-----Just like the past few days, it was I-90 all the way. It was the last of the Rocky Mountain foothills, as South Dakota brings with it the prospect of true plains where the speed limit of 80 almost seems low once you get used to going such a speed. We know that Wyoming can be a pleasant state, though it wasn't much so this time—but the "fajitas" weren't upsetting us.
-----We were to South Dakota pretty much before we knew it, and within two hours of our 10:00 departure had made it to Rapid City, where we got our requisite Jimmy John's and prepared for the road to Mitchell. The best way to cross the plains, as far as I'm concerned, remains I-90 in South Dakota, where the road is good, the wind is steady enough to be acclimated to, and there is just enough traffic to keep the driver focused. Unlike Wyoming—a state which seems to delight in closing lanes haphazardly and with no discernible reason—South Dakota's road work is actually obviously useful and necessary.
-----I don't know if it's because South Dakota's economy greatly depends on tourism—from the interminable signs for Wall Drug to the tourist traps of the Corn Palace, 1880 Town, the Borglum Story, and so on—or what, but it's always been a nice state to visit, even if its population centers are essentially on opposite sides. There's enough blankness in the middle to give you a sense of the vastness of the heartland, but still it pales when set against the true desolation of points further north.
-----After so much cold weather throughout our journey, we've finally caught up to summer. It was 45º just the other day, and the high today was a whopping 88º. But 88 isn't all that bad, for it is a dry heat—and the wind, which was steady throughout, was rushing in our direction, which was better for our gas mileage than driving against the wind, as we did yesterday.
-----The road simply gets gradually flatter and flatter as you move east, with only the occasional pronghorn or cattle sighting to break things up. Geologically, we saw Devil's Tower in the distance before we exited Wyoming, and saw snippets of the Badlands as we went north of them. But as we'd been there twice and already had a six-hour day—not including the loss of an hour as we went into Central Time—any revisitation would have to wait until a future trip.
-----We were last in Mitchell two years ago, and it seems to have grown in that time, with a fancy new hospital complex and an even bigger Cabela's. After yesterday's fiasco, we were wary of returning to the steakhouse at which we dined two years ago. Instead, we realized that we were now back in the land of Culver's, and ate there instead. It was as good a burger as we'd come to expect and would have been even better had the restaurant not been overrun by a cadre of small and uncontrolled kids under the lackadaisical jurisdiction of a clearly incompetent mom.
-----Tomorrow: we return to the National Music Museum in Vermillion before heading to Des Moines.
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