The Other Side of South Dakota

A couple weeks ago, I shared some scenes from South Dakota with you, pictures that I'd taken while driving through eastern South Dakota. Well last weekend, we spent Saturday morning driving through western South Dakota, and I thought I'd share some scenes from that part of the state with you today.

 

Last blog post, I left you in Fairview, MT where we had just loaded Safflower seed. It had started snowing by the time we were loaded and it was still frigidly cold, so even though it was late evening, and we only had 600 miles to go by Monday, we decided to go ahead and drive south a ways.

 

We went as far as Bowman, ND and stopped there for the night. We got up really early and headed south. Our destination for the day was Rapid City, SD, only about 3 hours away.

 

Highway 85 goes south out of Bowman and drops down into South Dakota. We're very familiar with the route, as this is back in our old stomping grounds when we lived in Montana. As the crow flies, we were probably only 30 miles from the ranch, if that.  

They'd had snow out there, which on the plains makes it very easy to see just about everything.

With snow on the prairies, if its not something white, it stands out, often dramatically.

I have always enjoyed this drive. And since Malcolm was behind the wheel, I spent the time enjoying the scenery and playing with the camera.

 

Bear Butte on the horizon

I love the sky in this one

one of my favorites, for obvious reasons

 Around mid-morning, we reached Rapid City. We had to stop at Kenworth and buy a part. Then we played at the mall. Malcolm went to Cabelas. We had some good food from a favorite restaurant. And then in the evening, we went to the movies. We hadn't been to the theatre to see a movie in at least 8 years. We watched Skyfall, and had a great time.

When we left the theater, it was 4 degrees and the wind was blowing. The girls didn't much appreciate being taken out of their warm truck to potty. But afterwards, we made it up to them by letting them snuggle in the bed with us for a while to warm up. And then we tucked them into their bed and we all got a long, much needed rest.

Sunday, it was still bitter cold. We drove south into Nebraska and on into Colorado. We stopped in Sterling and met up with another married trucking couple we know from Iowa. We hadn't seen them in probably a year, though we stay in touch. Our paths just never seem to cross lately. So we enjoyed a good long dinner with them and a long night of conversation. And then the next morning we delivered in Akron, Co, reloaded in Otis, and headed east across Kansas and beyond for a Tuesday morning delivery in central Indiana.

That was last Monday. We had a good strong week, the first after several slow ones. In fact, we drove through the night every night until Thursday, when we made the mistake of parking.

But that's another story.

Scenes from South Dakota

On a frosty Autumn morning in South Dakota, you might see...

 

 

 

....on US81 from Watertown to Yankton.

Pleasant Days

This has been a good week with a good start and a good end, so far. We've been in some of my favorite states. I love travling in the mid-west and always feel happier when we're doing that. And we've also had some pleasant experiences and surprises. I'll tell you all about it.

Last weekend was one of the best we've had on the road in a long time. We had another load of barley to haul from western Montana to eastern Minnesota. We loaded on Friday morning and could have gone home for the day on Saturday, but instead we decided to take an easy weekend and just putter our way across.

It was a great decision. Malcolm has been so tired and stressed out, and I knew if we went home, he'd spend the whole day working on the truck or other things, where as if we just took our time getting to Minnesota, he'd get to sleep in several mornings and get some rest.

In addition to his rest, we had some fun experiences. It started Thursday evening when we had dinner with his sister and her husband in Great Falls. Then Friday morning, after delivering in Fort Benton, Malcolm drove us down onto the main street along the river and we found this neat little coffee shop where we sat out on the deck and enjoyed lattes and waffles with blueberries. We also walked a short bit of the river walk they have there and read the historic markers the town has put up.

Finally we decided we'd been dragging around long enough. Time to get loaded. So we drove the whopping 14 miles to Carter and loaded up our barley. We puttered our way across 200 miles of scenic Montana two lanes, and stopped at a rest area for the night, waking up late in the evening to a magnificent lightning storm and down pour, which made the air smell so good and cooled things off quite a bit too.

