I left midday and picked up Highway 6 south out of Mandan, just across the
Missouri River from Bismark, then drove south by west, crossing into South
Dakota at Thunder Hawk and skirting the edge of the Standing Rock
Reservation--Sioux I believe. After a slight jog west it was down Highway 73
to the town of
Faith--very well named considering that it has the only road services for a
stretch of about 160 miles.
What great driving! Never having travelled in the northern plains states, I
had no real image in my mind as to what I would find, but I did expect some
yawning and boring expanses. Instead I found rolling country, at first quite
soft and even lush in ND, gradually opening up into a harder, more open
landscape as I went south and west, brown grassland areas punctuated frequently
by
large, verdant agricultural operations. The smell of the grass is
constant--even
more so when passing one of the many giant mowers and harvesters creeping
across the plains. ND cattle gave way to SD sheep (Newell claims to be the
"Sheep Capital of the World") and even a few llamas here and there, though I
think
they are destined for freezers rather than petting zoos.
In many places the road was like a ribbon stretched across numerous rises and
dips to the horizon--the horizon growing from about 10 miles to 20 and 30 as
I travelled along. Shortly after cresting out at Mud Butte the Black Hills
appeared about 50 miles distant and I reentered population in Sturgis, SD and
then ran up to Spearfish where I am spending the night.
Car continues to run well--it was all I could do to keep my speed down to 75
today.
Best--Michael
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