South Dakota/Nebraska (Part II)

Few more pictures of Badlands - BADlands are really not BAD, instead are very colorful.



Leaving Badlands National Park, we were driving south towards Nebraska. Close to the state line of SD and NE, there is a historic site for Wounded Knee Massacre. Instead of nicely-built visitor center in most of National Park Services, there were two Indian people standing under a small pavillion made of few pieces of wood. They showed us pictures and newspapers regarding the massacre.

It was the last massacre in American Indian wars, taking place on Dec. 29th, 1890. About 350 half starved tribe people traveled along nowadays Badlands National park area and gathered at Pine Ridge Reservations for Ghost Dance, a religious ceremony. From some reason still unclear, the U.S. troops opened fire and killed more than half of the tribe people, half of which is women and children. The leader, Wounded Knee was injured and captured. The Dept. of Interior had an short article written on a very simple board on the side of the road with a title as"Battle of Wounded Knee". After the protest of tribe people, they finally changed the "Battle" to "Massacre".


The Indian people working there talked to us for a quite long time, describing the sufferings of the tribe people both in history and the currency. The Lakota Tribe, along with another tribe in Minnesota, are only two reservations having Kingdom system. That is to say, they are two seperate countries from the U.S. although they have the U.S. passports. People living in the reservation are very poor. Kids don't get enough education and have a very high suicide rate. I asked them if they keep connections with other Indian reservations. They said No. It seems there are some problems with their own systems - for example, the previous King was voted out for several times but refused to step down. The U.S. government finally made him leave the position. When we left to take a look at the massacre monument, they said " Thanks for listening".

Leaving Lakota reservation, we noticed there was another similar board on the side of the road. It describes how Crazy Horse, another famous leader of an Indian Tribe, was murdered by the U.S. troop. Interestingly, on the way to mountain Rushmore, we had noticed there is an unfinished monument of Crazy Horse. They were and are being bulit by tribe people with limited money and sources.

That night we stayed in Scottsbluff, NE. It is one of biggest cities in Nebraska, but still quite small. Although there is not one National Park in Nebraska, it is famous for several important historical trails: Oregon trail, California trail, Lewis and Clark trail, Mormon pioneer trail and Pony express trail. Scotts Bluff National Monument is right in the middle of Oregon trail. There are still a lot of geographical marks everywhere. We took a hike up in the bluff before heading back to Denver. It was sunny, warm and it is amazing that thousands of people had passed this 2000 mile trail without a car in order to seek a better life.

Movie talk 3

Brother to brother

The movie is dedicated the Bruce Nugent, a black writer from Harlem Renaissance. It expressively describes the struggles of the communities of minorities: black VS white, and more importantly, gay black VS staight black community.

One of the striking feature of black community is their tendency to be very homophobic. George and I discussed this a lot, trying to understand why. In a reasonable way one minority group tends to understand other minorities since they are all treated badly historically. Black group is one of the minorities, gay is another. Why is black community so against gay man, especially gay black man?

When I was in Atlanta this October, my friend and I took a taxi to a club. Knowing that our destination is a gay club, the taxi driver, who is an African American, started to question us the morality of gay community. He did not care us being gay, but cared that his children might be gay - because he thinks that gay people are going to teach his children to be gay. With this theory, he condemned the existence of gay people. He seems a hard working man struggling to support his family, a man who goes to church every weekend, a man who might be very kind to majority of people who are not gay. Knowing the hardness of changing somebody's opinion, I tried anyway but failed to do so. With this pity in mind, I deeply feel sorry for him.

When a group, especially a minority group, had struggled to gain some position in a society, keeping the current status is so hard which makes it even harder for this group to be more progressive, because they are afraid to lose. Black people are stereotyped as strong masculinity. It is an interesting phenomenon that sometimes people hate being stereotyped, but on the other hand, subconciously they are happy what they are stereotyped as. In a hidden manner, it seems Black community enjoyed this stereotype although they might deny it. Being a gay Black man is a big slap on this.

