Baseball. Not as boring as cricket

 

I've now had the quintessential American experience: I've been to a baseball game at Yankee stadium.  Woohoo!

 

We arrive at Yankee Stadium!

A native New Yorker friend took us to the game.  Bill knows everything there is to know about baseball, but has a healthy cynicism when it comes to the "hokey-ness" of the overall experience. He was the perfect guide.

 

It's the game crowd and the going-home-from-work crowd on the number  4 train uptown.  It takes about an hour and as we finally spill out at 161st street, the legions of cops heavily armed with military style assault rifles make me suddenly think: aaargghhh 40,000 people in a stadium - perfect terrorist target.  Yikes!

 

 

Inside Yankee Stadium

 

Who's on first?

 

But it's not our night to die for either terrorism or American sports.  

 

And what's more, we have fun,  although the cheese could not be laid on any thicker.  Stand and sing the national anthem, hand over heart, before play commences.  At the top of the 7th inning we recognise and applaud tonight's chosen one - not a sports hero, a combat veteran.  Yes, two tours in the Middle East  and we thank you for your service.  All stand and sing God Bless America, hand on heart again. It strikes me that Vietnam vets must be sooooo pissed off at the glory and gratitude bestowed on current servicemen and women after the way they've been treated.

 

Tonight's American hero

The game recommences with a rousing chorus of Take Me Out to The Ballgame, a song that's been on my mind all day - even though I don't know the words.   All the while we eat Nathan's famous hot dogs with mustard and ketchup, drink appallingly bad American beer, have a round of Nathan's fried chicken, drink more beer and lap up the atmosphere.  

 

 

Hot dogs, French fries and chicken

 

Hundreds of people, kids and adults alike, are sporting catcher's mitts, believing they'll be the one lucky enough to catch a fly ball or boundary breaking strike.  Anyway, there are balls to spare.  As soon as a ball touches the ground it is replaced.  Doesn't matter if it was dropped, hit, or used for practice.  Into the crowd it goes and a brand spanking new ball takes its place. The umpire, crouching behind the catcher, has an endless supply in his pouch - it's like Santa dispensing gifts from his sack.

 

The Yankees beat the Red Sox eight runs to zero so it's a good night for New Yorkers. The crush on the subway home is worse, if that's possible, than the way there.  But it's a good natured crowd - after all, we're winners!  Thank God it was only three or so hours, not five days

 

Batter up

 

 

 

 

 

Where the buffalo roam

 Sturgis is only a few miles from Deadwood but light years apart.  We come so the h-g can check out the motorcycle museum (which ranks 6.5/10 on the interest-ometer for me) but I do like the antique bikes.  

 

50th anniversary bike built for the museum, complete with gold plating

 

The Fat Boys and Softails converging on Sturgis are not just Harley Davidsons.  If you have a passion for big bellied boys wearing bandanas over their long grey hair, then this is the place for you.  We're here in June when the year round population is 6741. In August, the 10 day jamboree that is the Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally (held since 1938), sees numbers as high as 700,000 descend on the town.  

 

Sturgis in August

 

 

Driving the roads through the Black Hills of South Dakota it's easy to see the attraction for motorcyclists.  Beautiful scenery is probably second on their list considerations after great roads with tight corners, multiple tunnels, and climbs and descents that make your ears pop.  

 

The famous pigtail corners turning over themselves

 

Among the drives we take (in our rental car) over our days in Rapid City we love the Iron Mountain road, famous for its pigtail corners that turn over or under themselves, and the Needles Highway with its tight tunnels and sky piercing scenery.  

 

Eye of the Needle tunnel

And best of all for me, the Wildlife Loop where we get what we came for - the range where the wild buffalo roam!  As it's Spring there are calves jumping around just like regular baby animals. The cuteness quotient exceeds kitten videos. 

Cuteness plus

Not quite as cute

 

 Black Hills is the direct translation of Paha Sapa, the name given to the hills by the native Lakota tribe.  The Ponderosa pines that cover the hills look black from a distance but up close are, of course, green.   Considerable controversy continues to surround the US Government appropriation of the territory in 1877 and the Lakota have filed suit against the Government.  Of course it was the discovery of gold in them thar hills that sparked settlement in direct contravention of the Laramie Treaty.  As with most of the world, white guys with guns trump (pun appropriate and intended) brown people with bows and arrows/didgeridoos/taiaha/wide smiles.

 

All that set aside, as a tourist the Black Hills are not exactly on the main trunk line.  Most people would come for Mt Rushmore which, it must be said, is stunning.  But really the beauty is in the hills themselves.  

And hey! You bandana wearers.  Get a haircut and for God's sake buy a helmet.