World of Autism

Well, it’s our last day in the Hills, and we don’t want to leave!  Lucas comes ALIVE when he’s away from home.  We’re convinced it’s because he’s free of the television, vcr and computer.  But of course, we need to get back to civilization, which includes all those things.

We said goodbye to our friends Dallas and Mary Deitrich, and Lucas bid farewell to Rattlesnake Jake.  I promised myself that I would focus my “Parenting an Autistic Child” article for September on their amazing Meeting The Need endeavor.

 We left the hills on the 22 of August, driving across South Dakota through the day.  We camped just south of Sioux Falls that evening.  We had been around Sioux Falls before, but had never explored it (it was just another place we went past on our way to our Black Hills!)

I had read that the city was named after the waterfall that the town was built up around.  So after dinner, we decided to drive into town and see the actual “Sioux Falls”.   As usual, the people of South Dakota were more than happy to give us directions, and at dusk we beagn to travel through the city in search of “Falls Park”.

When we got the Falls Park, it was full dark.  But the park was alive with people!  Families were riding bikes along the lighted paths and couples young and old were out strolling, enjoying the balmy summer air.

A nice lady who worked at the park told us about a show they were having later; the history of Sioux Falls was told with laser animation on the side of a building next to the falls.  This “history lesson” was accompanied by an ever-changing light show on the falls themselves, and was narrated over loud speakers.

Lucas LOVED the show!  This was the Wild West, and the story was rife with fist fights, saloons, ladies of ill repute and even kids with pea shooters!  The whole show was done with an eye towards entertaining folks of all ages, using actual letters and news clippings from those times.  I wish whoever put this together would do the same for school history curriculums!

This will be our last night in South Dakota.  We’ll be home in a few short days now, stopping on our way to see Lucas’ big brother Robert.  My birthday is in 2 days, and I hope we’re in Pitstburgh, where Robert is now living, in time to have my birthday dinner with him.

I think Alan and I are both a little sad to be heading back to the East, with its crime, traffic, litter and problems.  But for now it’s home, and we know it’s where we need to be for Lucas.  So we’ll continue to head east, towards televisions, vcr’s, school and work, and keep our dreams of living in the Hills close by, just in case…

Tags: Traveling with autism. //