Thursday: South Dakota

Yesterday's travail was worth it: today I saw Mt Rushmore for the first time. Here is my very first view of George Washington, just before we rounded the corner to the visitor's center. Awesome. I was giddy as a teenager on her first date. Washington: what a babe.

And here is our "tourist photo" taken by a kindly passing soul:

We arrived at Rushmore about 8:30 AM and had a blissful hour or so wandering around. By the time we left it was 90 degrees and engorged with tourists, lots of tour buses, families with children.

Headed east across South Dakota, sign after sign heralded the (apparently) world-famous Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD. There must have been at least 50 signs in 50 miles.

Wall Drug Store turns out to be a ticky-tacky-tourist-trap. We grabbed a surprisingly decent lunch at the crowded cafe and left Wall, SD in the dust.

Parts of SD are quite beautiful, lush farmland dotted with cows and fields of green corn. At Oacoma/Chamberlin I got my first look at the Missouri River. What a thrill! And of course, there were many scenes like this one:

But we're getting used to that. I'm still not used to the feeling of rushing across the country, though. There were so many things I would have liked to see. We passed within 55 miles of the Laura Ingalls Wilder Homestead. I loved those books, must have read them all 20 times. But we didn't have time to stop. Our next road trip will benefit from the lessons we're learning on this one.

So now I'm sitting in a horrible smoking room at a horrible Ramada Inn in Sioux Falls, SD. I don't think we'll use Priceline again if this is what you get. I'm really looking forward to spending 3 nights in one place -- that's starting tomorrow night in our destination - Emporia, Kansas!