Saturday we drove all of 350 miles to Bismarck, where we spent the evening telling stories and laughing the night away with Malcolm's other sister and her husband. They took us to a neat ice cream place for dessert and we stayed till almost closing. Then they took us back to our truck and we drove 30 miles to a quite rest area and turned in for the evening.

That had left 600 miles or so for Sunday. I expected it to have less of a weekend feel to it having so far to go. After a leisurely breakfast, we buckled down to business and headed east. I was glad we were getting past Minneapolis on a Sunday. I've never been through there when traffic wasn't thick and sluggish. But it flows kind of smooth on a weekend, and we got through with only one hang up.

still west of Minneapolis. Minnesota's rolling hills are pretty.

Our destination of Winona wasn't too far south of the big city. The previous weekend when we'd hauled this load, we'd gone across South Dakota on I-90. This time we came across North Dakota on I-94, thus having to deal with the big city, but also adding a new point of interest to our trip, though at the time, I didn't know we were going to see it.

We were south of Minneapolis, driving along the Mississippi River when I glanced up from my book just in time to see a billboard and all I caught, before it disappeared behind us, was the word Pepin.

Little alarms were going off in my brain. Pepin! Really???? So I snapped the book shut and zipped into planning on the GPS and typed in Pepin, WI.

Sure enough! We were almost into the city limits of Lake City, MN and Pepin, WI was just the other side of the river. I was thrilled!

Now, does anyone have any idea why I was so excited to be there?

hint: it has to do with a rather famous "little house."

Pepin, WI is the home town of my very very dear and beloved friend, Laura Ingalls Wilder! She was born in the "big woods" near the town of Pepin!

Lake Pepin was the lake that Pa drove across the frozen ice in the wagon to go to town, the lake where Laura picked up so many pretty pebbles that the pocket ripped off her dress and Ma had to scold her for being a greedy little girl. And Pepin is the town where the store was and the nice store owner who gave Laura and Mary each a stick of candy and Mary licked hers slowly to make it last, but Laura just ate hers because it was so good. At least I think that's the way she told me it happened.

Anyway, I think I've completed nearly all the main home sights......at 65 miles an hour. We've driven within 6 miles of De Smet, SD, passed the exit for Mansfield, MO, and now I've seen Pepin, WI....from across the lake. Maybe one day I'll get to actually go to these places!

At Lake City, the town on the Minnesota side of the lake, we were hungry, and I think Malcolm had noticed that I'd gone from bored to alert and glued to the window, so he found a parking place along the street, across from the marina...



apparently they like to sail on Lake Pepin



...where we were the only truckers in a crowd of summer tourists, our vehicle standing out like a sore thumb. But who cares!

We walked across the road to a little pizza joint that was run by a husband and wife. They were doing a booming business in delivery, but we had the dining room to ourselve,

and so we relaxed and enjoyed a really yummy cheese pizza and visited with the husband between his delivery trips. He was a very friendly fellow.

Look how patient he's being with me and my camera! He was really trying to indulge me. He even offered to take the pizza across the road to a picnic table, even though it was 95 degrees outside and we'd found the humid side of the country. That was really generous of him, but I was happy in the AC and quiet, so we stayed there.

After dinner, we packed up our left overs for a later snack (large cheese pizzas are perfect for meals and later snacks or second meals!) and headed on south. A few miles later, we were passing the south end of the "lake," which is just a widened section of the Mississippi River (Laura never mentioned that to me). And across the lake, through the summer haze, was the town of Pepin, WI. I waved as we went past.

By the way, did you know that aside being famous because Pa Ingalls drove across it with his wagon in Laura's book, it has two other claims to fame? Apparently, Lake City, on the shores of Lake Pepin, is where water skiing was invented. And also, Lake Pepin has it's own lake monster. Seriously! His name is Pepie. Laura never told me these things either. I think maybe she's been holding out on me, but I'll forgive her because I love her that much.

It was only maybe another 45 miles or so to Winona, where we delivered our barley right along the river, that evening. As we were leaving to head back north and to our morning pickup, we got to enjoy seeing a barge up close. As I said in last weeks post, this place was so close to the river that if we rolled too far, we'd fall in and drift over to Wisconsin.

