virtual vacation

Saturday morning. We could finish washing the dishes, or get dressed, or water the plant...

Come, read the map of South Dakota with me.

We will begin with the northeastern corner, where one should never commence to travel without a full tank of gas.

About ten miles east of Sisseton, the map mentions "the North/South continental divide." That seems kind of far north for that, doesn't it? Is there a sign? A park? How do you commemorate something like that?

Down by Sioux Falls: The edge of South Dakota is straight until you reach the latitude (?) of the Big Sioux River in Sioux Falls. Then it makes a sharp corner west until it actually hits the river. I'd never noticed this before.

And, there's a town called East Sioux Falls.

For 15 miles in Lincoln county on the Interstate, from the Canton exit (where Canton is actually another 10/15 miles) to Beresford, there are no other towns...don't run out of gas.

In the north, just east of the river, near Hoven: Cathedral on the Prairie. That sounds interesting.

Middle of the state, East River: Okobojo Point.

South of Mitchell: New Holland, population 11, where there are more houses than people. Where the man in the general store can teach you to play the saw. Where I was when I found out I was going to SIJ.

A guess at why the Badlands are so named: The Bad River.

There is a square of land in the northwest portion 35 miles by 35 miles where there are no towns at all. Is that bad? No. I wonder what life's like there.

Near Sturgis: Bethlehem.

Several national grasslands. I want to see a national grassland.

Near Rapid City: Keystone, where my family got on a train and the fumes made my dad sick and we had to leave him in a random town and then go back and find the town in the car and my mom cried.

Near Belle Fourche, central west edge: The geographical center of the U.S.

Twenty miles west of there: A Government Experimental Farm.

The moral of the story: never leave a town without a full tank of gas. You never know when you'll find another town, let alone one with a gas station.

But, moral B: South Dakota has a lot of local history.