One last song with Lenny

We learnt enough last time to keep out of the way during the packing and departure.

On a stretch of empty road we drive alongside Richard to film him driving. He has a ziploc bag full of hard boiled eggs which he munches in between phone calls.

Before we arrive in Mitchell, Richard pulls off onto the dirt track that leads to Lenny’s place.

This could be one of the last times they meet. Lenny is close to checking out.

“You’ve been a good friend Dick, and I like the journey you’re on. But I have to say in front of God and everyone, you’re absolutely nuts”.

They say their farewells.

Family Plot

Before we head off on the next leg Richard wants to visit the family grave.

As the light fades he talks about his parents, how his father never really recovered from his wife’s early death. The sadness at brother Bob’s refusal to see him as he lay dying, or even allow Richard at his funeral. How bad must things have got for Bob to not want to see his brother before he died?

Richard points out where he will be buried. It’s a strange thing to know where your final resting place will be.

Memories

Shooting with Richard as he searches out old photos in the attic.

North Dakota Game and Fish

“Today, I will not hunt illegally”

Until today Richard was an avowed poacher. His nemesis was the state Game Warden. They’ve played cat and mouse for years. Richard has very strong views on hunting, and his freedom to kill stuff on other people’s land.

But the Warden is on the Amends list, so after church Richard arranges to meet him out by one of the lakes. He doesn’t explain why.

It’s drizzling as he pulls up in his jeep, and they take a walk together.

The high of killing and hunting is something Richard has been chasing (and finding) since he could run and hold a gun.

This is going to be one of the toughest ones for Richard to accept. There’s no recovery program for poaching.

Ransom

On the spur of the moment we drive with Jim and Sandy out to their place near Fort Ransom. It has been tricky for Richard to get time alone with his brother Jim and say his piece - he has to apologise for almost allowing his brother to drown when a boat they were in together sank. He’s tried a couple of times already on the ranch. He tries again in the car. He finally succeeds by the flooded river which runs at the bottom of Jim’s property.

Over steaks from the bbq, Richard recounts the story of how we all come to be around the table. It all begins with a travel agent in Mitchell in the early 60s, a trip to New Zealand, a meeting (in Fiji?) with Lynn who went on to become his second wife, the child they had - Kelli - who thirty years later came to London and Josh met, a trip to Mt Kilimanjaro by Josh, Kelli and Richard, the seeds of a film. You know the rest. If any detail had been different, this journey, these moments, wouldn’t be happening like this.

Tex

Richard drives out to a ranch on the outskirts of Wyndmere. He’s here to make Amends with his oldest friend Tex.

As they sit down to speak, Richard is overcome with emotion. Tex is a hugely dignified man. He waits silently for Richard to compose himself. They talk. Well, mainly Richard talks. He circles and dives and circles again. He brings it round. He opens old wounds, and “kicks the crust off old turds to smell them one last time before we bury them”.

The repercussions of some of the harm he has caused in the past, and the loyalty of his friend, are brought home. They made bonds when they were young men which have lasted to this day, but they’ve been seriously stretched by some of Richard’s behaviour over the decades.

When he gets up to leave over two hours later, Richard looks about a stone lighter.

“The last time we spoke as long and as deep as this was fifty one years ago up in the Sand Hills, in a lean-to with a jug of Seagram Seven” says Tex, smiling.

Thriller

The days in Lidgerwood begin to blend in to each other. We’re still in The Motel where we’ve switched to a weekly rate.

We have pretty much exhausted the food options. Naked Juices from the gas station are the only reliable source of vitamins. It’s proving a challenge to get Richard back on the road, he’s got himself tied up in insurance deals.

We start telling people Michael Jackson is moving to town when they ask why we’re filming.

Dash Dot Dot Dot

“One of the last times he was here, broad daylight, all of a sudden he jumps up and proceeds to go over to the tree on the corner of the driveway and just relieves himself right on the tree there.”

Richard’s sister lives in a nice suburban neighborhood. She’s on the front lawn, surrounded by Easter decorations. She’s explaining why her husband Larry doesn’t like Richard coming over to visit.

During the course of our conversations she adds more pieces to the jigsaw. She has the same energy as the other Kuchera’s we’ve met. It’s fascinating to see the overlaps.

Her infectious enthusiasm for life is born out of a serious illness ten years ago which she survived.

“It’s a lifelong journey to figure out why am I here, what am I supposed to be doing? The greatest gift that I received was the illness of cancer 10 years ago. I think of it as a privilege to be chosen by God to go through this adversity - in going through that you realise what we are really here for”.

Towards the end of the interview, she tells us the story of a reading at a recent funeral,

“Your tombstone has the year you were born, and the year you died, and then in the middle will be the dash. And in the end it isn’t important what year you were born and what year you died, but what you did with the dash, what did you do with your life in between”.

