Two – Val Whitewolf

Think back on your most memorable road trip.

Two or unique

One was in nineteen ninety&four,

Sunbird loaded to the gills,

A rosary on the rear view mirror mirror,

My shiner monkey and a couple other favorite beloved stuffed animals in my front seat,

Copilots don’t you know,

I drive to Spencer,Iowa,

Spend the night with my aunt and uncle,

Then I was the first of my little family to return to South Dakota¹ in 100 years,

My great great granddad Louis Starkey⁸ who I thought was interesting that lives in Allamakee² County ,

Married a girl from Winneshiek³,County,

Belle Bergersen⁵ Mom’s family were Norwegian⁴,

Loaded it up covered wagon,

Drove the team Lane⁶, South Dakota,

Arrived ride just in time for the grasshopper⁷ plague to cause havoc and South Dakota,

Lineage is palpable,

Before South Dakota was a state,

My young then Great grandparents knew the way home to Iowa so the reloaded and return to to Iowa settled in Clay County,

Clay County is where Spencer¹⁰, Iowa ,

Lottie Henrietta Starkey Bittinger⁹ my mom’s mom Louis and Belle’s second youngest daughter.

I’m a historian and I love to know all the facts not just some of them.

I was on my way for my first season at Mount Rushmore Concession,

A seasonal contract season is from April 15,-October 15th,

Driving through the Badlands,¹¹

I secretly hope to see the Ghost dancers,¹²

But alas if they were near I viewed none,

I was scared and full of courage,

I was thirty-six,

Took me two days to arrive,

Long ass summer sausage and beloved stuffed animals and all my movies and favorite books,

Bic of computer printing paper,

A writer needs paper,

I’m not the most trusting person in the world,

There is a gas station at the base of the hill I stopped and pulled in,

I proudly said I’m here to work at the mountains concession do you know where that is?

In response I got a resounding no,

I said there is no food service at Mount Rushmore?

The dude said yes I said that’s the concession,¹³

Use the pay phone and called up before I drove there,

Nineteen ninety-four is long before they had cell phones,

There was bag phones not the same at all,

My second and equal filled the driver , me with the pioneering courage,

All my family donned the courage facade,

After talking myself in the possibility of success,

Now sixty-two after a nearly deadly Attack of cellulitis,

It was November of twenty-twenty,

My baby sister Ellen left me in death October the twenty-seventh,

I took the possibilities and desires of finding love at last,

Loaded my car,

Fixed my five cats up with lots of food and water,

Loaded my car,

Pointed it to Georgia,

And drove to a life and love,

I was incorrect ,

I had inherited money and I had trust on my side,

From my experience I found that all I had was money in my pocket,

I’m more than a few coins that I have in my pocket,

With that trip to Georgia I found that a heart is a fickle thing my motives were good and I survived,

It’s nice to have love I think love sneaks up on you when you think you have it you really don’t have it at all I did have with success I had traveled to Macon Georgia with the help of friend,

Friend I had hoped for more from,

Following year took 6500 to bring her to Iowa,

I’m a lesbian soft Butch,

A poet,

A traveling empath,

Who constantly works although there is no profit in it so far,

Today I made $8,

It’s more than I had yesterday,

I found at the end of my travel that I am not a fool,

Like the church mouse starvation sucks,

Even though I may never find love,

I had a good time it cost me a lot of money staying in motels making believe that someone loved me ,

Maybe that was a real journey the real trip,but I truly love working and living in national parks it beats the hell out of love I have love every time I write a poem and it touches me so deep or sit with my fur family they never lie about me they never betray me and they never slander me.

The narcissist in my family fooled everyone to believing that I am a monster if I were the monster she painted me she would be dead and her bones would be rotting in a sinkhole here in Iowa,!

Footnotes

1.https://www.census.gov/newsroom/stories/south-dakota-admission-anniversary.html#:~:text=South%20Dakota%20was%20admitted%20to,beginning%20with%20the%201890%20census.

2.https://iagenweb.org/allamakee/History/waukon_82.htm

3.http://genealogytrails.com/iowa/winneshiek/corono_history.htm

4.https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Iowa:_Norwegian_American_Settlement#:~:text=In%201839%20a%20group%20of,Hans%20Barlien%20and%20William%20Tesman.

5.http://genealogytrails.com/iowa/winneshiek/county_hist_1882.htm

https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/2522/norwegians

6.https://kids.kiddle.co/Lane,_South_Dakota

https://www.citydirectory.us/city-lane-south-dakota.html

7.https://www.jstor.org/stable/3739497

8.https://iowawpagraves.org/view.php?id=220201

9.https://www.ancestry.com/1940-census/usa/Iowa/Lottie-Bittinger_44xvlq