Tweeting in the USA

Glancing over the output of my Twitter feed for the past few weeks, I realised that, if I reversed the order of tweets, I’d have a neat microblog of my entire September trip to the USA.

So for those of you who aren’t on Twitter, because you haven’t got the time, are blocked by your workplace, or are still at point 2 in the 46 Stages of Twitter, here’s my American experience in bursts of 140 characters or fewer...

- In LA now - had a drink last night at one of the original Tiki bars, in El Segundo. Cool. http://www.myspace.com/purpleorchidtiki. 12:15 PM Sep 16th from web

- Had a leisurely walk from Hermosa Beach to Redondo Beach this morning in LA (also a hot dog). Hoping the sunlight will pre-empt jetlag. 12:16 PM Sep 16th from web

- First time in the USA, & many 'TV recognitions' in hotel: eg light switch flips up & toilet holds pool of water big enough to bathe a puppy! 12:23 PM Sep 16th from web

- Not that one would. Bathe a puppy there, I mean. 12:23 PM Sep 16th from web

- Stuck in Denver overnight after a flight was delayed and a connection was missed. Off to Montana (finally) today. 6:09 AM Sep 17th from web

- Just returned from riding a horse through a hilly forest in Montana. Brilliant experience: http://www.gaynorsresorts.com/TrailRides.html. 9:59 PM Sep 17th from web

- We humans & horses loved it, but the ranch dogs enjoyed the ride most. They darted around through the forest keeping us safe from squirrels. 10:06 PM Sep 17th from web

- 3 things about US food/drink which I've found to be true: a) coffee is awful; b) portions are enormous; c) Montanan steaks are big & tasty. 10:22 PM Sep 18th from web

- And Americans are phenomenally easy to chat to, I get caught up in random conversations everywhere ("Oh, what's that accent?!"). 10:23 PM Sep 18th from web

- Oh, by the way, I think you should know I've been drinking Moose Drool: http://bit.ly/5hnFR. 10:23 PM Sep 18th from web

- How do Americans get to eat pie at all? Meal portions are so HUGE that dessert is impossible (currently full of Tex-Mex in Glendive, MT). 10:11 PM Sep 19th from web

- Explored fossil country @ Great Plains Dinosaur Museum. There's also a museum elsewhere run by creationists, rewriting dino history. Nutty! 10:27 PM Sep 19th from web

- Here's the link to the real dinosaur museum: http://tinyurl.com/lqgg5b. Another good museum w great dino displays: http://tinyurl.com/lj4v7d. 10:32 PM Sep 19th from web

- BTW it was 35 degrees Celcius today in Montana. 35! On 19 September! Climate change, anyone? 10:37 PM Sep 19th from web

- Clam chowder, dead skunks, lofty mountains, open roads & waffle mixture: is this Montana, USA... or Australia? http://tinyurl.com/n9aln9. 11:38 PM Sep 19th from web

- Now in Medora, N Dakota. Was privileged to see Sitting Bull's headdress taken from its museum case for transport to new home on reservation. 12:24 PM Sep 21st from web

- At dawn we headed into T Roosevelt National Park 4 animal spotting: saw elk, mule deer, wild horses... and buffalo! http://www.nps.gov/thro/. 12:28 PM Sep 21st from web

- Now in Bismarck, capital of North Dakota, named after you-know-who. Lots of German and Scandinavians settled here (anyone seen 'Fargo'?). 9:39 PM Sep 21st from web

- Came within a toucher of buying a pair of cowboy boots today before I remembered that high-arch boots hurt my feet, and sanity prevailed. 9:40 PM Sep 21st from web

- Medical ads on US TV are plain odd: "Take our new wonder drug! Disclaimer: May cause palpitations, ulcers, tics, shingles, stigmata & gas". 11:55 PM Sep 21st from web

- In hotel bar, and bar staff has put out hot food for people to nibble on for free while drinking. MORE FOOD! No-one could ever starve here. 6:09 PM Sep 22nd from web

