Wyoming 2017, day 2

I know it’s a bit early, but we want to get on the road. You snooze while I load the van, then we’ll stop for breakfast at County Fair.

Can you believe that we got 2 eggs, toast, and almost an entire dinner plate of crisp-on-the-outside hash browns for $3!!  What a great place!  What? Yes, I dug in too fast to get a photo.  Sorry about that.  Into the van and fasten your seat belt. The rest of South Dakota and Wyoming await.

This part of South Dakota still looks like (and is) farmland, but when we get to Chamberlain and cross another wide river, the Missouri, the landscape will change to more grazing, although we’ll also start seeing fields of cheerful bright yellow sunflowers.

Whenever I cross the Missouri, I think of an American folk song we sang when the girls were little. I’d play “Oh, Shenandoah” on the piano and we’d all sing.  Here’s a version I like, although the lyrics are slightly different than the ones we sang.

On the western side of the river is a South Dakota classic, Al’s Oasis, where you can eat a grand meal, buy souvenirs, or take a photo with an enormous statue of a bison (buffalo to most people.)

Are you enjoying “Lord of the Rings?”  Good, but we’re going to pull off at this viewpoint, because I want you to see the vastness of South Dakota as well as catch a glimpse of the Badlands.

Toto, we’re not in the Midwest anymore!

Now for the Badlands.

We’ll stop in the Badlands on the way home.  Consider this an appetizer.

We passing Wall, with its iconic Wall Drug, through Rapid City, gateway to Mt. Rushmore, past Sturgis (thankfully ahead of the mobs who will be here for the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, the largest such event in the world), and there’s the Welcome to Wyoming sign.  Only a few more hours.

I’m going to make a quick stop at this scenic pullout so you can have a view of what makes my heart beat a bit faster, one of the first views of the Bighorn Mountain range.  I’m usually in too much of a hurry and every year say that I should have stopped.  This year, in your honor, we’ll take a look.

The long (and wide) view

Still snow on some of the those peaks. Back into the van and let’s go! Only another hour or so.