Flat. That describes what we’ve seen of South Dakota so far. It makes Illinois look like a beginner in terms of flat. I’ve never seen the horizon so far away in every direction. A 360-degree turn presents a lot of sky all the way around.
Sunflowers and corn are everywhere.
South Dakota is truly a breadbasket. In one area, I lost count of how many farms had 20-30 huge silos. The smaller farms had 6-8 smaller silos.
Smaller breadbasket silos.
Our morning drive westward on I-90 presented almost as many Al’s Oasis signs as Wall Drug signs. Since we were passing Al’s Oasis, we decided to take a break to visit this attraction. It is obviously a “destination,” since a tour bus arrived at the same time we did. The picture below shows about half of the Oasis, which is a long strip of stores. They are all connected by a single indoor hallway for easy access.
The sign and the arrow told us this is the place.
Part of the throughway between Al’s stores.
Lunchtime arrived and the pickings were slim in this rural state. We chose Pizza Ranch. It turned out to be similar to Pizza Hut, but with a Western theme and with an extremely friendly and accommodating staff.
Pizza Ranch is a chain, but we didn’t learn that until we saw more of them.
A ranch requires Western decor. It’s hard to see, but the buffet sign has a picture of a rodeo rider on a bucking bronco.
We spent our afternoon in Pierre (separate post) and ended today’s drive in Mobridge, SD, a very small town on the bank of the Missouri River. Mobridge attracts fishermen and hunters. The pheasant is not only the state bird of SD, it is the most popular for hunting and supports the SD economy with hunters from all over in the fall. Our motel room included some rags and the information that no game should be cleaned in our room. Thank heavens!
We ended our drive with dinner in Mobridge, SD and shared the dining room with Imo, an 11-year-old Pacu fish. He’s related to the piranha, but his vegetarian diet keeps him calm.