- Had pumpkin pie for the 1st time yesterday. Was dubious as, well, it's a vegetable; but it was good. Also had apple pie like Mom makes. 3:48 PM Sep 23rd from web

- At LAX; just got bumped up to Business Class to Sydney on V Australia. Sweeeeet. In Alaska Airlines lounge now, chillin' out. 9:59 PM Sep 23rd from web

- What happened when I rode into the cowboy town of Medora, ND, as Sitting Bull's headdress prepared to depart? http://tinyurl.com/yec5szz. 11:09 AM Sep 25th from web

- Back home from the USA after four flights, a bus ride and a tram ride. And it was 12°C and drizzly to welcome me home. Nice one, Melbourne. 4:40 PM Sep 25th from web

Disclosure time... on this trip I travelled courtesy of Montana Office of Tourism, North Dakota Tourism, zuji.com.au and V Australia.

North Dakota: History Rides Again

As intensely as I might have tried to peer through the mists of time, I would never have dreamed that one day I’d be having an up close and personal encounter with the original headdress of Sitting Bull.

But here I was a few days ago, in Medora, North Dakota, inside the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, eyeballing the handsome historical artefact in its tall display case. A display case it was about to part company with.

Medora is a cowboy town in the infamous Badlands. It was once a thriving ranching settlement, founded in 1883 by French aristocrat the Marquis de Mores, and today it’s an entertaining jumble of restored shopfronts, tourist attractions, and bars and restaurants done out in Wild West decor.

With much of the place owned by a foundation, Medora is part tourist attraction and part real town, with a vibrant, compact centre.

The Cowboy Hall of Fame is about more than ranching and rodeo; it also celebrates the Native American culture of the region. As a sparsely settled place, North Dakota has a higher Native American proportion of its population than most other US states, and it was this connection which drew our attention today.

Coincidentally, the day our group of travel writers hit town was the day that the headdress of the victor of the Battle of Little Bighorn was to be returned to his descendants, via a college of the Sioux people within the Standing Rock Reservation to the south.

Since we were there, we were invited to attend a short ceremony conducted by Phil Baird, board president of the Hall of Fame and a Native American himself, to send the headdress on its way. The display case was opened and, as we stood looking on, Baird undertook a ‘smudging ceremony’, wafting the smoke from a smouldering feather along the length of the headdress.

As part of the ceremony, Baird spoke both English and Native American words, addressed the four points of the compass, and asked us to add our own silent thoughts to the occasion. Then, the event completed, the headdress was taken from the case, lain carefully on an indigenous star quilt, and transferred to a van for an escort from an officer of the local sheriff’s department.

It was a moving ceremony, undertaken with great conviction and emotion by Baird. As there were only ten people present, including we four Australian journalists, we felt greatly honoured at being included at such a significant event at the last moment. Especially, I suppose, as we were cultural outsiders; although, as I mentioned in last week's post about Montana, there are often similarities between Australia and the USA. The smudging ceremony, for example, reminded me of Aboriginal smoking ceremonies that I've witnessed.

The Cowboy Hall of Fame has, of course, now lost an important exhibit, along with a gun that once belonged to ‘Buffalo Bill’ Cody, who had a working relationship with Sitting Bull in the post-Little Bighorn days (both items had been held in trust on behalf of the rightful owners). But it seemed fitting that the headdress should be back with the chief’s people, and hopefully visitors will eventually be able to view it in its new home.

But the institution still has plenty of excellent exhibits tracing the cultures of Native Americans, ranching and rodeos - the horse being the common factor of all three. And Medora itself is a lot of fun, with cowboy bars serving huge steaks; shops and hotels that look like they’ve dropped in from the 1800s; and the neighbouring Theodore Roosevelt National Park, packed with distinctive Badlands scenery and roaming wildlife from prairie dogs to bison.

The Wild West is long gone, of course; but its echoes linger in North Dakota.

Disclosure time... on this trip I travelled courtesy of North Dakota Tourism, zuji.com.au and V Australia.