Good Times in the Badlands

Today was all South Dakota all day. We began near the eastern border and ended near the western one. Morning in Mitchell afforded us the opportunity to work on the blog over breakfast. This photo shows you how many electronic devices it takes to create this! (Well not really. I'm using the phone to take the picture, so that's missing, and Debra brought her iPad, too.)

It was then time to assess the car. Dusk the evening before had brought a blizzard of insects on the windshield, so many that I kept running the windshield washer. This morning I saw what had happened to the front of the car.

So it was off to the car wash, which helped only marginally. In fact, you wouldn't have noticed a difference if I had shown you the "before" instead of the "after" photo. The gas station/car wash proudly touted that is had premium gas. Apparently I'm not the only Lexus driver traversing the state.

Before leaving Mitchell, we stopped at the legendary Corn Palace. The change the facade every year, all of which is created with corn. Apparently in my honor, this year they are featuring a transportation motif as I hope you can see (that's someone on a segway on the far left).

Finally it was time to hit the open road. We made our way across the prairie, which is just overwhelming in its spaciousness.

It almost feels like you're flying (okay maybe I did drive a tad over the 75 mph limit). Again, we had the clear blue, blue sky and yellow and green ground. The agricultural landscape slowly morphed into grazing land -- less corn, more prairie grass.

We stopped in Murdo for lunch. This is their idea of a three-course meal -- meatloaf and potatoes and bread and, of course, all of it slathered in gravy.

Back on the road we raced through the plains. Then suddenly the landscape changed -- nothing gradual this time, just an abrupt shift into the Badlands.

Ice and wind have carved this eerily beautiful, godforsaken yet strangely embracing environment. In spite of having half the Harley owners of America for company, we both found the area comforting and soothing. Lots of stops to walk around and gawk and take silly pictures.

From there it was back on the interstate to Rapid City, then a loooooong drive to Mt. Rushmore with lots and lots of motorcycles coming along. (They start getting really annoying after a while.) We followed sign after sign for Mt. Rushmore, occasionally glimpsing it from afar, then suddenly turned in and next thing they were asking for $10 just to park and get a little closer. It's not like you can climb up on Washington's nose so we declined, drove a little further and found the cheap seats -- a nice turnout where you can see George's profile (he's in the right-hand shadow of the left-hand mountain).

Then it was on the Custer State Park and our lodgings for the evening. We stopped, put the top down, and drove through beautiful, pine-scented dappled late afternoon sunlight. Along the way we came across a buffalo sleeping quite close to the side of the road (picture didn't do it justice) and these pronghorn deer.

Finally we arrived at Legion Lake and our little cabin. After dinner we stood outside for a bit, gazing at the beautiful sky. Just as I turned, Debra saw a shooting star. Drat!

And so to bed.