The Only Road in South Dakota

How to get from Rapid City, SD to Kansas City, head east, when you hit a town, head south. So the end of last week I went to Rapid City for a conference at the South Dakota School of Mines. The airport only gets 4 flights a day and my departure choices were a bit limited. Saturday morning it was foggy and apparently in Rapid City planes can't land in fog. Planes land at night just fine but don't ask them to land in the fog. All flights were canceled on Saturday and the ones on Sunday were full. The best they could do was a flight Monday, no thanks. I attempted to rent a car. Car rentals in South Dakota are individually owned and no one wanted to rent me a car that would leave the state. Luckily Hertz had one Arizona car that someone returned there, awhile ago. At the window they had a sign that said "ask us about our GPS units." I asked and the agent said "oh that, we don't have GPS." Well I asked. I loaded up in the world's oldest rental Toyota Camry and headed towards home. I stopped for a coffee and some novelty post cards and hit the road. I managed to get 5 miles before getting pulled over. The police officer kindly told me I was doing 5 over the speed limit, which had gone up anyway, I think it was the Arizona plates. After asking me where I was going he reminded me to be careful when I got to Sioux Falls (on the other side of the state) because then the speed limit goes back to 65. Well, 11 hours later I got to sleep in my own bed.

Rapid City airport when I got there. I guess an hour beforehand was more than enough.

Since security is only open sometimes.
A fairly typical resident.

I stopped by Wall drug to use the bathroom. It was pretty quiet. I passed on a well-priced stuffed buffalo.

I case you wondered what South Dakota looks like in March, here it is.

Keep telling yourself that.

Concrete tepee.

Sunday I worked in the garden planting onions and leafy greens. It is still a little cold so I picked up a light to try and keep them from freezing. The light was a little more than I expected and we might get a visit from aliens tonight. I think a tarp is in order to block some of the light.