Feeling tyred

Yesterday I woke fairly early and the sun was shining so I wrote a blog about black birds by the side of the road.  It was too early to get the tire fixed.

Here is some very valuable information for anyone who gets a flat tire in Custer, SD on the Sunday before the holiday of Memorial Day.  It goes like this:

Don’t bother with LaMonte’s Auto Center, 1029 Mount Rushmore Road because it doesn’t exist anymore.

And don’t bother with French Creek Loggers’ Supply because they stopped fixing tires on 28 May 2011.

Don’t bother asking the only two people out on the streets of Custer at 815am as both had only just moved there and knew nothing about tyre repairers

What you need is Leo’s Auto Repair and Towing Service (Owner Paul Schmitz).  The sign on the door said ‘Closed’ but a face poked out and turned it to ‘Open’ when I pulled up. This was Paul’s son Troy – he’s a nice lad and did his best with my tyre but it couldn’t safely be mended so we needed a new one.  Dad phoned around without success while Troy told me that Custer had more days sunshine in the year than Hawaii.  Troy had lived in Custer all his short (25 years?) life but was obviously proud of it and the surrounding Black Hills.  He admitted the winters were ‘slow’ but fall was very nice.  The Schmitzs suggested that a drive to Wal-Mart in Rapid City was the best option as few places would be open on this holiday Monday.

The sun shone as I drove slowly to Rapid City passing a couple of Bison, several Golden Eagles, a grebe which I couldn’t stop to identify and an Upland Sandpiper which flew over the road.

The sun still shone as I entered Rapid City and the place was full of tire centers, auto centers, and most were shut – although a couple could sell me a whole car but not a single tyre.

I found Wal-Mart and they were open (hooray!), and very helpful (thank you!) but didn’t have the right tyre in stock – but Ron said he could order one.  ‘How long would it take?’ I asked.  ‘About 5 weeks’ was the totally amazing answer.  I said ‘But this is America – I could probably get one quicker than that in Afghanistan.’.  ‘You could here before Obama got in’ was Ron’s colleague’s reply.  We didn’t get into why the Pres had screwed up on tires but the good news was that if they could find one on the internet it might only be 5 days instead of 5 weeks.

I wasn’t feeling very hopeful but asked whether there was anywhere else in town and Ron said he’d try Sears.  He phoned, he spoke, they had one suitable tyre.  ‘Get there quick and ask for Ken’ was Ron’s advice and as I headed off I thanked him.

It was sunny as I drove around to Sears and met Ken and his colleague whose name probably wasn’t Ken.  She oozed competence and made me think that all would be OK.  ‘Come back in an hour and a half and it’ll be done’ said the Angel in Overalls.

It was sunny as I walked around the Mall, had a Mexican late lunch, mooched and kept hoping that the Angel in Overalls was right.

And she was!  I didn’t kiss her or hug her but I was very English about putting in lots of ‘thank yous’ in my goodbyes.  As I drove off it started to rain – but I almost didn’t mind.

I had been warned that Mount Rushmore was commercialised and tacky but I liked it.  The first view of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln that I got was from miles away and was impressive.  I got more as I approached on the specially-designed Iron Mountain Road – specially designed to give the traveller impressive views of the Mountain.  I liked it – and there is an impressive view of Washington’s profile alone as you leave the site, which is well worth catching.

I saw birds too, but I’ll tell you about them this evening if I don’t have internet problems like last night.  But here in the Green Bean Cafe in Spearfish, SD, drinking organic coffee and eating apple pie I have internet access and four good tires, and the sun is shining – so let’s go!

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