Sunrise was beautiful in La Crosse. And then somewhere after we crossed the Mississippi into Minnesota it turned into garbage – snow drifts blanketing the interstate, salt trucks blowing shit all over the place, and pure white-knuckle driving. It wasn’t as bad as Ohio – at least this was dry – but it was early and there was a lot of dry snow on the ground so it had its moments. When I found myself behind a big truck being passed by another big truck, that was the worst. Probably 2 minutes of complete blindness as the snow blew all around the car from two sides. I couldn’t even see the stripe on the road.
Finally, we hit South Dakota and everything changed. The temperature steadily climbed and the sky cleared, revealing a giant blue sky. I had been here once before – driving I90 from Seattle to New York – but this time we were ahead of schedule and had time to really enjoy the scenery. It’s amazing the expanse of land here, and even more amazing the amount of history that happened in this state and in Wyoming, our next state. I drove for nearly an hour with no other cars in sight going my direction and it made me think about how incredible it was that people were even able to interact here at all, with so much space between people. I could see miles to the horizon, some jagged outcroppings in the direction of the Bad Lands, but very few farms and even fewer people. Only one guy was of note – he was the passenger in a fast moving truck on a dirt road running alongside the interstate. It slammed on its brakes as we passed and he jumped out, pointing a shotgun at the pheasant that was flying towards our car. I don’t know if he fired – we were just staring in disbelief as we passed.
Our last stop before Rapid City was in the tiny town of Wall, SD. If you’ve ever been within 300 miles of this town, you know it. Signs come every ½ mile for almost 200 miles – advertising 5 cent coffee, free iced water and all manner of tourist junk – for Wall Drug. It’s a small pharmacy that has turned into some sort of ghost-town mega schmaltz mall, complete with fresh fudge, turquoise jewelry and lots of beautiful boots. I had grown up seeing yellow and black Wall Drug bumper stickers all over Austin – but I never knew what it was. The first time I drove through it was during the bike rally in Sturgis and it was so busy I couldn’t get in. This time, it was the day after Thanksgiving and we had the town to ourselves. So I got myself a bumper sticker too.
After our short stop in Wall, we landed in Rapid City an hour later – driving on fumes. Rapid City is where Eve Marie Saint and James Mason were to fly from in the movie ‘North By Northwest’ – and it’s just east of Sturgis, the location of one of the biggest HOG bike rallies in the country. It’s an odd little place – on the foothills of the Black Hills, near Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore – and filled with tattooed and pierced youth and cars like those in the ‘Fast and the Furious’ (lots of ground effects). This is where we’ll stay the night. Tomorrow we’re headed through the corner of Wyoming (can you say Devil’s Tower???!!!) and into a snowy Montana.
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