Todays mission was to make Montana and then head for Rapid City, SD, maybe on to Hot Springs where I have a Great Aunt & Great Uncle residing.
We actually get on the road just before 8am to weather that is overcast and intermittent rain showers and quite windy.
Just before we leave Minnesota we see a park on the south side of the road with historical markers, and well, we couldn't pass that up. In this park we found Pall Bunyan's Boat Anchor.
I think this stone is quite humorous and even Mom & Dad get a chuckle, but then we realize that my Niece and Nephews likely don't even know who Paul Bunyan is (was). I called Dianne and asked her if she knew and got a very non-confident response of, "didn't he cut down Johnny Appleseeds trees"?
So I did a little bit of digging and found this gem on youtube which tells the story of Paul Bunyan!
Anyway, back to being west bound, we make sure Flat Stanley gets his picture taken in front of Minnesota & North South Dakota signs.
The weather was not really picture perfect for us this morning. It has been grey and overcast with spits of rain here and there, but we had to slow down when we drove into this:
A benefit from slowing down was Mom's car really started to sip the fuel, and our MPG was the best we have seen thus far on the trip.
We saw a lot, and I mean A LOT of this, I can't imagine what living up here would have been like in the late 1800's. Barely any trees for fire wood or windbreaks and the winters are so cold!
Roads are now getting pretty straight and the scenery is, well, its beautiful but its quite repetitive, can see for miles and miles, plowed and planted farmland for miles and miles.
Mom & Dad promise that they are not bored, not sure I believe them though.
Nearing the North Dakota line now in the town of Lemmon, SD we get distracted:
And of course Flat Stanley wanted to check out the petrified wood park too, who wouldn't want to check this out?
We cross into North Dakota, only one state left for Rudy now!
North Dakota looks much like South Dakota and as we keep moving westerly we start to find some hills and can even start to see the "Badlands" some. The bird density is so thick now that I think we are in a sequel to Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds". Seriously there have been half a dozen or so try join us through our windshield, how on earth we didn't collect several is beyond me.
The skies have cleared up and the weather was positively gorgeous for the past 40 miles or so. We are now right near the border of Montana and I am familiar with area enough, having been on rigs in the area before. I take a quick detour to the north for a few miles on a small road, just to show Mom & Dad something different. This picture is taken with my iPhone and I did NOTHING to it other than pull it off the phone. Yes the sky really was that blue for us and this is exactly how we saw it too.
I turn around at the bottom of this hill and head back towards Montana.
We've Made It! This makes all 50 of the states now for Rudy!
We have reached the northwestern terminus of our trip now and are making the turn south back towards home. First though we are going to swing by Hot Springs, SD to visit my Aunt & Uncle Harlan & Mae Niedermyer.
We are making good time and while the weather looks ominous in spots, it is dry all the way. But his is pretty much what we look at for a couple of hours.
We see lots of antelope along the way.
Sturgis, SD was next on the drive through list. This little town is the host of over 1 million mostly Harley Davidson riders every summer, but on a Saturday eventing in the middle of may there is not much going on. We saw the Full Throttle Saloon, the Broken Spoke, and even One Eyed Jacks, none of which would be appropriate for Flat Stanley I don't think. But we did find a museum so he took his picture in front of it.
Saw some more wildlife on the way towards Rapid City.
Eventually arriving at Mount Rushmore!
From here we head into Keystone and have dinner at the Ruby House Restaurant (worst meal of the trip) then drive the 60 miles or so down to Hot Springs to our hotel for the evening.
Tomorrow we get to sleep in as we plan on meeting Harlan and Mae at 11am (Mountain Time).
Was a long day today but even the scenery was not too overly dramatic for 95% of the miles today, I do love 80, 75 & 70 MPH speed limits!
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