Paul and I are currently in Sioux Falls, SD where it's supposed to get down to -20F tonight! We're both pretty excited about it (the meteorologist in us kicking in). When we arrived in Sioux Falls around 8pm this evening, it was already -10F. Last night we stayed in Rapid City, SD after driving from Billings, MT. The roads were pretty icey and snowy so it took us from 930am until 630pm to drive a little over 300 miles. Here's a map of our drive the last 2 days:
We've been dividing up the driving with Paul taking the morning shift and me driving after lunch. It's been working out well since I tend to go from lethargic grump to caffeinated spazz over an hour period each morning. We followed I-90 through the rest of Montana into the northeast corner of Wyoming and finally into the far western reaches of South Dakota. The snow that fell was very dry and we barely even had to turn the wind shield wipers on even though visibility was as low as 1/2 a mile at times. There were a lot of horses spotted again plus we drove through the beginning part of Spearfish Canyon once we arrived in South Dakota. The best part of the day was getting to see Jennifer and her son Owen in Rapid City! The four of us went to dinner at a neat restaurant near the center of town. It was wonderful to catch up with her!
We were greeted with the sight of a tractor trailer that had spun off the road as we started our drive for the day.
Beautiful Montana scenery.
Old factory building.
Horses :).
Snow blowing across the road.
More horses.
Cows on the move... there were even more that I couldn't get into this shot.
More blowing snow.
Welcome to Wyoming!
We were very excited to see a Quizno's and of course ate lunch here.
Horses!
The sun came out for a while during the afternoon.
Coal train.
Part of the highway frozen to our car. This is going to take a few trips to the car wash to remove.
Conditions began to deteriorate around 3pm that afternoon.
We made it to South Dakota.
Even though it was near dark, we couldn't resist seeing at least part of Spearfish Canyon. We only saw one other car when we ventured outside of town and very peaceful.
Didn't have time to make it to Deadwood but had to get a picture of the sign!
Today was probably my favorite day of the drive so far. We started out visiting the famous Wall Drug Store where they had an entire display dedicated to the writings of Laura Ingalls Wilder (one of my favorites!). From Wall, we drove through about 30 miles of Badlands National Park where we got to see mountain goats up close. It was so quiet in the park and feel fortunate to have been able to experience the area in the off-season. When we stopped at the Visitor Center, the Rangers said we were only the 4th people to have stopped by that day. The roads as a whole were much better and made pretty good time the last 200 miles or so to Sioux Falls. Here are some pictures:
There were many signs for Wall Drug along I-90. We had to go.
Abandoned home, a lot of these dot the prairie landscape.
Horses :).
Round bales. There are also many of these in the fields.
More blowing snow. Fortunately, this was as bad as the conditions got today.
We made it.
Laura Ingalls Wilder display!!!!
Alaska Horse Journal quoted on a book in Wall Drug's horse area.
Me in the Badlands.
Paul! You can see how windy it was in this picture.
Takes your breathe away.
Mountain goat. It was incredible seeing them this close.
Prairie dog mounds. Poor things apparently had the plague this summer (really, we asked the Ranger at the visitor's center).
Alright, well we should get some rest for tomorrow's drive to Milwaukee, WI. Excited to see one Ms. Katie Horst tomorrow night :)!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope our car starts in the morning. I think it's only been in -20F one time before. Always an adventure, and that's fine with me :).
