Go Yotes!

I thought I'd start out today's post with a logo of the U. of South Dakota. When we left North Sioux Falls this morning on I-29 North, one of the first billboards I saw was a cartoon figure of a coyote with the words "Go Yotes." I figured it had to be short for "coyotes" and sure enough, it was. So, for anyone who didn't know the mascot of the U. of SD (which I didn't), Go Yotes!

We basically traveled across the entire state of SDakota today, after picking up I-90 in Sioux Falls, and following the interstate for almost 400 miles east west, ending up in Rapid City this afternoon around 4pm. The biggest disappointment for me was not seeing a single buffalo, since the literature we picked up at a very nice rest area/info center on I-90 said to watch for buffalo herds along the interstate.  Well, Obidiah and I never saw anything that looked like a buffalo. Lots of cattle, with loads of new calves (I thought calves were born in the spring???) along I-90, but no buffalo or bison. Otherwise, most of SD is pretty boring. Very flat, with lots of corn fields in the eastern half of the state and lots of the large circular hay bales in the west. The only change in the very FLAT terrain was around the Badlands. We didn't have time (at least on this trip) to take the Badlands Scenic Loop, but I'd like to do that some day. 

Once we got set up at the TeePee Campground on the south side of Rapid City, we went out to dinner at a restaurant recommended by our campground hosts called The GasLight, in Rockerville (about 10 miles from Rapid City), just inside the Black Hill National Forest.  Gaslight is part restaurant/part old time western saloon -- and the food was pretty good. I'd recommend it to anyone visiting this area.

We plan on getting SD drivers' licenses tomorrow and then getting the Winnebago and the Saturn registered in SD while we're here. After that (hopefully accomplished in one day), we hope to see Mt Rushmore and other sightseeing locations, if possible. More to follow. Cheers for now.