DETOUR TO VALENTINE

The road signs began popping out of the cold spring ground just west of Sioux City. Passing them on the narrow two-lane highway at a cool 55 miles per, it was hard to make out the picture, but the all-caps “OUTLAW TRAIL” plaque beneath was impossible to miss.

For 230 some miles, Route 12 snakes its way across northern Nebraska, following the natural meander of the Missouri and Niobrara rivers, and deposits its travelers in the small ranching community of Valentine. Valentine sits just south of the otherworldly moonscape of the Badlands, and just north of the rolling grass sea that is the Sandhills National Natural Landmark. It is not heavily traveled country, and it was therefore once preferred by outlaws. I was not on the run, but my life has been a series of small escapes—from home, relationships, and the numbing repetition of working life—so