We stopped once we got to the other side of Minneapolis. We were tired, but had wanted to get back to the west side of the city so we could skip Monday morning traffic. Our reload was on the eastern side of Minnesota in Benson. We loaded wheat there in the morning and headed out towards Colorado.

I can't for the life of me remember where I took the above picture. Somewhere between Minnesota and Colorado, and since it pretty much sums up the scenery for most of the trip, I posted it. South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and eastern Colorado = fairly flat and grainy (like corn, wheat, etc).

Sheridan Lake, CO is right on the Kansas/Colorado border, more or less. That's where the wheat went. And then we hopped 30 miles east to Marienthal, KS to load more wheat, organic this time, and took it to a mill north of Denver. That was an easy 250 mile trip and we were loaded and empty the same day. We got there 30 minutes before they closed.

Emptied out, we headed north towards Mitchell, NE, as scattered storms moved into northern Colorado.

The storms were just the ticket to get things cooled off, and we were able to sleep with the truck turned off and the windows open. We've been managing to do that a lot lately, which is nice because it's quiet and saves fuel.

We loaded great northern white beans in Nebraska and headed off for our drive to eastern North Dakota. The skies have been really pretty the last couple of days.

Scottsbluff National Monument in Scottsbluff, NE

pretty blue skies over the South Dakota prairie. That black area is what's left after a grass fire. There was a black scar for miles to the horizon where the smoke was still billowing up into the sky. Guess it was still burning it's way across the grasslands.

this morning in southeast North Dakota.

All those little puffy clouds have spent the day gathering together and now I'm sitting in a parking lot in Wahpeton, ND admiring tall billowing clouds with dark gray bottoms. It's also dropped in temperature to 75. A few more degrees and we'll shut the truck off for the day.

We delivered this morning west of here, and tomorrow morning we'll load sunflower chips across the state line in Minnesota. They wouldn't load us till morning though, so for now Malcolm sleeps and I'm catching up on a few things and trying to entertain myself.

Lucky you. It means I didn't have an excuse to put off blogging, which I've kind of done this week. I've been enjoying being in some of my favorite states and also had my nose buried in another good book. So you got neglected. Hope you don't mind.

We'll probably stop at the house on Saturday and then drive to Spokane, WA on Sunday where we'll deliver. So from last Monday to this coming one, our week will have looked like this.

I'm still trying to perfect my technique when taking pictures of the computer screen, got to get around that reflection somehow, but for now...the green lines are roughly the routes we took and the flags our destinations.

Sprinkles on the windshield! I would really enjoy a good storm right now! But a rain shower will work too.

Crossing the Mid-West

Today is 2 1/2 weeks since we went back to work from our break. That means, if we stay out our usual 5-6 weeks, then technically, we're at our half way mark! Kind of...

Last Thursday afternoon we loaded barley in Carter, MT. That is north of Great Falls.

 That morning had been rough. Malcolm had had a bad cold for several days preceding this, and Wednesday I started feeling puny. By Wednesday night I was all sniffy and I woke up Thursday morning feeling like I'd been run over by a truck. So when we found out the receiver in Minnesota didn't want their barley till Monday, we had no complaints, as Malcolm was still feeling drained and I was on my way to becoming a plague victim. We loaded up and headed east through Montana's northern plains, expecting to be home by late evening, where I planned to pass out on the couch and not move till I had to.

I love these vast rolling grasslands.
And I hate that speck on my camera lens.
I've reached my limit of tolerance and think I'm going to have to mail me camera off to be fixed. But in the mean time, we'll try to keep looking past the dark smudges on my pictures.


By late afternoon, we'd passed through Roundup and were well into the plains of eastern Montana, which were visibly dryer than those of the western side.

Quite a dramatic difference, and a depressing sight.
On a good note though, by this point in the day I was feeling much better and it was looking like I was going to have a 2 day version of Malcolm's week long illness. Lucky me! I had expected to be camped out on the couch at home, recovering, but instead by Friday morning, when we woke up in our bedroom at home with the sound of silence (specifically no traffic or rumbling motors), I was feeling energized and happy, ready to start my day with a cup of coffee in my favorite mug while organizing my time and ideas.

