Day 12: Truckin'

Writing from the future again. With luck, I will get caught up today.

We started off the western half of our voyage with the longest day of travel so far, going from Minneapolis, Minnesota to Hill City, South Dakota. It's a lot of miles. I'm sure all of you have the technology to figure out how many.

Despite having a long day ahead, we decided we had to make a quick stop to see America. That is, after all, what we're out here to see.



America is huge. It has a lot of stores.



It's rather well organized though. Everything is in a ring around the central atrium, which keeps everything pretty close. The center has an amusement park, but everyone already knew that. It is fairly impressive.



Also part of the atrium section is a Lego (TM) playland center. Also pretty impressive. I've only visited one other place with as many Legos (TM).



It also has a gift shop, to add a little meta-goodness.



But before too long we had to begin our 10 hours of driving. The land we drove through was ... well, it was land. It was America. Some might refer to it as a sewer, but I would disagree.



It's a land of farmers, living close to the earth.



It's a land where Christian radio is more powerful than NPR.



It's a land where the road disappears into the horizon, and we barrel through, leaving a trail of flattened butterflies and dragonflies in our wake.



And it's a land with very little to see. It's the kind of place where you see buildings that say "ELECTRICITY: FOR ALL YOUR ENERGY NEEDS" (embarrassingly, I didn't move quickly enough to get a photo of that). I counted two major roadside attractions along the South Dakota highway. There was the Corn Palace, which we drove past, and I didn't even bother to take a photo because it was not all that impressive. Then there was Wall Drug, which I was reminded of many times by signs along the highway.



By the time we got there, it was closed and too dark to see much of anything. Ditto for the hotel. We arrived to find our room keys taped to the door of the lobby. It was also so dark that we didn't get to see any of the scenic area that we were staying in. That would have to wait until the next morning, which will come up in the next post ...