In the opposite to previous theory, South Africa just legalized gay marriage. Why there is such a big difference between African American in the U.S and Black people in South African? Almost 80% of South African population is Black. With such majority, with continuous cruel and enduring fight for civil rights for centuries, are Black people in South Africa not afraid to lose?

Google for Justice

Google for Justice

The GOP lies, incessently, to the American People. It's time for them to go. Get the real story, here:

http://tinyurl.com/y3n3v3

South Dakota/Nebraska (Part I)

Sept. 8-11

We have planned to visit South Dakota for a long time.

Jennifer and Sergio live in Fargo, ND. SD is right in the middle of Denver and Fargo - it is a perfect mid-spot to meet and hang out.

Along with state of Mississippi, South Dakota banned abortion this year. That includes pregnancy from incestant and raping. Although still pending for legislatural pass, this decision, as a lot of decisions the republican administration has made, disgusted us. For a long time, we have decided not to go to SD because of this.

This summer was a very busy one - George worked hard for his graduation; I had to spend most of the weekends at office. Finally, with the coming labor day weekend, we found a break to get out of Denver. We decided to visit South Dakota. No matter what, people in SD are fighting against this terrible deed. The trip plan includes Wind Cave National Park, Mountain Rushmore and Badlands National Park.

Wind Cave national park is one of unusual ones. We were there around 10 am and 3 hours early for our reservation of a candle light trail in the caves. Knowing our schedule is tight, we decide to take a routine nature trail into the cave. Taking the man-made iron stairs down, we were impressed how deep in the ground this cave is. It is famous for its Boxworks - more than 90% of cave boxworks in the world is in this cave.

Entrance of Wind Cave

After leaving Wind Cave, we directly drove to Mountain Rushmore. The statues of four presidents are still there, as always. I wonder however, which four presidents' statues would people constitute NOW? I wish Jimmy Carter is one of them.


We stayed in Cedar city overnight - next day we directly headed to Badlands national park. It indeed is a big peice of bad land - more or less like pieces of artifical clays everywhere, with different colors.

New England revisited (III) - along I-95

Few places we stopped along the trip:

PORTLAND
It has a nice downtown with brick roads and familiar smell of sea. We stopped and dined at a nice porch along the sea at a local restaurant "J's oyster". The food is not good and the service is very slow. I had the worst lobster roll there, which reminded me the delicious lobster rolls at Cape Cod in the year 2003. The coast along the water is nice - some scenes look like mid-south part of China.

The coast of Portland

OGUNQUIT
Small P-town. We arrived in the evening. The small downtown is crowded with people. There are several gay bars and we stopped at "The Front Porch". Nice but very crowded bar with live piano playing.

PORTSMOUTH
The town was built in 1762 - probably one of the oldest town I have ever been in the U.S. It has several bridges, old iron style with part of it being able to be lifted up for boats to pass by, as well as modern hanging bridge. It was Sunday afternoon, people were hanging out everywhere. We walked around Strawberry Banke where a lot of old houses still exist. It is a cozy town of New hamshire.

Piers at the waterfront

New England revisited (II) - Acadia National Park

"Acadia was never overwhelming", with the voice of Jack Perkins coming up in the introductory video of Acadia National Park, I already sensed it was going to be an unique trip.

In spite of being the first National Park east of Mississippi River, Acadia is not as popular as places like Niagra Falls. "In it heart, it offers solitude"Jack Perkins said. I guess that's what Maine is. The Taiwanese journalist San Mao once talked with her friends about where in the USA she can stay. She said, " Only Maine, cold and deserted, is just where we belong to". The lonely woman, she has been so many places, but finally couldn't bear with her life and commited suicide with her socks. It was showering when we visited - just fit the mood that the park offers.

A lonely bird

In the visitor center, the ranger recommened several hiking trails. Both Precipice trail and Beehive trail attracted us since they are "not recommended for small chidren - trail brochure". They both have iron rungs on ledges of exposed cliffs. Precipice trail was closed, however, during that time due to possible attack from agressive birds. George visited the park in 2000 after being impressed by the introductory video shown by his advisor Richard in his class. He enjoyed moutain bikings in the park but never got a chance for hiking. Therefore, we were aiming for the Beehive trail.

