Wonderful Crazy Club Day

Yesterday was a bummer and a day of cheer was badly needed.  Yesterday poor Mrs. Kadizzle broke her wrist.  So the day was a total disaster. Late in the day Shanika called and said he was sponsoring breakfast at the Crazy Club on Thursday.  Well Thursday turned out to be a brighter day. Mrs Kadizzle got to sit in the sun and recoup.  Kadizzle went to the Crazy Club for breakfast.  Shiny with her dog was there, Shanika had already arrived, and the word from Shiny was the owner of the meeting hall would show up.

It all came together.  Kadizzle was the only member present not born in the hamlet of Hazen. It was nice to have the owner present.  After the invocation stories were shared about growing up. The topic evolved around childhood scuffles.  Kadizzle seemed to have a more destructive and violent childhood to relate than the locals. After a good round of stories, and the quiche Shanika brought .  Shanika, Stoupini and Kadizzle took off for a long day of adventure.

The goal was to explore the Northern part of the badlands.  So in Shaniks SUV we headed west.  Eventually we got past Grassy Butt.  On a little past the North Unit Park and onto a dirt road. We headed out into the vast nowhere beside the Little Missouri.  The goal was  some nirvana valley Shanika wanted to show us.  We could not find a trail that was not blocked by a stream and never made the goal, but indeed we got to see some of the most wonderful country in the country.  The Badlands are little known or appreciated. Kadizzle has traveled the whole country and the Badlands are as good as it gets.  Of course now the badlands have oil wells sprouting like the weeds in your yard. Thankya Jesus the oil game has slowed down. The sheer amount of oil field equipment sitting idle is amazing. Stores built for the boom are running at one third capacity. The overbuilding of everything is amazing.  Somebody has lost a vast sum buying and storing things that are not being used.

To Kadizzle's surprise Shanika nor Stoupini had ever taken the road along the Little Missouri from the Long X bridge back to Killdeer.  So off we headed through some wonderful country polluted with oil wells, but still full of good scenery.  In the course of the trip road work was encountered.  A young college student stopped us with the traditional hand held stop sign. We had to wait for two motor graders working.  Kadizzle was bored and thought he would cause some ornery conversation.  Kadizzle asked the young college student how to get to New York from here.  A little stunned in the absolute middle of nowhere the college student asked where we were from. Kadizzle lying through his teeth said New York. Kadizzle explained that someone in Dickenson had told him to go north and we ended up in the oilfield.  A little amazed the student told us to go down the road and turn left.  Stoupini and Shanika quickly caught on and went on with the charade.  After a little fun with an incredible BS story we confessed we were from Hazen.  The flagman admitted he thought our story was suspect.

We traveled through Indian country and up by the lake.  Kadizzle had not been in some parts of this country for many years.  Seeing the change brought on by oil was interesting.  Every rancher that struck prosperity put up  a big gate entrance to his property declaring who he was.  Pumping money out of the ground changes everything above ground. Some for good, and some not so good. Killdeer has an indoor pool and a wellness center.  Empty housing for oil workers sits everywhere. Building built with great anticipation the boom would never end sit idle.  Although people dream the boom will not come back.  Oil has been found once more in great abundance in Texas.  North Dakota can scratch and sniff, but it cannot compete with the new West Texas find in the Wolf Camp shale.  So history repeats itself. The history of boom and bust is the history of the West.  It might be uranium, it might be gold, copper, or oil, but the story is always the same.