Presidential tears

  BLACK HILLS, S.D. - I put on my rain jacket and protected my camera as best I could during a walk and photoshoot along the Presidential Trail at Mount Rushmore on July 11.
  I wouldn't say this is the highlight of the Black Hills, whose impressive granite outcroppings and spires capture the imagination. But it's definitely worth a visit to the monument completed between 1927 and 1941, just before America's entry into World War II.
  In this photo, as a young man next to me said, Washington appears to be crying, Lincoln has a bloody nose, and you can use your imagination from there.

In the hinterlands

  So there I was on the unmapped backroads of South Dakota, flying south down gravel roads through corn and soybean fields, when suddenly I encountered this. (You might have to click "read more" for the photo.)
  Quandary: Do I try to get through? It was getting fairly late and I was tired and I wanted to find a campground before dark. People are in short supply in South Dakota, and there was nobody around to help.

  I had already gone through one 50-foot-long stretch of water to get here. But I thought back to the time I drove through Pole Creek in the San Juans and submerged the hood before barely making it across. No good way around there. This time, I had other options. I'd feel pretty stupid watching my truck float past some grazing cattle.
  And since I didn't know where I was, what did it matter if I backed up and tried another route?
  I did, and I had my dinner cooked in time so I could almost see what I was eating.