Just a quick update. I visited California and Utah during the hoidays.

My plan was to stay a few months in Rapid City, South Dakota, before continuing on the Eastern United States. While in Rapid City, I wanted to catch up on some editing and writing.

I still have a lot of work I want to catch up on before I continue my travels. However, I have decided to spend the next month or two with friends in Salt Lake City, Utah. I will continue my work on video editing and writing while in Salt Lake. Then I will continue traveling.

I will be available to hang out in Salt Lake and I can be reached by email or cell phone.

During my time in Rapid City, I have been working on videos and writing. I have also kept busy absorbing information about the local culture and economy in Rapid City.

My publicist/assistant/friend (girlfriend?), KereAna, flew out to Rapid City to help me pack up and drive. A couple of days ago we took a short trip to a small town in South Dakota…

At first it looks like just another small rural town…

...until you reach the Petrified Forest at the center of town.

Observe the layers of petrification.

The strangest thing about this town is that everything has my name on it. Lemmon, that’s me. Matt Lemmon. I never expected to see a school bus with my family name on it.

Matt Lemmon contemplates his place in the universe while standing in front of the Lemmon Country Inn.

Nearly six months ago I started traveling around the Americas. I have had many surprises along the way. Perhaps the greatest surprise of all was this:

At the turn of the 20th century, a man named Ed Lemmon moved from Bountiful, Utah, to the midwest.

Ed Lemmon was a succesful cattle rancher, and his name is found in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. In 1907 he founded a town called Lemmon, South Dakota.

Ed Lemmon and I have a common ancestor, named Washington Lemmon.

Now it is official: life is crazy.

Here is the house Ed Lemmon lived in when he founded the town of Lemmon.

KereAna and I met some of the townspeople. We talked about the local economy. I asked about the population, the size of ranches in town, and the value of real estate.

The biggest ranch in the area has about 200 head of cattle. The population has gradually declined since the 1950s, when the population was 3,500. As of 2000, the population was 1,398. Real Estate is basically free. An average home costs $15,000. Old, run-down houses can be purchased for as little as $3,000. A nice house will set you back $30,000.

As I was meeting the people in Lemmon, I felt something similar to what I experienced when I visited Bogota, Colombia, in October. I was very interested in the people I met, and they were equally interested in me. It was a mutual curiosity.

I hit it off right away with the manager of the Lemmon Country Inn, Jean Fritze, and her husband.

We stopped to eat at the Alaska Cafe.

KereAna made friends with the owner, Laura Casey.

On the way out of town, KereAna and I stopped to take a picture of ourselves by a frozen lake.

More photos of Lemmon, South Dakota, can be found on my Flickr page.