Beyond Farm Fields: Highlights Along I-90 in South Dakota
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I can’t even begin to tell you how desolate the drive is from Minneapolis to the Badlands, BUT there are highlights along I-90.
Don’t get me wrong, there are a whole lot of corn fields, which I appreciate, but after a while, oye. Please give me something different to see.
It became a joke between Em & I.
Me: “Hey Emma, guess what I spy?”
Emma: “Ummmmm…..Corn???”
Me: “You win!”
Yes, we were getting goofy as heck and would be giddy if it changed from cornfields to hay fields since it was a different view.
However, there are some highlights along I-90 worth mentioning.
TOP HIGHLIGHTS ALONG MN/SD I-90
PANORAMIC VIEWS
First, being able to look across the land and see for-ev-er is amazing. In Michigan, we have a lot of trees that inhibit us from being able to see great distances. Not so in South Dakota.
Honestly, it was amazing.
Disclaimer: most photos were taken out the car window by Em as we were driving 75mph–not always the best quality, but it gives you a good idea of what we saw.
Driving towards Rapid City we saw LOTS of Harleys. The Sturgis Rally was getting ready to start so lots of bikers headed towards Sturgis, SD.
FIRE TRUCK ON END
Of course, there was the occasional oddity along the way like this old fire truck turned up on end.
WALL DRUG BILLBOARDS
We started seeing Wall Drug billboards as soon as we merged onto I-90 in Minnesota.
It became a game to count how many we passed.
Our best calculation from first entering South Dakota until we left I-90 at the entrance to the Badlands is 40 billboards and those are just the ones we saw.
I’m quite sure that we missed some while we were chatting or checking out the Harley’s that were passing.
Yikes! That is a lot of Wall Drug billboards….oh, and each of them are different.
Yes, a cup of coffee really is only 5 cents and they still have free ice water.
More about Wall Drug in another post. 🙂
ALL THE BILLBOARDS
Emma helped combat the boredom of the drive-by either a) sleeping or b) taking photos of billboards.
Quite a few Harley boards and billboards for tourist attractions.
Yes, I will have a post soon about the Corn Palace. Interesting place.
CHAMBERLAIN REST STOP
If you are driving along I-90 in South Dakota and you are near Chamberlain, SD you have to stop at the rest area.
Great view of the Missouri River and a nice interactive historical display inside.
Hope you enjoyed the virtual trip along I-90.
More things to do in South Dakota
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I think the best time to drive is early morning and early evening if you can help it. The sky slowly changes color and helps reduce the monotony of the drive. Probably the best flat driving I ever took was from Cincinnati to Columbus during the early evening, and where there was literally more sky than land. Fire up some Roy Orbison on the radio, and it’s heaven. ;-D