The Great Road Trip of 2017......Part Twenty Eight/Day Twenty

Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Eighteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nineteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Twenty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

So spent the night in Pierre SD.

A yummy breakfast there-oatmeal, yogurt and bacon.

Sluggy looking bright and bushytailed in the morning?

Here is the room towel I used after I showered that morning.  Notice the thread bareness of that towel.  It was a disgrace to still have a towel in this condition in use rotation.

A little friend on the hood of the car when we went to leave.  Looking it up now it was a mayfly.  He/she was probably feeding off the raindrops on the car.

After gassing up(and I found some vape juices for my 2 kids who used vapes then on sale in that convenience store)we hit the road North to North Dakota.

Since it was early, near sunrise we saw this glowing sky as we left.  Notice the white layer in the sky closest to the ground?  I couldn't tell if it was fog burning off or smoke from wildfires.

Driving further along and it became clear that the glow and haze was caused by wildfires in the area.

Trying to find a radio station on the car radio and everything up here was Country Music.

Gee, I thought I was in the South driving out here. lol

Passing an old storefront of some kind out on the Plains north of Miller SD./

A lone tree out in a field.

Yet another field of Sunflowers......

Saw this water tower soon after..........

Signs heading back to Miller and toward other places.

Ahhhh....Now I get why all these fields of Sunflowers around here.  There is a sunflower receiving station nearby.

TThen we went through the little town of Redfield, South Dakota.

Lots of road construction in town.  I guess, given the Winters here all this road work needs to be done in the Summer.

The Redfield water tower.  Notice a piece of a pheasant painted on the left side of it.

We stopped at a gas/convenience store in Redfield and I found more of those Snicker bars with funny stuff on the wrappers......

This one is dedicated to Kim *snicker*

Some alcoholic libations.....peach ale.  Didn't sound very good at least to me.

They had a local message board in the store and we could have bought a purebred puppy by calling a number posted but we didn't.

I did see these interesting bandana/scarves that said, "Big Cock Country" on them.....I think the local high school sports teams are the fighting cocks.  At least I hope so! lolz

Spotted in town was this huge pheasant up on a pedestal, with lights for night illumination along side an American flag.  Redfield bills itself as the "Pheasant Capital of the Worrld" so yeah, it's fitting.

We bypassed all these towns on the sign ahead, moving to the East and then North again, hopscotching our way to North Dakota.

Passed by a field of identical red, rag top old American cars.  Sort of like the "Cadillac Range" down in Amarillo Texas, it looked like a public art installation........

Not long after passing that we saw the "Clark Ringtail Lodging" facility.  I guess folks out here go on Pheasant hunts as a regular thing and hunters stay in group lodgings like this one.

Nearby was the Clark County WWI war memorial.

We passed by a medium sized lake.....

Then hit the town of Henry SD, population 268 back in 2017.

Passed by a farming operation with a tractor on a short billboard advertising some companies farming equipment nearby.

The "big" intersection of Rte. 20 and 212 in Watertown SD.  Silos for days.........

We stopped in Watertown at a liquor store as Hubs likes to peruse regional selections in parts of the country we don't get to go to often and this was our first time in South Dakota

I found half a shelf of Boone's Farm(Sonya's go-to drink)here.

But "Mommy's Time Out" wine made me chuckle. Notice it's sitting next to a selection called, "Mad Housewife" too.  I like a good funny name on an alcoholic beverage. 8-)

And it was no surprise this liquor store had wines labeled Wild Bill and Calamity Jane either.

Along with Mt. Rushmore, South Dakota Rooster Rush and Sturgis branded wines.

Back in the car and 2 hours until our destination for the evening in North Dakota.

More signs about closed interstates in case we forgot about the horrid Winter storms in this part of the country.

And we finally hit North Dakota mid afternoon.

More later on our adventures in ND.

Sluggy

The Great Road Trip of 2017.....Part Twenty Seven/Day Nineteen

 Part One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eight of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nine of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Ten of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Eleven of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twelve of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Thirteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fourteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE  
Part Fifteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Sixteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Seventeen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Eighteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Nineteen of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE 
Part Twenty of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty One of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Two of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Three of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Four of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Five of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE
Part Twenty Six of the Great Western Road Trip is HERE

So we hit the road again, heading East out of Rapid City SD.  After awhile we saw our first sign.......

In true Burma Shave style, we started passing the signs at regular intervals.....

Oh look!  Only 42 miles to the town of Wall SD......

And a bit later we hit the sign for "Entering Wall Drug Country".

Only 11 more miles to go.....

Exit 109 for Wall Drugs just ahead.

More Wall Drug signs at the exit, one behind the other.....

And then we arrived at the famed Wall Drug Store, in business since 1931.

Lots of kitschy stuff, like carved statues of totem poles, native Americans........

I made a new "friend" though she wasn't very friendly but maybe me making bunny ears behind her had something to do with her disposition. lol

Hubs standing next to a strange cowboy.........also not friendly.

This place which started out as a regular old drug store became over time a tourist destination.  There were so many little shops and cubby holes in the building, each hawking a different category of wares.  A Jewelry Emporium?  Hmmm....not some place I'd go to buy jewelry.

Hubs in the bookstore shop....of course! lol

Me making more "friends".  This one was armed so stay back fellas!

Hubs getting a little too friendly with a scantily clad hoochie mama, saloon gal......

We dropped a few dollars here for souvenirs and headed back outside to see this........

Those bikers we left behind at Deadwood, Rushmore and Rapid City had caught up with us!!

A bison keeping watch over an awning at Wall Drug.  We didn't see the giant Jackalope here because the place was getting very crowded and Hubs didn't feel like driving around the parking lots looking for it so no photo op with it. sigh.

And here's a dinosaur statue along the highway leaving Wall Drug......

You probably can't make this photo out but it's a field of sunflowers.

More silos along the road heading East.....

We stayed on Route 14 toward Pierre, SD

While in Pierre I learned how the locals pronounce it.  It's not PEE-AIR like you would think, but pronounced PEER.  My take on this is that it's so darn cold here most of the year that the residents call it PEER because it doesn't require you to open your mouth as much as saying PEE-AIR. lolz

Somewhere along desolate stretches of route 14 we encountered a wild turkey after it had crossed the highway.  Had we been packing a firearm we would have had a nice turkey dinner but alas, hotels don't have facilities to dress and cook a turkey brought in by someone staying the night. ;-)

More straight stretches of highway with nothing to see.........

Passing a spot on the map named "Hayes" named for early white settles John and William Hayes.

Being an agricultural region there were crops everywhere.  But I was surprised to see so many fields of sunflowers.

We saw this statue with an American flag somewhere between Hayes and Pierre SD.  Couldn't make out what it was or about online.  Anyone out there know?

We drove into Fort Pierre.....

...Before making it to Pierre SD proper.  Population 14,032 in 2017.  Capital of South Dakota and county seat of Hughes County.

As we drove to our motel for the evening we passed this business sign.......

They must get a lot of Hail out this way or the universe was tuned into our trip, what with our death defying 4 wheeler adventure back in Ashton Idaho with Kim, Joel and his sister and brother in-law..  I sent Kim this photo as it made me chuckle. lolz

Hubs probably went out and got us some dinner which we ate at the motel and it was off to bed after another long day.

Sluggy