Eastern South Dakota is fairly flat and tends toward very straight roads. Once more we made more turns in the gas station parking lots than actually on the road. It's much greener than the western side of the state, and you do begin to see some trees in the low spots and along the fence lines. It's greener than the Western side by far. And Minnesota is greener still. 99% of South Dakota seems to be farmland/rangeland. There is little traffic on the roads and it can be a challenge to find a place to eat and buy gas. This is a typical SD view:
We saw several abandoned buildings today. We passed one place that was a sizeable old home, and in its' day must have been a real beauty as you can still see what a fine place it was. Now, it's windows are broken out and the paint it once proudly bore is but a long-ago memory and the porches are sagging. Whatever gardens once were are long gone to weeds and grasses. I wish we had stopped to take a picture there.
Sometimes it's only the house and sometimes, there are barns and sheds and other outbuildings mouldering away. We wondered what had happened to the people who lived in those places and how long they had been gone. Why didn't the descendants want it? Do the current owners think it would be too much trouble or too costly to put the poor old buildings out of their misery and tear them down?
The towns we passed were often very small, only 47 people in one case. I'm sure others had fewer than that. The biggest place we saw today was Aberdeen, with 25,000 people. The place we are tonight has about 2500 people.
Once again we had terrible wind, but mostly it was at our backs. When it was blowing crossways it was a battle to keep the bikes where we wanted them to be. We both have sore shoulders and necks tonight. The wind pushes so much on the helmet that one side of the neck gets really sore from holding your head straight. Minnesota 7 is a horrid road surface! Stay away from it!
In the room next to ours is a couple from Palma, who are touring Canada and the US by motorcycle for 4 months. They'll visit Minneapolis and then go down to Miami. They've been touring for a while now.
It dawned on us we have not seen a Pho shop since we left home, nor a Thai restaurant, darn few Mexican or Chinese restaurants and Italian seems to mean only pizza, no taco trucks at all. Weird. I don't think I saw a coffee stand all day. Neither have I seen an Italian Beef place. I think maybe they are only in Illinois.
I forgot to tell you that while we were on our way out of Roosevelt NP, the Buffalo herds were in the middle of the road. They were not inclined to move either. There were bulls in the herd and they especially did not want to move for us. Robin rolled her window down and was yelling at the bulls and whistling, and waving her arm around. Bull just rolled his eyes and stood his ground for the longest time. We had to drive around the animals, because they moved the minimal distance. I rolled my window UP. They were too close for my comfort, but Robin is a brave Forest Service Ranger.
