More miles on the clock...

***Miles travelled today: 354

***Total Miles: 4401

***States travelled through: South Dakota

Sorry to our regular morning readers... we have been in a hotel for the past two days that had problems with their internet connection... and there did not appear to be any rush to get it sorted out... but we are now catching up...

So, this entry is for Tuesday 15th of June...

On getting up this morning - you will be pleased to know... it was NOT raining!!! Still overcast , but not raining...

We went into the town of Sioux Falls for a healthier breakfast than the 'complimentary' ones offered by all the hotels!!! (Jay says she cannot look another waffle in the eye!!!) We then went off in search of the falls... Sioux Falls is a relatively low falls but the river spreads out considerably - the falls run through the pink rocks that South Dakota is famous for, and looks really lovely... what is also lovely is the fact that they have made the area around the falls into a park area, honouring the natural beauty of the area... which was one of the things that was disappointing about Niagara falls, the fact that everything had been so built up virtually right on top of the falls...

...anyway, we wanted to try and get as far towards the Badlands as we could today... so we were soon on the road... and on our way... we spent the first two hours on the Interstate 90... but then decided to come off and travel on the quieter roads... we travelled through an Indian Reservation called Crow Creek, which somehow seemed quite desolate... we only passed through one or two small towns, and there was very little there... we were following the course of the Minnesota river for a great part of our journey today...

... we carried on with our journey... not really sure where our ultimate destination was going to be for the night... and as we passed through little town after little town, there was nothing there... so we would just carry on - to the next town... well, we ended up in a little town called Wall... what a place... there is some interesting history behind this little town, in that a couple bought the general store in the 1930's... and after a number of years the store was not doing very well... as who would actually visit and why??? But then they came up with an ingenious idea, and that was to advertise 'Free Ice Water' to all of their customers... but in order to advertise this to travellers, they needed to put billboards up on the roads and the interstate... well, the rest as they say is 'history'... the store is now the biggest shop in the town, and actually covers a whole block and has everything that you could possibly need... they actually do tours to the town simply to visit the store!!! It is still in the same family, three generations later... and the advertising is still on the interstate - and is first advertised some 350 miles away!!! Well - this is where we are staying... what a town...

Initially we had decided to simply check in for one night - but on closer inspection of the maps - we are actually only 8 miles away from the 'Badlands National park'... so we have booked ourselves in for another night...

...and the skies were blue this afternoon!!! We're hoping the weather has lifted... as we so would like blue skies for the next part of our trip...