Hotel room feels damp. Tossed and turned a little because of it. Up at 5:45am, back to sleep then up at 6:15am. Watched a couple of episodes of Arrested Development on Netflix on the iPad, then got going.
Left the hotel at 8:15am, then over to Starbucks for a venti decaf nonfat vanilla latte and a cinnamon chip scone.
 |
| I can feel it working |
On the road after that, taking 80W, then 2W to US83. Had a little bit of rain on 80W.
 |
| Rain's a comin' |
 |
| I spy something that begins with the letter R. Can you guess what it is? |
 |
| Somewhere along the way. There was a place to pull over and walk across. |
Saw the coolest old barn just north of Grand Island, NE. It looked a little like this one, only restored, and gray in color.
Lots of farmland. 2W is an undivided two lane road that parallels a railroad track through farming country and low rolling hills. Everything is green or plowed with not much human activity showing, and almost no other traffic. Literally. Speed limit is 65mph except through the tiny old towns, though, so that's good. Many/most roads off the main highways are dirt roads like this one.
 |
| Luckily we were turning right |
Many, many, many long coal trains heading east with full hoppers.
 |
| Coal heading east |
Made it through the sand hills to Valentine, NE at 1:05pm. Close to the NE/SD border. Temp is 63F. Stopped at Subway to have a 6-inch subway melt w/ham, turkey, bacon, spinach, onion, provolone and bell pepper on wheat, with sun dried tomato Parmesan chips and a cherry Coke (needed the caffeine). Tasty lunch.
Around 1:30pm we suddenly hit a thick patch of fog. It looked like rain off in the distance but as I drove closer it turned out to be a fog bank. It didn't help that we were high in the hills on a rough undivided road that went up and down hills and was very curvy with a 65mph speed limit. The heavy fog lasted about 30 miles, and even though it cleared up a good deal, it was still foggy with no long-distance horizon visibility.
 |
| This was at the start - it got thicker as we went deeper in |
Turned off of I90 onto 240S and into Badlands National Park. Stopped for some photos then took the scenic drive through the park and back to Wall, SD. Took about an hour. We'll come back later to explore more.
 |
| Amazing |
 |
| There I am |
 |
| This scenic area is at the first stop as you drive into the park - what a view. I'm quite pleased with the way the panoramas turned out |
 |
| The car did great the entire trip - and turned a few heads too |
Got to the
Hotel Alex Johnson in Rapid City, SD around 5:30pm.
 |
| The rustic lobby |
 |
| Allegedly the hotel is haunted on the 8th floor. Luckily I don't believe in that stuff.....plus we were on the 9th floor (whew!) |
Checked in, moved in (parking is a block away on the open 3rd level of a parking garage), then went to Red Lobster for dinner. Cup of lobster bisque, salad w/ blue cheese, cheddar bay biscuits, broiled seafood trio w/ butter only baked potato (tilapia, shrimp scampi, crab&seafood stuffed shrimp) and water. Very good. Got really cold. Back to the hotel for M&Ms and rest.
 |
| This is the Alex Johnson as seen from the top of the parking garage |
No comments:
Post a Comment