Rapid City, SD – August 15, 2018
Aug 16th, 2018 by rallyadmin
It’s overcast, mid-America gray, and raining slightly. Which is good. I would rather overcast days for the boring slogs across the continent. There’s not much to see and driving for 10 to 12 hours per day through the heat and glare of the plains summer really wears me out. Even rain is okay – in moderation that is. A good ole summer gully washer is definitely on the no-no list.
Things go fine until I get closer to Omaha when the occasional shower turns into a serious gully washer. The good news is there isn’t much traffic and the road is 3 and 4 lanes wide. The bad news is most of the traffic is 18 wheelers and the spray that they kick up.
The 18 wheelers themselves aren’t really the problem. The problem is that when the 4 wheelers get near the 18 wheelers, they freeze and hold position because of the bad visibility that spray causes. The visibility problem would go away if they would just pass the trucks but they can’t quite get up the nerve to pass and they just sit there unable to see forward and unable to be seen by the trucks. A high potential for disaster.
Finally, crossing into South Dakota, the rain stops and the skies eventually clears. North up I-29 and the left/west onto I-90. The traffic finally thins and the speed limit goes up to 80 mph.
Years ago, when we first started coming out here, I-90 hadn’t yet been built and we drove on US16. Back then we thought that that was the most boring road in the country which it was until we started driving the new and improved I-90. The joke back then was that the worst part of the drive was going through South Dakota because the scenery was boringly repetitive, there was always a cross-wind and the sun was always rising in your eyes. The joke was about the sun. The scenery and the cross-winds were no joke.
As soon as I crossed into South Dakota I saw the first sign for Wall Drug. The signs are everywhere along the route west through South Dakota. It’s a tourist attraction in Wall, SD, along the lines of South of the Border on I-95 on the east coast. If you haven’t heard of it (lucky you) and you must know, click here.
Along the interstate, there are the usual billboards for the Badlands. There’s even still a billboard for a helicopter ride through the Badlands hat features a picture of an old Bell 47 helicopter that was made famous by the M.A.S.H. tv program. Barbara and I rode a Bell 47 over the Badlands when we first came out here on our honeymoon in 1973. It was Barbara’s first and only helicopter ride and my first since VietNam. It wouldn’t surprise me if they were still flying the same bird that we flew back in 1973.
The interstate has some dead straight sections that go on for miles and, as I’m coming up on Wall, the sun is setting right down the center line of the road. It’s a beautiful orange ball sinking below the horizon splashing pink and red on the wispy cirrus clouds. That is one of the beautiful things of the vast treeless horizon of the high plains – gorgeous sunsets.
It’s about 8:30 when I finally make it to Rapid City and stop for the night. The GrandStay hotel. A very nice cheapish suite. A great recommendation from the desk clerk for delivery pizza. and, finally, to bed. It’s been a couple of long days and 1,700+ miles in 2 days.
Tomorrow, maybe I’ll stop in Anaconda, MT and see my racing ruddy and fellow VietNam vet, Ken Maynard.
Obi-wan