Bodily functions to death, via family and the church. It’s classic Richard.

Not Biting

An early morning drive to a secret fishing location.

Dead by the side of the road: raccoon, skunk, pheasant, badger, squirrel, various unidentified birds.
Alive: pheasant, duck, deer, pelicans.
Fish caught: 0.

A Dog's Life

"I’ve found Bodie!"

"I don’t believe it, where was he?"
"In the kennel, come take a look"
We walk around to the back of the house. The dog cage is empty.
"Where is he?"
"Inside, go take a look"
"Bodie! Here boy!"
Nothing.
"Look inside!"
Richard goes down on all fours. His head disappears inside.
"Bodie!"
He reaches in. As he reverses out, we see he’s holding a dog’s front legs.
Bodie slowly emerges from the kennel. There are strange liquids oozing from him.
"Oh Bodie"
"He must have died in the winter"
Bodie has been missing for months. In the meantime Richard’s current dog Pepsi has been sharing her sleeping quarters.
Richard calls over a young girl who has been playing next door.
"Watch how well trained my dog is"
He points at the lifeless creature.
"Play dead Bodie! Play dead!"

Lidgerwood

Time starts to slip down a gear in Lidgerwood.

On old boy drops off some fishing rods. JP and Richard butt heads over domestic arrangements. Richard composes a letter to the sister who refuses to see him. The dog gets walked a lot by the lake. Insurance deals are set up and meetings arranged.

Meanwhile we’re making friends. Mrs Bohnenstingl who runs the Lidgerwood Cafe (we resolve after a few beers to open a business back in London called Bohnenstingl’s), DayDay who is janitor at the local school, member of the volunteer fire squad, throws his darts underarm and says “It don’t matter” a lot, which swiftly becomes a catch phrase.

There’s Richard’s hunting partner Randy and his oversexed dog Bud, who Randy assists in impregnating any bitch in town who’s in heat. Across the road is wise old Eli, who served in Korea and flies the Stars and Stripes in the front yard.

Not much to do here but it’s strange, we’re not tempted to turn the television on once. TV here is rubbish.

Brother Jim

Wyndmere, ND. Richard’s home town.

Richard’s brother Jim lives here out on his farm. He’s got the family handlebar tash and a fast talking no-nonsense delivery peppered with jokes and expletives.

We film with him out on the ranch as he feeds the cows. We drive in his pickup over to collect hay on the site of what used to be the largest turkey farm in the US. The whole complex is deserted after the place went bankrupt and there are row after row of empty corrugated barns.

The cows are friendly, but it’s one of the horses that gets up close and personal with Josh and gives the camera a lick.

Back at their place his wife Sandy shares her just-out-of-the-oven rice krispie cakes and we sit down for a chat.

Afterwards we make it to the local bar just in time for happy hour. Richard joins us and as Jim tucks in to beers, it’s clear he’s got things to say. Talk turns to an upcoming family reunion in June and he warns Richard that “there will be none of that healing talk shit”.

For supper we eat a goose that Richard acquired under dubious circumstances and has had roasting all day.

Remote

A tumbleweed blows across the main street in Hankinson, North Dakota, as we search for a different place to stay. I’ve never seen a tumbleweed in real life before. I guess it’s not a good sign. We feel properly in the sticks here - the only decent bar in Lidgerwood burnt down a few weeks ago.

We join Richard, Barb and JP to film on a walk outside the town. There’s a small graveyard full of tombstones written in German. It’s sparse and austere countryside and the lakes still have ice on. Somehow even out here Richard finds someone to talk to and before long we have met a landowner who has a license to shoot turkeys and a son in law who knows how to call them. They’re in season so there may be some hunting on the cards. I’ve always wanted to meet someone who can imitate a female turkey and summon male turkeys the their death.

As we break bread later, Richard realises he’s left his shotgun out on the back porch at the Portable Ranch House, along with a bag which contains his tape recorder and all the notes for his Amends. He puts in a call to the local bar and manages to convince someone to drive out there and rescue the stuff from the rain. This man was born to hustle.

Pow Wow

We are woken by the sound of four rotund elderly ladies bouncing in the pool outside the window.

It was a late night by the time we had taken all the footage in and called it a day so it’s a bleary start. Breakfast overlooking the Missouri. Josh asks for HP sauce, then Marmite. The waitress is confused.

Back up on the reservation Richard calls a ‘meeting’ and passes around his ‘meeting stick’. It’s a very un-British approach to problems - talking about them - but it seems to yield results. Grievances and tensions which have been building for the past few days are aired. The filming process inevitably puts strain on everyone, and this seems to be a way of dealing with the issues quickly. The main one seems to be power lines and Richard’s pathological insistence that they shouldn’t be in any shots.

