposed to the desert. In both cases there was heat, yes, heat--the car said it was 110 degrees when we got in after dialysis after being parked in the lot. It did drop into the 90s after we got moving, but still.

I was struck by how the staff at Rosebud seemed to really care for and honor with ceremony all their patients, living and deceased. There was a collage of photos in the lobby of all their patients with details of their lives and families (the idea I am taking back to my unit, and hope they implement). We ended the perfect day with a stop at Wall Drugs in Wall, S.D., a huge tourist attraction. They sell everything you can think of, books, jewelry, leather goods, boots, sunglasses, stuffed jackalope heads, yes even drugs. They had a nice cafe inside where we ate a late supper of chicken fingers and a hamburger, but best of all was the coffee, yes as advertised 5 cents a cup and great coffee at that. I had a dimes' worth.

Well, that's all for now. Let me tell you guys what happens now that I have finished my blog. My wonderful husband edits it, yup he goes through it and makes coherent, well punctuated sentences. I say why be married to a super wordsmith and not get all the good benefits. That's all for now, lots of hugs