Greg gave me a tour of the area this morning. We had breakfast at the local diner, which being a small town is also the gas station, bait shop and grocery store. He took me across the dam to where the original fort was in the 1850's and there is a cool graveyard and info center. These pioneers were a tough bunch and a lot of them died of various diseases. We then went to a friend of his' farm which appears to be a typical "diverse farming" setup with crops, goats,and they are just setting up a 500 head feedlot to raise beef. Looks like you typical Vermont farm, but everything is bigger. We then went to some land that Greg is setting up for wildlife. It is a perfect balance of wetland and prairie grass with some assorted domestic "food" crops for the critters. You can tel this is bird country. I have been being dive bombed the last couple days by birds and we say a beautiful pheasant this morning. Also saw a badger, which we do not have at home. This corner of SD is not your typical prairie spot but much richer with wildlife. Thanks for putting me up Greg and giving me the nickel tour.
So I had so much fun on Rt 1 yesterday, I decided not to tax my brain today and just stay on Rt18 which goes due west. Very little traffic and smooth road. I saw move birds and a deer. This bottom part of SD has the reservations on them and you can usually tell by the election signs with Indian names and the lack of national chain stores. I stopped for gas in Pine Ridge which did have a large Conoco station where I filled up and got a drink. I got pan-handled by one of the locals who told me he just got out of jail for the day and needed gas for his truck. Good story for a buck, hopefully not for beer.
The original plan was to stop in Hot Springs for the night, but it was still early. Cheyenne was a little too far away, but Scottsbluff NE was perfect at 2 hours away. And it's probably time to start thinking of going south since i am supposed to end up in New Mexico. So another late day perfect weather ride south with no traffic and great vistas and smooth roads. The last 40 miles I ran alongside a big banks of thunderstorms with lightning and the whole works, but it stayed south west of me so I had ugly black stuff on my right, and blue sky and big puffy clouds on my left the rest of the way to Scottsbluff. Got a hotel and found a Mexican food place down the street with nice cold beer.
420 miles today.
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