South Dakota - Day 1

Our stay at the Super 8 came with what they call a "Super Start Breakfast", which was served from 6-9am. We must have been jet lagged, because we didn't wake up until 8:45 and had to boot it to the main building (yes, we were in an offshoot building at the Super 9) for our Super Start. This breakfast lacked a bit of imagination. It consisted of a counter with a couple of bags of no name cereal (looked like cheerios and cornflakes), a dish of some dried-out looking pastry, a bag of bread and a toaster. No fruit or anything. There was also juice and coffee. Now, when they say a "Super Start", I was thinking something a little more substantial. Oh well, we had our breakfast, and packed up the car and were once again on our way. It was a long drive, but with speed limits of 75mph (that's 120kmph!), it didn't seem so slow.

The scenery was similar to that of Manitoba, but more desert. It was pretty flat, but very brown and very dry looking. In fact, we haven't seen a cloud in the sky since we left Canada. And I'm not exaggerating... not one cloud. It was perfect blue sky the whole way through.

The road was flat and straight, but along with the lightening-speed limit came a couple of problems. As we were driving through, we saw a crumpled up Porsche on the other side of the highway that was being cleared off. It looked like it took quite a tumble into the ditch. Also we saw an older RV that was burnt to a crisp. Nothing but its wire frame and charred upholstery were left. There were tons of emergency vehicles and lots of ambulances. I hope no one was hurt. The RV had been pulled to the side of the road, so I assume the driver had enough time to get out.

As creepy as that was, we also saw a lot of really neat things. Like dust devils. I don't think I've ever actually seen those before, but they're big whirlwinds in the middle of a farmer's field. They look like tornadoes, but they don't reach the sky. We saw as many as 5 in the same field. It looked really cool!

Andre would also like me to inform you that he saw a badger at the side of the road. Yes, he pulled over, but as he got out of the car, the badger ran away. I didn't actually see the badger, so I couldn't tell you whether it was real or not, but if Andre says it, then it must be real.

When we got to our hotel, we were surprised. We had booked it on Hotwire, so we didn't actually get to choose the place, but we got a Holiday Inn -- our favourite. This Holiday Inn was unlike any I've ever seen. Not only was it huge, but it was so elegant! It was round, with an atrium in the middle that extended to the ceiling where there were skylights (10 stories up). In the atrium was a lounge and a restaurant and the reception area. The elevators had twinkle lights and exposed glass that looked into the atrium and there was a waterfall that ran all along the side of the elevator that trickled from the roof to the ground, into a different bowl at each floor.

Our room was just outside the elevator doors on the 4th floor where the fountain bowl was. It was also next door to the ice machine. I can see why it was the hotwire room... it had to be pretty noisy. We got into our room and were astounded at the size of it. Of course, because we booked on hotwire, we didn't get to choose what kind of room we got -- so we ended up with 2 beds, but it didn't matter. It was a huuuge room and very pretty!

We settled into our room and decided to go for a late night snack. It was 10:30pm at that point. We decided to hit up a place near our hotel called "Taco John's". We got there late enough at night that they had their late night special of 3 tacos for $2, so that's what we did. We were starving so we each got 3 tacos. Cheap dinner! They were pretty good tacos... reminiscent of Taco Bell.

We headed back to the hotel to take a dip in the pool and hot tub, which closed at midnight. This is the only hotel that I've seen that has a pool open that late, which is nice. Usually the pool is packed with kids until closing time.