Malcolm worked with his dad on Friday and Saturday he worked on the truck. Friday I did house chores and laundry (sounds dull I know but I enjoyed every minute of it) and Saturday I camped on the couch with my girls, not because I was sick, but because we thought an afternoon lounging on the couch with a good book sounded really nice. So that's what we did.

Saturday evening I noticed some stormy weather moving in so I went out to see if Malcolm needed help putting things away. When I got out there he'd just finished so I stood around waiting for him to be ready to go in, and just before we headed to the house I glanced out towards the southwest and I think my heart literally stopped for a few moments.

There was a brown column of smoke quickly rising  into the air on the horizon.

Fast tracks made to the house and the phone. Malcolm's mom called neighbors while we watched the smoke and listened to the conversations. Someone had already spotted it and been on the phone. The fire was several ranches away from us and people were in route to take care of it. The wind had been blowing good all day, but now it was turning ferocious, which never helps. We were debating whether to go down there or not, when the smoke disappeared. We heard later that rain had come in and put the fire out just before people arrived. Thank goodness! Thank God!

Sunday morning we left the house and headed towards Minnesota. Seven miles from home we hit the North Dakota state line, and four miles later crossed into South Dakota.

We're on 2 lanes for a couple hours or so before we hit I-90.

Hadn't been in South Dakota for a while. It was a beautiful day! And it was clear that South Dakota is suffering from drought too. I'm beginning to wonder if there is any state in the country that's not withering.

We hit Minnesota near dusk and I went to bed. Our delivery was on the very eastern edge of the state, in Winona. And when I say eastern edge, I mean if we'd rolled a few feet to far, we'd have fallen in the river and drifted across to Wisconsin. Malcolm got there around midnight or so and they were open and ready to unload us. That was a nice surprise. Worked in our favor.

Because we had a phone message from our broker to head to Decatur, IL as soon as we got unloaded and that was a 400 mile bounce! Malcolm woke me up around 4:00am and I took over. We were in Wisconsin and the sun had just gotten well into it's morning rise.

Wisconsin is a pretty state. I like to look at all the farms. But for some reason, neither of us really cares to drive in Wisconsin. I can't pin point the reason. But if I have to drive through Wisconsin, I like mornings. There is something about morning light and farms that feels good.

Madison traffic cooperated and then it was south on to northern Illinois. I was hoping I'd not have to deal with heavy traffic. In that part of Illinois, even though it's still relatively distant from Chicago, the traffic can still be bothersome. I had a good morning. Everything kept flowing smoothly.

Illinois......Land of Lincoln!
Illinois....Land of corn and soy beans!

No pathetic corn here. The fields are so lush that mostly it's just the rooftops of the farm houses and barns that are visible from the highway, though the roadsides do look a tad dry. Irrigation.....a marvelous invention!

We got about 50 miles from our destination when we found out we'd been told the wrong town, and so now we're hot footing it over to Quincy, another 180 miles back west! Yeah, you could say we were a bit miffed with that one. Four hundred miles was a long bounce to start with, but now we've gone quite a bit out of route, and then the real destination told us they had wanted us there at 7:30 this morning, but they'll try and get us loaded anyway.  This was a high paying load, but that's diminishing with each added mile and the extra fuel we're burning to make up lost time. Fortunately these mistakes hardly ever happen. It will still be a nice paying load and, provided we actually get loaded, we'll be heading west by this afternoon and in Reno, NV by tomorrow evening.
In the mean time, I'm going to enjoy all the green in Illinois for a few more minutes, and then go stretch out in bed, read a chapter or two (or three or four or...you know how that works) in my current book, and then try and catch a little sleep so I can drive this afternoon and give Malcolm a break.

An Illustrated Recap of November...

...because it would take too many words to tell it all. Well, there will be a few words, maybe quite a few, but I'll keep it to a minimum as best I can. You know how "wordy" I can get sometimes.

We were home for a little more than 3 1/2 weeks.

There were some early mornings...

...and some late nights.



 After our trip to Helena to pick up Reba and Fancy, the next big event was rounding up cows...

...sorting in the corrals...

...and loading the calves up to go to their new homes.

