Note: Blog written on 7/6/09 but posting delayed due to lack of Internet connectivity.
Today was a short riding day – only 423 miles but it felt like more since it was hot, hot, hot and since we gained an hour, we even rode an extra hour. By time we arrived at our B&B in Rapid City, I was definitely ready to be off the bike.
We started our adventure today riding on I-90 since we had to stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchell. The corny jokes were right up my alley, especially when they talked about the ear-chitecture of the building! We saw a brief film and learned the history of the corn murals but passed on the gift shop. It began over 100 years ago and every year they re-do the outside of it since the corn doesn’t last that long. I’m guessing it’s a rite of passage for teen-age boys in Mitchell to work a summer job cutting corn cobs and native grasses to place on the building. 
It didn’t take long for us to ditch the interstate and take Highway 45 South to Platte where we then turned west on Highway 44. We followed this scenic route for most of the afternoon and felt like we had the road to ourselves. Any notion we had of South Dakota being flat farmland was quickly debunked as we followed rolling hills mixed in with prairies. Our lunch stop was at a state park overlooking the Missouri River although we almost didn’t recognize it – it was actually clear and people were swimming and boating in it. Not the Muddy MO we’re used to seeing.
View of the MO River from our picnic perch
I’m glad we filled up with gas in Platte because gas stations were few and far between as were signs of civilization. Just in time (the gas light hadn’t yet come on) we came to Interior and that’s where we switched to Mountain time. There was a couple in a motor home getting gas at the same time and we quickly realized they were from Ozark and she worked at Cox – she even recognized me (not sure that’s a good thing since I used to the the Budget Bitch!) and I knew her by name. Small world indeed.
After we left Interior we entered the Badlands National Park and took a gorgeous scenic route all the way to Wall. 
We stopped at several scenic overlooks plus I kept snapping pictures from the back of the bike – I didn’t realize how many until I downloaded them and had almost 90 from today and most of them were rock formations in the Badlands.
The story of Wall Drug is legendary so of course we had to get our free ice water along with some homemade ice cream since we were there. The place is a huge tourist trap (why were we surprised?) so our stay was brief – water, ice cream, a few photos and we were back on the road.
South Dakota's great tourist trap!
Our home for the next couple of days is Sweetgrass Inn located south of Rapid City. We’re even in the Queen Anne room which I found quite appropriate. Our innkeepers are Shari and Lee who also own Shipwrecked Lee’s next door – a local bar and grill where we dined tonight. Lee’s is obviously a local favorite because most of the diners/drinkers were not tourists and quickly took us on as a project on what to see and do while we’re in the area.
We made fast friends with Mike and Marty who are life partners as well as being repo men for cars, trucks, whatever – they mapped out our route for tomorrow, told us where to stay in Spearfish on Wednesday night, located an old friend of Burl’s and got him on the phone and found where another friend is staying in a nearby RV park. We’ve made plans to meet them for a beer tomorrow night after we return from the day’s adventures. There’s nothing like a friendly B&B and a small town to create perfect vacation memories.
We’re enjoying an evening with no cell phone service (not sure when we’ll have AT&T available again) and erratic Internet service.
Guess the only option is to go out on our deck and try out the hot tub!
