Leg 9 - Rapid City to Sioux Falls / Where have all the cop cars gone?

I've discovered something new...blogging on the road. I don't need Internet access cos all i have to do is write my post and send it to my blog e mail address and then once i get to my room and fire up the Internet, it posts automatically to my blog....cool, huh?

Anyway, here we are driving thru South Dakota, about 40 miles away from Sioux Falls, which is our pit stop for the night. But let me rewind......

We got into Rapid City last night and were so exhausted we crawled into bed and crashed! I usually stay up and blog and add pics, but the Internet connection was lousy, so all i could do was post the blog, i'll add pics tonite. Woke up pretty early and after a lavish breakfast, left for Mt.Rushmore. By the way, the place we stayed at was super (look at the end of this post for more info re: accomodation). On the way we drove throught the famous Black Hills of South Dakota, beautiful scenery and the best part was we saw many deer by the side of the road, eating grass and looking at our cars curiously. Its nice to know that mankind has not yet succeeded in driving them away completely and they still feel like they can freely roam in their habitat. Mt. R is cool.....we have all seen pictures of it but you don't really experience the magnitude and size of it till you're a few hundred yards in front of it. We took turns taking silly photos of ourselves trying to put our face next to the 4 Presidents as the 5th one....goofy, but it was fun. We also watched a 15 minute movie of the making of Mt. R. One of the original workers was actually outside the theater talking to people....he must be about 95!!!!

Didn't really do much else after that. No near run ins with the law either...in fact I haven't seen a single cop car. South Dakota is so different from Wyoming. Its funny how you cross the state border and its so different...I mean, how can that be? One minute you're driving thru flat flat ranch land and then you cross the border into a different state and its all hilly and rolling plains and meadows??? I don't get it, how does it change on either side of the imaginary border line???? The scenery here is sort of surreal and fake, almost child like in its simplicity. Its like a picture a kid draws.....someone pencils in the outlines and then the kid fills it in with color, black with a yellow stripe down the middle for the road, green for the fields, red roof topped houses and blue sky and puffy white clouds!!!! The only other things you see are bales of hay tied up together and laying in the sun like fat giant caterpillars! Very picturesque!

Ok, getting close to Sioux Falls, have to stop now to navigate.

6.45pm: Checked into Baymont Inn and we are getting ready to head out for dinner. Even thought R and I decided that on this road trip we were not going to eat any Indian food since we'll get all the Indian food we want after we get home, after so many days on the road, I am craving some Indian food, so we're going to try out Taste Of India close by. An Indian restaurant in South Dakota????? Almost an oxymoron! I'm sure i'll have some interesting news for you all after we get back...

Well, another surprise (Bear's Den was the first). The food was delicious and we were so sorry at all the leftovers that we couldn't take back. There's not much more news for today. We have about 450 miles to cover tomorrow to Duluth, so maybe we'll go to bed early and catch up on our sleep. Since we got our passports back in record time from the Consulate, we are toying with the idea of going to Buffalo, NY thru Ontario/Canada. Shall keep you all posted.

More pics

Travel Tip - when renting a car, do not rent at the airport. Most car rental companies have offices all over town, rent it from the one closest to your location. This way you save on airport taxes and fees.

Starbucks sightings - None along the way but plenty here in Sioux Falls.

Accomodation rating: Quality Inn at Rapid City. 4.5 out of 5. Fabulous deal. $63 for a night, plus an absolutely lavish breakfast, and a great swimming pool. Big big rooms, clean and very efficient.