 Over the course of 2 1/2 weeks, we hauled cattle 4 days, taking calves to the scale in town, the rest of the calves to the sale barn near Belle Fourche, hauling "open" cows to the sale another day, and bringing home 4 loads of bred cows from summer pasture. In all, we ran about 1200 miles just shufflin' cows around from place to place.

 Aside from cow business though, there were other things going on. Friendships were formed....

...some more reluctantly than others.

And old friendships were rekindled. Judy from Loves Ranch Life and More made the trip to Baker to have lunch with me one day, and on another day my mother-in-law and I went to a neighbor's for a short visit and to get some of her wonderful home made soaps.

I just love these soaps from Pure Prairie Soap, and the lady who makes them is a delightful person! I was so glad to finally meet her and get to visit, and my mother-in-law enjoyed getting to catch up with a friend.

Back at home, there were crafting successes....

...and cooking failures.

my sister's carrot cake runeth over. Delicious taste, stinky mess in my oven!

 Injuries were mended...

...and lots of pampering of the princess commenced to make her feel better.

And just because the calves were shipped and another years "crop" was in the bag, that didn't mean outside work was over. Maintenance is an on going chore, and often requires some creativity. My caption for this picture? How many men does it take to change a light bulb?

  The answer? Two! If they have a bucket of tools, a step ladder, a semi trailer, a tractor to lift them up, a woman to run the tractor, and a dog to wait patiently in the warmth of the tractor and out of the wind. Smart girl! Some chores take team effort, no matter how small they may seem.

 We also made time for some outdoor recreation while the weather was still nice! A motor had been recently acquired and fitted to the S.S. JMBAR Cruiseship, so we had to take it out for a test run before it all got packed up for the winter. It sure beats rowing!

 And of course, Gemma got a few lessons worked into her busy schedule. The dog and I are her best buds! She's even started to whinny at me when she sees me coming and meets me half way.

 It's sweet, but I sure hope our friendship doesn't take on similarities to her bond with Lucy. I had a surprise opportunity to catch my future cutting horse (?) at work. I'm not sure her play partner was enjoying the game as much as she was.

I appologize for the racket. I was standing at the gate where all the mama cows were congregated looking for their missing calves. They sure can raise a ruckus!

The last week at home, my mother-in-law and I made a total of four trips to Belle Fourche, SD for Paris's leg injury. That's about a 3 hour drive there and another three hours back. So we had lots of visiting time. We also discovered a neat quilting shop and a very pleasant coffee house across the road. On Friday we had our last vet appointment during which I became concerned that Paris couldn't come with us after all. The vet needed to change her splint bandaging once a week, and there were already sores forming on her leg. Turns out hairlessness is a disadvantage when your wearing a cast!

I was very frustrated because I'd been counting on taking her with us, and now it didn't look promising. BUT...our home town vet whom we adore (but who isn't set up for the little guys yet, thus our trip to Belle Fourche) had Malcolm and I, and Paris, come to her home on Sunday, where she spent an hour going over the process of taking off the dressings, medicating the sutures, and re wrapping and splinting the leg. I was leery of being responsible for it, but she assured us that we could do it without problems, and also reassured me that the splint is actually just a secondary support. In fact, if the sores persist or get worse, we're to take the splint off and leave it off. All that metal in her leg (see earlier pictures in this post) is what's actually supporting her while the bones heal. And it all gets to stay in there too. Little Paris and her new bionic leg.

The last days at home provided some beautiful scenery...

...to be enjoyed from the window as I baked cookies for the girls, wrapped Christmas presents, and gathered our things together for re-packing the truck.

It was a busy home time, lots of work, a little play, a few traumatic moments, but even with problems and being tired, it was just good to be home!

We left Monday morning, loaded near Timber Lake, SD and headed south towards Colorado.

 Leaving home is always a bit bitter sweet. We hate to leave, and yet by the end of these long breaks, we feel compelled to be productive again. Home time was great, but really, it's not so bad being back in the truck.

 Especially knowing in a few weeks we'll have more time off, and this time it will be for a Tennessee Christmas! We haven't seen my family since April, and we haven't had a Tennessee Christmas for a couple of years. I CAN'T WAIT!

Mom's beatiful garden under a rare TN snow last winter