We woke up ate breakfast quickly and headed out toward our planned stop of Murdo, South Dakota. As I said yesterday, Rochester or at least the hotel we stayed at, was pretty sad. Lots of worried people milling around getting breakfast and heading out to the various clinics. The hotel does a good job of ferrying people around; they have a small bus that is constantly dropping off and picking up. We saw other hotels doing the same thing. At any rate we were anxious to leave so we hit the road.
Saw this cool water tower as we left town
We have seen a lot of corn on this trip; way more than any other crop; or all the other crops combined.
Traffic was much lighter than it had been the day before and we just zipped along next to lots of grazing cattle and some ponds for watering
We stopped for lunch in Mitchell, SD and couldn't pass up the chance to see the Corn Palace. We didn't go in we just grabbed a couple of pictures from the outside.
A little later we crossed the Missouri River.
Interspersed with the corn fields were some sunflower fields. This picture is evocative of what I envisioned for the road trip.
This is really the wide open spaces; the sky just goes forever like a huge bowl over us.
The speed limit in South Dakota is 75, which means we were cruising at just under 80, except for the spots of construction. We went so well we figured we'd get to Murdo in early afternoon and we thought we'd like to get farther along so we could really spend some time in the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore on Wednesday. Carla busted out the tour guides as I drove and found a tiny hotel in the tiny town of Kadoka, South Dakota (population 706). The town is just over the time zone divide so we picked up an hour and felt all the more refreshed.
After checking into the hotel we walked into town to tour main street and visit the depot museum. This is the end of the line for trains, I don't think a train has gone by in years.
An old grain elevator across the now torn out tracks.
And the old Pearl Hotel just across the street
On the way back to the hotel we crossed a creek and saw a couple of deer who were keeping their eyes on us.
The temp was about 90* and dry (ah, nice to be back more west). Back at the hotel we took a dip in the outdoor pool which was chilly but refreshing. Then dinner at the diner next to the hotel.
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