Road Trip Diaries Day 8: 750 Miles of Mostly Corn

     Hello! Today was by far the most driving of the whole road trip- glad to have survived. Driving from Hill City to Iowa City requires driving a very long, very straight route across the entirety of the state of South Dakota, about 2/3 of the way across Minnesota, and then a turn south into a whole lot of Iowa. And Minnesota has terrible roads, so we couldn't even drive faster than 75 mph. There is a lot of corn out here, along with quite a few giant windmills. We could instantly tell that Iowa was more exciting than Minnesota because the windmills here were actually turning. That's some big stuff right there.

In a Nutshell: Overview of Day 8
Route: Hill City, SD to Iowa City, IA
Miles traveled: 756 today, 2,971 total.
Hours in car: 12 today, 50.5 total.
Coffee Consumed: Caitlin: 1 cup today, 11 total. Cortney: 1 cup today, 5 total. Combined: 16 cups.
Food highlight of the Day: Breakfast at Bully Blends cafe and pub in Rapid City, SD. They make a strong latte, have a large cafe selection, and they have a bar where they keep Guinness on tap. This place wins at everything, which is why after 4 years I still remembered it and made sure we stopped. I had a cinnamon raisin bagel served with peanut butter, and Caitlin got a pasty with some very carnivorous filling. I don't remember what it was, but it kept her going most of the day. This is probably the coolest place in all of South Dakota.
Quote of the Day: Cortney: "Two hours to go! Let us power through with enthusiasm born of vegetables!" A Subway sandwich can go a long way in making a 12 hour drive more manageable.

Miles and Miles of ...  uh........ 

     The Circle B singers perform a song called "Miles and Miles of Texas." We're not going to Texas, but we sure saw miles and miles of other flat parts of the country. It's interesting how places seek to distinguish themselves out here. The little things become so very important, and will have billboards for hundreds of miles. Wall Drug, for instance, has populated about 50 miles of the area immediately east of Rapid City with so many billboards that we got virtually hypnotized into going there. I have never seen so many billboards for one place- it has to get you wondering. So we pulled off I-90 and followed the signs to Wall Drug. It is so important that there are even signs to tell you there are signs ahead- "Slow! Arrow ahead!" The arrow pointed us into a parking lot- if only all attractions were this well marked. 

     Frankly, Wall Drug was worth it. It is a giant complex of stores that take up most of the tiny town of Wall, South Dakota. You can buy coffee, cowboy boots, and stickers that say "Yay cheese!" You can also buy the heads of various animals, including the rather creative jackalope. 

     Caitlin and I hypothesized that Wall Drug is kind of like that spirit village in the Hayao Miyazaki movie Spirited Away, and we soon grew concerned that we would never be able to leave. There were Stetson hats to try on, and beautiful hand-tooled boots, and carved or polished rocks of all sorts. There was even this handsome cowboy: 

     Eventually, though we did make it out of there, and I had bought nothing more than a rather useful little mortar and pestle.  We were not done with odd, hyped up attractions however. Not in the least. We still had the Corn Palace. It is a good couple hours east of Wall, but still in South Dakota. Billboards proudly proclaim that it is the world's only corn palace. What a great honor. Originally built in the late 1800s, it used to be a building made entirely of corn. It has since become modernized and somewhat less cool, as it is now a rather normal basketball arena that is decorated with corn. The corn decorations are still pretty impressive though. All the artwork on the building is done with corn cobs, while some of the other decorations are done with hay, rye, and other local crops. 

OMG! Corn! It's so exciting! 

A lot of corn on the outside.... what wonders can possibly be within? 

A basketball court... turned market

     So, the corn palace wasn't as remarkable as hoped, but it was free, and it was part of what made the 12 hour drive not feel like a 12 hour drive. When you're driving across the middle of the United States, you have to get your kicks somehow, because most of it looks like this:

 Or maybe this: 

    

     The windmills get to be pretty exciting after a while! They do make for some nice scenery, or at least they gave me something to take way too many photos of. Caitlin had a pleasant herd of windmills waiting for her on her memory card by the end of the day. 

    We did get some excitement in Waterloo, Iowa when we pulled off for gas. It seemed to be a sleepy enough little Iowa town, and we filled up and went back to get on I-380, only to find police cars blocking every onramp. We drove around, Caitlin rather miffed and me trying to convince her to ask for directions while I used my phone to look up what was going on. Were we stuck in some terrible small-town crime? Was a rural crazy coming to get us? Why could we not get back on the Interstate?

     Turns out it was President Obama. We had gotten there exactly 10 minutes before he was to give a campaign speech. 

     Oh the people you encounter on the road. We eventually did get back on 380, and had to go the speed limit the entire rest of the drive because of the police cars on every single overpass. I hope you enjoyed Iowa, President Obama!!! 

I nabbed this one from Google Images. 

