South Dakota pt 5: Sheridan, WY

Sheridan, Wyoming is a great lil tourist hamlet, the midway point between Mount Rushmore and Yellowstone (which we would not visit this time but my Dad does love that show) - also, crazy connection - I feel like TMZ (which stands for Thirty Mile Zone as in the 30 mile radius of Hollywood - this would be called TMR as in Thirty Mile Zone of Rushmore) - speaking of Yellowstone, Kevin Costner’s parents actually lived in the very same old person home that my Grandma currently lives in (she’s a fan of the blog - shout out Grandma Arne in the hizzy!) Here’s the awesome photos (courtesy of Dad) below ⬇️ 

I definitely recommend spending a night or two in this wonderful mountain town - especially if you enjoy shows like Yellowstone, Deadwood, Westworld…any of those cowboy westerns, of which there are many new ones in that genre. There are some real-life cowboys & women in that place - we went to a local bar & grill that was full of them - it was like Roadhouse but with the WNBA on TV. 

We had this cool conversation with this couple (around my parents’ age - about 60) from Indiana - they were remarried so they had a combined family, both had kids before (a mixed family as they say). The guy (who looked like my old friend’s dad Bandy, who coached our basketball team back in the day) was an IU, Indiana Hoosiers alum and diehard while his wife was a Purdue Boilermaker (Drew Breeeeeeeeeees! Funny commercial a decade or so ago.) The guy loved NASCAR and regaled us with tales of Talladega, which he said was the best racetrack out there and the one you gotta visit if you like watching cars drive real fast and turn left - I would certainly make the voyage to the NASCAR homeland even though I’m not a huge fan of the sport, my 86 year-old Grandpa Dick (they call him “Dick” for a reason my cousin Daren said - he’s a notorious grump but he’s OUR grump) has loved it for decades. Also, Ricky Bobby is one of my favorite movies of all time, it’s gotta be in Will Ferrell’s top 3, so that would be pretty legendary to see the place where that took place, like traveling to Gettysburg for a historian - like Valley Forge but the tour guide is wearing a helmet that you suck beer outta a straw.

Another fun thing about these people was they had this garage door. Now, this wasn’t any ordinary garage door - it actually had a giant IU logo painted on it, representing the Hoosiers (speaking of Hoosiers, I was trying to tell my father how I thought it was strange that Gene Hackman retired from acting at the age of 74 back in ‘04 so that means we could have had 18+ years  and counting of Hackman in his twilight years. My point was I don’t think it makes sense to “retire” from acting because it’s unlike any other 9-5 regular “job”. I’m not “in” the business (I’m just gonna keep using quotes cuz it’s funny to me) but at least have sniffed around the periphery for a few years so I have some first hand knowledge - I’m pretty sure some professional acting jobs could be as little as 5 days and you’re in the movie (not like a main part of the movie but at least a few scenes, like Hamm in Top Gun: Maverick - I’m just guessing someone with a smattering of lines might be able to get away with less than a week on set or location or whatever - or maybe it depends on how many different scenes and locations they’re in.) Anyway, I got way off track - the point of all this was over the past 18+ years, Gene Hackman COULD have been in at least a few movies & TV shows - but at the same time, his net worth is $80 mil according to Google (who knows how they estimate those types of things - I bet the celebrity would give them a ballpark if Google just texted them - too many tax shenanigans probably floating around, though). Also, Hackman moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico which is like the opposite of Hollywood so he probably just wanted to get away from the ol’ biz and that whole rigamarole. All I’m saying is if I’m in his loafers, I would WANT to cameo in a cool Brad Pitt or Matt Damon or Tom Cruise or one of the Chris films every now and then just to shake up my 70’s and 80’s. He is actually a modernist painter and novelist so this is a renaissance man almost as old as the renaissance (kidding - love ya, Hack Attack). He sells his art online if you want some - you could be like, the coach from Hoosiers painted this! Then the person would ask if you knew him and you would have to awkwardly disappoint them. 

Enough Hackman hullaboo (which would be a great name for a podcast about his career if you want to start one of those - he starred in 102 films says IMDB, the Google of film/TV.) Sheridan - what a town - we walked through downtown around 7 am, a nice quiet area, not many walkers, seems like lots of tourists in the area as well as actual cowboys and ranchers. The bartender told us about her pet chicken that she brought on a flight and if I’m remembering correctly she actually had the bird on the plane itself, like with the other passengers? That can’t be right - at least it would have to be in a cage, you can’t just have a lose bird in the cabin, a flight attendant would duct tape it to a seat like a rowdy passenger. That area is full of actual cowboys and people who enjoy watching those types of people on TV so they travel there and check it out. Definitely a fun place to spend the night if you’re on the road, I recommend a pitstop in Sheridan, Wyoming.