Today’s plan was pretty simple: drive across South Dakota. From Sioux Falls to Rapid City, 400 miles along Interstate 90. Straight across a square state. Okay, we can do this. But first, we say good bye to Sioux Falls which I did with a lovely run along the Big Sioux River Greenway. Then breakfast and we hit the road.
The entertainment this trip is that we are going to learn French on the road. Frank really learned it in school and so just needs a refresher. I, on the other hand, have dabbled in Spanish and German but never even tried French. So today we rolled down the highway with the top down learning how to say “Je ne comprends pas le français” which, it turns out is really true. It was very entertaining that the first thing we were learning in French was how to say “Do you understand English?” and “I don’t understand French”!
We tried to find things along the route to break up the monotony but the reality is that there isn’t much to do along I90 through the middle of the state. We wanted to head north a bit to visit the capital but that was when the skies decided to open up so we opted to keep going. Then we tried to find somewhere to eat lunch. We looked to see what might be logical places to stop and found a few towns on our map who’s names were in slightly larger type so we took that as a sign that they might be larger towns with more options. Well they each had a population of just over 600 so I wonder if that is the South Dakota definition of “larger”.
We eventually gave up and decided to much through our snacks and just head to the Badlands. We drove the Badlands loop and stopped to do a few short hikes. The terrain is spectacular and like nothing else we had ever seen. It was very much like walking on another planet.
We continued the drive through the park and eventually got to Wall, SD for the obligatory visit to Wall Drug. They make very good ice cream, BTW. In addition to getting our free ice water, Frank bought a new hat to help keep the sun off his neck which is starting to burn. 
Then off to the bed and breakfast for a shower and into town for a decent dinner. We are still in the “hastily rebooked” portion of the trip so the B&B here was not as thoroughly vetted as others on the itinerary. We were to check in at the restaurant which turned out to be more like a biker bar. (Side note: we are currently about 50 miles from Sturgis, SD where the famous biker rally will be held next week. We have passed more Harley’s and other bikes than Wall Drug signs so really everything is a biker bar around here right now.) We checked in and parked in front of our room door – think motor hotel from your childhood days – and I started to get very nervous. Then we went inside and say the lovely apartment with the JACUZZI BATH TUB and all was forgiven.
We showered and went into town to pick up a few items. We are now discovering all the things that we forgot and really do need – like a charger for the battery on Frank’s camera. God bless Best Buy. Then to eat steak! Entertainingly, we had dinner in a restaurant named Dakotah in Rapid City, South Dakota, served by a waiter named Dakota. Hmmmm….
A soak in the tub and some wrestling with the wifi (which we lost as you can tell by the late post) and it was off to bed.
Numbers for today:
- Miles driven: 412
- States covered: 1
- Steps: 15,000ish
- Layers of sunscreen: 3
- French lessons completed: 1
- Signs for Wall Drug: 51 (but we definitely missed some)
The Cannon Family's travel blog 