It starts with an easy trail - but soon, we had to use both hands and feet to climb on the steep iron rungs. It looks so steep and dangerous that one moment I was thinking maybe we should go back. There is really no way to go back - all the iron rungs were designed for climbing up only. We encouraged and helped each other - and at some points we even took pictures! Finally, standing at the top of the mountain, nothing could really describe our pleasure and joy.

A view from the trail

Beehive trail is very close to Sand Beach. Sweaty and tired, we both wanted a refreshing. The Sand Beach is only sea water beach in the park, with highest temperature only at 50s. We stepped in the cold water, with foot in freezing pain. I couldn't stand it and stepped back for a while and George had the guts staying in. After accumulating some energies, I stepped in again and swimed in high waves. It was like a refreshing cold coke runing through all my blood vessels - COOL!

Sand Beach

After Beehive and "Atlantic bath", we felt that we experienced so much joy and gained much more curiosity about this park. We finally stopped at Jordan Pond and took a hike along the shore. It was close to evening and still cloudy. The pond, the hills, the cloud, how nostalgia!

A man enjoying his solitude

Jordan Pond shore trail

Next day, we went to Bar Harbor and rented two bikes. The moutain biking trails in the park are one of very unique features. No cars, no traffic lights, miles and miles up and down. We biked through Eagle lake and Jordan Pond, finally got to bike up to the top of Day Mountain. It was windy at the top of the mountain, that reminds me the woman who lives at the top of an island in Maine. She was the lover of Louis Kahn, a famous architect, who deserted her after deserting his wife before her. She still believed that he loves her. It was similarly windy when Nathaniel Kahn, Louis's son, interviewed her around her house in the documentary film <my architect>. She looked pale and lonely.

New England revisited (I)

July 13-20th, 2006

This summer has been successful for us. George got his dissertation well written and defended on July 14th. Several days later, while at Vermont Academy, in Saxtons River, for a science conference, I was notified that my green card application was finally approved. Both happened in just one week - like people say "when it rains, it pours".

Vermont was surprisingly hot in July. We stayed in a room with no AC, no private bathroom, no telephone, no TV, no cell phone signal and no full-size bed. Only a fan was running all the time. Although quite different, it was not bad at all. No matter what, it is New England!

Early afternoon was free for conference attendees. We took a few trips to swim in West River, Saxtons River and Spofford Lake where George used to swim when he studied in NH. On Saturday night we took a drive along Route 5 to look for a gay club George visited a long time ago to the north of Brattleboro. It was not there anymore, instead, we found it has been remodeled and now is a country club. We stayed for few hours listening to a local band playing. I found it quite interesting in that it did not look too much different from a gay club, except that people there really didn't know how to dance!

There are many historic towns around that area. East of Saxtons River is a small town called Bellows Falls. Unable to find any bars in Saxtons River, we discovered a Cafe at Bellows Falls on late Tuesday night. In the Cafe, there were only a rude mid-western looking guy and a weird lady, who apparently were drinking too much. We didn't stay long. The Long Trail draft is good, I must say.

West of Saxtons River is a very old town Grafton. We took a few hiking trails - the beautiful New England hiking trails! We didn't forget, however, to buy some famous Grafton 4-year chedar cheese. Very yummy!

Covered bridge at town of Grafton

3 days, 3 national parks

May 26th - 29th 2006

Knowing we are going to be busy this summer, we decided to make as many trips as we can before summer comes. Memorial day weekend, of course, is a good time to travel, and to memorialize somebody: your teacher, your family, or all the innocent people who suffer from war, famine and diseases. Pick one (or more) and keep an awareness of it in your conscience.

During the trip we made in Canyonland national park, I was going over all the national park maps and surprisingly found that there is one national park in Colorado we've never been - Black canyon of the gunnison. It is just a bit south of Grand junction!

There is another national park in Colorado, that we wanted to go but never went. That is Merse Verde national park, which locates at the southwestern colorado. With a geographer aside, it is fairly easy to plan a trip: Go west to Grand juction, then south to Black canyon, keep going south to Merse Verde, then east to Great sandune, which we haven't been after it was promoted as National Park and Preserve, then all the way north back to Denver. Oops, 3 days, 3 national parks!

