Getting Away From It All (Post #156) 10/2/2009

Getting away from it all. Finding the most remote places in North America is a past time for some people. This interesting article states, “To gauge the creep of cookie-cutter commercialism, there’s no better barometer than McDonald’s,”. Stephen Von Worley, a blogger and visual artist says he came to this conclusion on seeing golden arches on a dispiriting drive down Interstate 5 in central California.

The place in the contiguous United States where you can get farthest away from a McDonald’s is in remote northwestern South Dakota, the visual artist and mapmaker figures.

I’ve been to far Northwest South Dakota. It was the early 1990s when I worked for Native American Head Start. We had a client in Eagle Butte, SD. The trek up Highway 63 is a long lonely drive. At some point up the highway the only radio station is the tribal station. When I left Eagle Butte for the last time it was evening and I tuned into the “local radio there” and it was a broadcast of a pow wow. Hearing the drums and driving across that stark landscape was surreal. If you want to drive for hours and not see anything but the occasional farm house and fence, South Dakota is for you.

Click the image to check out the story. Source was New York Times.
Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.