2026--Day 3

Oh Mylanta.  Yesterday ended too late and today started too early.  Such is the ways of a (mainly) travel day.  We crossed into the Land of the 80 MPH speed limit (aka South Dakota) to make our way west.  The intention is western North Dakota, but I90 makes for a more scenic drive.  Even though I've been here before, I'm always in awe of the way you can see forever.

On an unrelated note...today is my personal D-day.  6 June 1993 featured elevated thunderstorms in Missouri that produced 4-5" of rain.  This was my first heavy rainfall case, which was featured in my Master's thesis and my first lead-author publication (30 years ago!), and was the focus of my PhD research.  My life might have been quite different without those storms. 

We stopped for lunch in the little town of Bethlehem (I mean Chamberlain), which crosses over the Missouri River, making for some beautiful scenery. 

As it turned out, not many storms materialized during the afternoon, so to break up the journey we drove through Badlands National Park (one of my favorites).  The students seemed quite impressed with the scenery, as you can imagine from these photos. 

No trip to western South Dakota is complete without a stop at the world's tackiest shopping mall, otherwise known as Wall Drug.  You might have seen the signs along the highway, as there are about 300 of them, which is about 10% of what there used to be in the 1960s (in all 50 states, no less).  I don't think the students were quite as impressed. 

We continued on to Rapid City for dinner, and finally to Spearfish for the night.  The day was not devoid of storms, as we could see this beautiful specimen from the highway and the hotel parking lot.  It was severe-warned (strong gusts and half-dollar size hail)...and 60 miles away from us.  The sightlines here can be incredible. 

Final tally: two states and almost exactly 500 more miles, for a three-day total of 1749 miles.  Good night, all.