What a wonderful drive I-90 is from Sioux Falls west to the Black Hills.  Plains farming is evident with the July hay baled and waiting to be moved.  Small ponds adorn the lush green landscape. These are the great plains.  Then the signs for Rocky Ridge Farm, the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Home and Museum, which is the place where she wrote all nine manuscripts for her books including Little House on the Prairie.  Then the many signs for the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD pop up. Yes, it’s a palace made of corn.  Then the World’s Largest Steer Head appears. 

As we drove, listening to World Without End, the sequel to Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett, we heard a splat.  Thinking that it didn’t seem like a rock, we began to hear more.  Then we noticed large bugs hopping on the highway and getting absolutely creamed by vehicles.  Grasshoppers!  Now I understand about what a grasshopper plague would have been like.  When we stopped for fuel, we noticed some remnants from those kamikaze grasshoppers.

South Dakota is divided in half by the Missouri River, straight down the middle.  It’s huge.  In fact it is also called Lake Francis Case there.  Upon reaching the far side of the river, the topography changes…. uh… from what we could manage to see through the splats on our windshield, that is.  The hills get larger.  Farm fields turn into grazing land for cattle on sloping hillsides.  Then we begin to see the signs for Wall Drug.  Every gimmicky marketing angle is covered with quippy messages and a wide array of graphics.  We spent the night in Wall, SD, right around the corner, so we decided to visit.

Wall gets it’s name from the above ground level  protruding line of gray hills adjacent to the interwoven, canyons, ravines, gullies and hoodoos of the Badlands that were eroded down below ground level.  The Lakota Indians gave the names because the Badlands were bad lands to cross and Wall was… well… like a wall.

Continuing on I-90 West, the signs of Deadwood, the Reptile Park, Mt. Rushmore and the Cosmos Mystery Area take over.  As we left the interstate and took our exit, the hills became rocky bluffs, the highway wound and climbed and saw scenes like this inspiring a feeling of awe.

Then finally… we saw the Black Hills.