After a nice camp east of Grand junction, we started to head south through CO65 skyway. In spite of expectations and wonders about how Black canyon looks like, we soon were distracted and impressed by the beautiful landscape through 65 skyway. With white trunks and green leaves of aspen trees, snow mountains and clear lakes, sunny valley embedded in colorful plant carpets, we were so surprised and regret that we have camped at the north of 65 skyway so many times, but never bothered driving south until today!

CO 65 skyway, south of Grand Junction

The most striking feature of Black canyon is the steepness - after we got out of visiting center and turn onto a path towards a outlook site, we were already at the top of a cliff, the river is running right under our feet – but one mile straight down. We took a drive down to the canyon river and took a walk at that peaceful place. After climbing up the canyon, we drove the other side of canyon and took a hike at the end of the cliff. Although we prepared 7 gallons of water, we could barely stand the hot weather, which became more unbearable with the look of snow mountain.

Outlooking spot at the end of black canyon

The road from Black canyon to Merse Verde is winding through high snow mountains. After going over all these dramatic landscapes on CO65 and Black canyon, we already appreciated so much and didn't anticipate anything more. Waking up from a quick nap while Geo is driving, I, again, was impressed how pretty it is along snow mountains. Unknown yellow flowers built up a thin layer of yellow carpet on the top of green grass, with white snow on red mountain. Colorado, you are Colorful!

CO 145 highway from Black canyon to Merse Verde

In the evening, we arrived Cortez, a historic town at 4-corner area. We booked a hotel room at Super 8 before the trip - which turned out to be a good idea since all hotels were full. Next day, we woke up early and headed to Merse Verde, 10 miles east of Cortez.

It was crowded, as expected, with full booked hotels, and unexpected, with our experience of nowhere is crowded in U.S. national sites based on our previous experiences. At the visitor center, a surprisingly international crowd is waiting in line to buy extra tickets (besides ticket to enter) for few famous Native Indian dwelling place. It was cold and windy, even with a jacket on, I was still shivering and shrinking together with most of other people in line. Without extra notice, a tall guy attracts my notice. With only a T-shirt on he stands straight up, with a complexed look upon rest of us, obviously saying "you wimps, the coldness is nothing! Look at me! I am so tough!"

It has been 100 years since Merse Verde has been a national park. To celebrate this event, Merse Verde invited Laura Bush to give a speech. She did, a month ago, not forgeting to mention how current administration cares about the environment.

HOW DARE SHE?

The park is big. It suffered from several major fires last and this century, which left unforgettable scars everywhere.

The marks of fire at Merse Verde

We bought tickets for Balcony house and Cliff Palace and took a drive all the way to Balcony house. With a professional guide, about 50 tourists including us started a journey with a 32-feet wood ladder (slippery!), a 12-feet long tunnel (narrow!) and additional 60-feet ladder and stone steps (STEEP!).

Steep ladder at Balcony house, with the guide looking down from the top

Leaving Merse Verde, we started to drive east, passing Durango, to Alamosa, from where the Great sandunes Nation Park and Preserve is located 20 miles away. We had been to this place 2 years ago in Autumn, when it was a National Monument. It was late when we were at Alamosa and we didn't book any hotel rooms. We decided to take a risk and drive directly to the park to camp there - there are only around 50 camp sites in the park and it was Memorial weekend.

I can't tell now how happy I was when we finally found a campsite - we were both tired and really don't want to drive back to Alamosa for a hotel. Plus, who knows if there is a hotel room available!

Next day, we stepped in the visitor center
and watched a not-so-good introduction
video about the national park. Then we
decided to climb to the top of the sandune,
which we didn't do last time we were there.
It was hard, under the heated sun, with
hot sand in the shoes. We both made it to
the top -where we had a great view of
moutains with little white snow, blue sky,
brown sands and green trees along the
river. There were many wild sunflowers
blossoming on our last visit. Unfortunately,
it was summer and no sunflowers.

Outside the Great sandune, there was a
lonely tree standing last time we visited.
It was still standing there, with a great
silence, just like most of people in this
world.