Richard gets very emotional when one of the Native American security ladies he has been buttering up gives him the phone number of the tribe’s medicine man as we are leaving. He tries to call but there's no reply. 

We drive out to Sitting Bull’s memorial and he picks up a couple of young squaws on the way. It’s a beautiful location but they have surprisingly little to say about Sitting Bull. He was a Sioux holy man who “had intense spirituality that pervaded his entire being in his adult years and that fueled a constant quest for an understanding of the universe and of the ways in which he personally could bring its infinite powers to the benefit of his people". Sounds like our kind of guy.

A full day of driving, and stopping to shoot scenery or airborne wildlife. At one point there's a flock of cranes riding thermals above us - We finally roll in to Lidgerwood for $1 burgers at the Genoseo Grill. Richard carries his own meat everywhere. Tonight he brings a full spread in Zip-Lock plastic bags and we commandeer an empty basketball court to eat in. I’ve never been so glad to see a bag of salad in my life. We drink the only four Fat Tire beers in the bar then retire exhausted to The Motel (there’s only one in Lidgerwood).

Delayed Departures

It’s goodbye Spearfish, hello North Dakota. We’re ready to head North. We arrive atthe Portable Ranch House at 10am - in plenty of time for the scheduled midday departure.

As time begins to pass it gradually dawns on us that there are a mountain of ‘tasks’ to be completed before we leave. We wash up. We make beds. We carry cases out. We stow skis in the shed. Richard decides to hoover. Then he decides to spend a long time picking things up, moving them, and putting them down somewhere else. His ADD is in full effect - he tells me in the car later that his nickname used to be ‘Lightning’ for this very reason.

A few skuffles later we finally roll out at 5, with an 8 hour journey ahead.

It’s a massive relief to be moving at last. We’re travelling in two cars so we keep changing the configuration. Richard keeps up a constant stream of conversation. He has bags of cheese and meat and olives on the dash. The club soda is flowing. 

We see wild turkeys right in the middle of the road. We see buffalo. We see beautiful sunset.

By the time we reach the halfway point - a place just over the Missouri called Mobridge - it’s getting late and Richard decides to overnight. The Mo’Rest is full. The Wrangler Inn is expensive. We head to the casino a couple of miles out of town where Richard works the comp system by telling them we’re here making a documentary about Native American culture and wangles a free room. It’s the last empty one in the place - they’ve got 20 Indian families staying here after their village flooded. Josh and I head back to the Wrangler and collapse.

Rushmore

Easter Sunday. Apart from Christmas, this is the big one for the Catholic Church. There is a non-denominational event at Mount Rushmore at 7 so we head off at 4.30am to catch the sunrise.

The monument looks impressive in the early morning mist.

The service opens with sixty kids drumming on stage. It’s hands in the air. Their leader is a very enthusiastic and slightly camp middle-aged man who leads with gusto. He's holding a green mic. 

Richard is wearing about 10 layers of clothing. He’s in irreverent mood and cracks open a club soda during the sermon. He makes a beeline for the only black family in the congregation and tells them how proud he is to be an American now that Obama is in the White House. It’s all going well until he asks the father how it feels to be the token black man in the audience.

He insists on Josh filming him at Crazy Horse nearby, telling the camera how connected he is with the Native Americans.

To Rapid City and the Cathedral. It’s a full house. The procession of people coming up to receive communion lasts for three hymns. They keep coming. Afterwards the priest spends a long time reading the location release but Richard is on fire and soon he’s charmed.

We share an Easter lunch with Richard at the Bay Leaf. He has a habit of getting up mid-mouthful, walking to another table, and starting a conversation. Soon he knows everyone in the place, including a musician who’s friends with Kristofferson and agrees to put us in touch. Result.

Following the tracks

We’re trying to pick up the traces of someone who lived in this town over 20 years ago and in many cases the trail has run cold - people have died, others have moved away, some simply want to forget.

Josh speaks to Coyote, another original member of the Robin Hood hunting guide service that Richard ran with Mike back in the day. Coyote is in hospital so we arrange to film next time we pass through. He's a pilot and a craftsman and a hustler and a hunter. He's another fragment of the story we're beginning to piece together.

We have breakfast in somewhere purporting to be “The Greatest Coffee Shop in the World” which turns out to be anything but.

Sadly we don’t have time to check in with the extraordinarily named Bonnie Bollock

After shooting some GVs around town we stop off in Cabela’s - an ‘outdoor supplies’ store on the outskirts of town which is a cathedral to hunting and killing stuff. They have an amazing display of stuffed animals which takes up the whole of the back wall.

It also affords us the first sighting of beaver on the trip.