Road Trip Diaries Day 7: My adoptive South Dakota family

Hey guys. Thanks to recent happenings and a nasty four-day headache I am now a week behind on my blog. Oh well! I am still on the road and this adventure is still happening. Where did I leave off? Oh yes- the Circle B. I worked there as a trail guide during the summer of 2008, and the owners of it were generous enough to let us stay there for free on our trip four years later. They fed us too! So, since I could not possibly pay them enough for their hospitality, I dedicate this blog to them.

In a Nutshell: Overview of Day 7

Route: Indian Creek Campground in Yellowstone National Park, WY to Circle B Chuckwagon, Hill City, SD.
Miles Traveled: 547 today, 2,215 total.
Hours in Car: 9 today, 38.5 total.
Coffee Consumed: Caitlin- 1 today, 10 total. Cortney- 1 today, 4 total. Combined: 14 cups.
Food Highlight of the Day: Free chuckwagon dinner at the Circle B. Beans, potatoes, biscuits, applesauce, meat for the carnivorous types, etc. I only had a few of the items since I'm vegan, and I still couldn't finish it all!
Quote of the Day: Caitlin (describing Kathy): "She's so cute! She can't be real!" Kathy Lawson is one half of the main couple running the Circle B, and she's like my adoptive South Dakotan mom.

South Dakota: My Unexpected Second Love

     People wonder why I like South Dakota. I spent a whole summer there four years ago, and when I tell people that they assume I must have been miserable. No I wasn't! The Black Hills region in South Dakota is a whole network of unfairly adorable little towns scattered amid the woods and meadows and creeks of the area, linked by roads that are way too fun to drive on and could probably be used to film great sports car advertisements. 

       Left to Right: Kathy, Dale, and Nick Lawson.

There is also a fiddle player who recently joined, not pictured here. 

     The whole region is "Old West" themed. At the Circle B, where we stayed the night, guests are treated to cowboy style food on tin plates, and a concert of old fashioned songs like "Autumn on the Trail" sung in harmony by possibly the sweetest father-mother-son band ever. 

     This is their first season at their new location just a few minutes from Hill City. When I worked there, I lived on the ranch at the old location and had to drive 40 minutes into Rapid City for high tech things like cell service and Internet. And recycling, come to think of it. 

This is part of the main building.

     I love the new place- lucky for me and Caitlin, it has several little guest cabins complete with bunk beds, bathrooms, and kitchenettes. The cabins look out over the green horse pastures, and are wonderfully cozy in the event of a raucous thunderstorm like the one we were treated to. Lighting flashes across the South Dakota sky far more often and with much more intensity than in California. The thunder rattled our whole cabin while we hunkered down for the night, giggling excitedly. I remembered the summer thunderstorms from before. They echo and crash and remind me that there are forces much bigger than people. Back in 2008 I spent many afternoons frantically trying to bring the donkeys into their pen, or rescue trail riders who got caught out in the weather.  

Our tent was still drying out from Yellowstone

Tourism is big business here- hence my former job as a trail guide (one that I may go back to next summer). What most people know about already is Mt. Rushmore. We did a quick drive-by, but it's $11 to park so we didn't stay. For me, the best attraction in the Black Hills is the area itself. It is full of hiking trails, good lakes for swimming, and lots of buffalo, bighorn sheep, elk, and other megafauna that never fail to excite the visitors into a photographic frenzy. A whole family of turkeys lived at the old ranch, along with a doe and two fawns.

A spectacular sunset at Mt. Rushmore as we drove by.
There is a pullout on the road for cheapskates like us.. 

     South Dakota is also biker territory. They come from all around for the Sturgis Rally, and a lot seem to stay. As I said earlier, the roads through the Black Hills are fantastic. Thanks to all this tourism, the area is remarkably easy to navigate and full of little attractions here and there.
     Though we had little time to see the area on this particular trip, I did quite a lot when I lived here. For anybody curious about South Dakota, I recommend visiting Custer State Park, driving the Needles Highway, and going through Bear Country wildlife park. I had so many magical experiences in South Dakota.  Getting caught in a moving herd of hundreds of buffalo was a great one. I just had to park and watch them stroll on by for half an hour. That happened in Custer State Park, which is also home to Sylvan Lake- perhaps the most unusual lake I've ever seen, and certainly the most fun one for swimming.

A South Dakotan traffic jam

     I'll stop rambling now since I'm sleep deprived, on tons of ibuprofen, and somewhat incoherent. I'll just show y'all a lot of photos instead.

And instead of people with cardboard signs,
you get these guys!

Sylvan Lake is crazy beautiful and fun for swimming, hiking, and climbing. 

    Hey guess what. I totally fell asleep while writing this blog, and just now woke up a full night's sleep later with my computer in front of my face. I guess the road is taking its toll on me. Time to jump in the shower and get on moving!

    But the lesson is this: South Dakota is awesome, and the Circle B is run by adorable sweet people who fed and housed me and my good friend even four full years after the last time I saw them in person. It is good to know I have a home there.