Walden in the Badlands

October 2023

This is a story I started in 2021 after a trip to the Black Hills with my brother Sam and his girlfriend Esther. It sat unfinished—I liked it, but never got it over the finish line. Those two are newly married (congrats you guys!!) and it seemed like a good time to share.

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Badlands

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Campsite

A park ranger rolls by as we’re setting up our tent. “70 mile per hour winds tonight!”

Our tent is bowing inward. “Could we still sleep in this?” We ask ourselves.

We decide to hold off on a decision. Esther and Sam want to do more exploring, so they take the car to another viewpoint. I stay back to read my book.

I’m reading Thoreau’s Walden for the first time. It’s naturey, the sort of thing an outdoorsy girl should read. It is so windy I can’t stay inside the tent, so I scramble under our allotted picnic table.

Hot nature girl, who?

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Sam & Esther return to our campsite, still eager to explore. This time, I tag along and stay in the parking lot as they scramble over more rocks.

I have a feeling Thoreau would not approve.

And then I remember that I need time to sit and read and think so that I remain a good travel companion.

My thoughts of impressing people stop, and I draw because I’m here, creating some proof of existence in this moment and this place.

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To get more relief from the wind, we visit the National Park gift shop.

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Elsewhere:

A burst of new writing on my blog, including a story I can’t get out of my head, a mind map of visuals, and quilt inspirations.

My favorite holiday tradition: The Argus Leader’s low-budget, last-minute Halloween costumes inspired by this year’s news.

Two new-to-me song recs: Fast Times in Minnesota & Dear McCracken. Stylistically they’re pretty different, but just now I realized the subjects of both songs have a lot in common, which amuses me.

Data poisoning to thwart AI image scraping. I’m pretty bored by most AI coverage, but this is cool.

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Thanks for joining me this month! Have you been to the Badlands? Do you have opinions on Walden? Reply directly to this email, or leave a comment to share with other readers. If you know someone who’d like this, feel free to forward it on.

💛, Ten