We jump back in the car and make the 5 hour drive back from Mitchell - the snow has begun to melt and the countryside is brown and dry beneath the white.

It’s Good Friday and we’ve arranged to film in the Catholic Church in Deadwood. Deadwood turns out to be a tourist trap - grannies feeding the slots and chowing down at the buffets.

The service begins with the priest lying prostate in front of the altar and there’s a procession of people who come to the front to kiss the cross. Good hymns this time. We're becoming Catholics by proxy. 

The Mitchell Brother

We’ve arranged to meet Richard’s brother Mike in Mitchell. His participation in the film is crucial, but he’s understandably cautious. They travelled the world together as young men, but by all accounts things got pretty fraught over the years and Mike has been keeping his distance.

We meet in a coffee shop near his office. His wife joins us and we talk about hunting, training dogs, shooting in England. 

Mike has given Richard plenty of chances over the years. He’s lived through the good times, and the bad, and suffered the consequences of Richard’s behaviour. We leave with the door open, but no guarantees.

In the afternoon we meet with Lenny, another old friend of Richard’s, who lives right out in the middle of nowhere. He’s still a bit high from a session with the dentist and then he takes a hit of some particularly strong weed before the interview, so it takes a while to slip in to gear. When he hits the marks there’s some great stuff in there, and his voice is resonant and full of history - he tells us “I’ve been knocked down and run over so many times I can tell the make of tyre that’s coming”.

Josh asks him to write some songs for the film.

Celebrities

We come across Kate Bush’s place while out filming GVs.

She’s not the only celeb in town. Looks like Justin passed through, although I can’t help thinking a little less time dancing in the playground and a bit more time in handwriting class might have really set him up for life in the big time. I'm glad he like the food at Frenchie's.

Offski

Sunday morning and Loren from next door hasn’t been to bed yet. I managed to escape at closing time. He bangs on the door at 11 and demands to be taken to the slopes. We’ve got a day off so we drive him and his buddy Jeff up there. When we’ve finished skiing/boarding we bring back two very different people. They sleep most of the way home.

Terry Peak is amazing. Josh flies down with the greatest of ease but this is only my fourth time. By the end he has switched to a board and i’m making the turns. It’s a fun day. There are loads of young parents on the slopes encouraging their progeny: “Good Job! Awesome Britney/Billy-Bob/Shayna, you can do it!”. With that amount of positivity pumped in to them from an early age its no wonder there’s so little cynicism in these hills. It’s nice to watch.

Swimmingly

Up early for a swim, we check out The Black Hills State pool. Nearby is an indoor running track and a procession of unenthusiastic early risers are ‘speed walking’ slowly round it.

The snow is coming in again. It starts just as we pick up another car (shout out to Kai from Enterprise in Spearfish for the SUV upgrade) and it’s falling pretty thick as we drive in to Rapid. A small situation has been brewing there since we dropped the last car off - there were some scratches in the paintwork from a cardboard box Richard put on the roof and trunk. Dennis, the owner of Casey’s, has been in the game long enough to know all the angles, so in spite of a good half hour of buffing with ‘product’ there’s no way those scratches are going to disappear. After much negotiation we leave a hundred dollars lighter and chalk it up to experience.

In Wal-Mart I spot at least three people (including the Greeter) with breathing tubes coming out of their noses.

On the way to Loretta’s we manage our first non-chain food experience at the Olde Worlde Cafe and Bookery in Sturgis (home of the world famous motorbike rally). The food is remarkably good for a place which calls itself a Bookery. Josh adds a pin to London on the world map at the owner’s insistence.

Loretta was Richard’s partner for 13 years, and knows him better than most. She’s very open and Josh shoots a great interview with her.

She says the snow hasn’t been like this since she was a kid.

A life in images

In the afternoon we head over to the Portable Ranch House and spend several hours looking though Richard's amazing collection of personal photos. There’s a whole life in these ring binders - family gatherings, camping trips, hunting trips, weddings, bbqs, business trips - even some naked-in-the-mountains shots. Most of the pictures involve a dead animal, or a part of a dead animal. Even as someone who doesn’t eat a lot of meat, you’ve got to respect a man who hunts, kills, skins and cooks his own food. But boy has he killed some.

The saturated colours in the photos are amazing - they’re real 70s and 80s America. We film a selection, and Richard looking through them. Each one tells a story.

Josh suggested to Richard a few days ago that he records his thoughts on a dictaphone so he’s bought a cassette recorder. He uses his time on the mic to let off a little steam about us, which puts us in the picture when we listen back to it later.

Back at our motel the welder from Texas in the next door room has left us a message on the door. We’re in 111 - how are we going to get out of this one?

Beer: Moose Drool again. Loren the welder was drinking JD this morning, but he’s working nights.