Driving across South Dakota

Today was a battle with the wind as I crossed South Dakota.  I left Summit, in the northeast part of the state, and headed due west on US 12 for 145 miles.  This drive was mostly flat with a scattering of lakes for the first 30 miles or so.  I saw a lot of ducks, geese, and cranes when around the lakes.  I saw turkeys twice within the first 15 minutes of my drive and later saw a couple of pheasants.  I almost hit a few birds that tried flying against the wind in front of me before they realized that flying against the wind was not happening today.

I then headed south on US 83.  The scene was pretty much the same except road kill changed from just skunks and raccoons to also some fox and deer.  After the turn south it was about 85 miles into Pierre.  I like to visit state capitals so I had my eye open for an opportunity to stop and visit this one.  I got lucky and as I saw the dome a few blocks over on my right I was able to pull over on a side street.  I walked over and was lucky again as it was open to the public on a Sunday.  It was 100 years old the end of June so it was all cleaned up and restored to celebrate.  It was a very cool building. 

I then walked about 6-7 blocks over to check out the Missouri River.  I was surprised how huge it is in SD.  I took a couple of pictures, well I thought I did, that turned out to be mini movies because I somehow moved the setting on my camera.

It was then on south from Pierre to I-90 where I went west about 70 miles to my stopping point at a KOA just east of Belvidere.  No in route pictures for today as the battle with the wind required both hands on the wheel and there weren’t any places to pull off.