Day 12 – Spearfish, SD to Aberdeen, SD

I had one thing in mind for this day: to catch some DM&E locos. DM&E stands for the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern Railroad, and they along with the IC&E (Iowa, Chicago and Eastern Railroad) have a beautiful blue and gold paint scheme, on classic SD40-2 locos. I was doing a little research though and saw mention of the "Mount Rushmore State", which jogged a memory of mine; something about Mt Rushmore being in the most unlikely of places, somewhere like South Dakota. 30 seconds later and I discovered I was less than an hour away from that most famous of monuments! Wow!

Spearfish, South Dakota. I think. Nice church anyway.

I hit the road and headed for Rapid City, the end of the DM&E and so hopefully a logical place to find some locos. I was tossing up in my head whether to go to Rushmore or not; it would mean a little less time for train chasing, and it is very touristy, but then it is Mount Rushmore! So spent a while in Rapid City following the various railway lines trying to bump into some locos with no luck.

I gave up and headed for Rushmore. Saw a long line of hoppers, tankers, gondolas, etc. Hmm, must be a manifest. Cast a quick glance down the line to see if there were any locos and WHOA HELLO, four blue and golds! Slammed on the indicators and brakes and soon I was navigating a new subdivision full of ticky tacky. Parked up and pretended I was supposed to be striding across the building site and got my blue & golds…

 
A typical problem with photography in South Dakota; farm machinery everywhere .

Aren't they lovely? My photos don't really do them justice, they really need to be plowing through several feet of snow on a crisp winter morning. Satisfied with my DM&E fix I hit the road again, but not before passing street after street of nearly identical houses.

And then it was off to Rushmore. I passed the Mount Rushmore Water Park (closed for winter), the Mount Rushmore petting zoo (very tempted), Mount Rushmore drive in grizzly zoo (also closed), Mount Rushmore maze, Mount Rushmore Reptile Garden, and so on. Can only imagine this place in summer! And so on I drove and the forest got thicker and the billboards fewer and then suddenly I rounded a corner and OH MY GOD,

Wow! I paid my $11 "parking fee, not park entrance fee" and went in. It was very quiet and peaceful. I walked down the isle of state flags and out to the main viewing area.

It's quite a sight.

I went on the board walk around the park which focuses on each president in turn and has some neat scenery.

 

There are all sorts of rocks here, and one minute you'll be walking past huge boulders, then rock that has been layered up and twisted al over the place, and ten you'll round a corner and find great sheets of slate-like rock. The plants here are pretty opportunistic, growing wherever they can a hollow or crack. I also spied some squirrels having a massive argument, chattering away in very loud voices and running up and down a stump making a big show of their fluffy tails.

There can't have been more than a couple of dozen people there, and it was extremely quiet and peaceful. I imagine in summer it could make Disney Land look quiet. So if you're going to Rushmore, I'd suggest a cold, overcast winter day with a stiff breeze blowing in off that plains. Which reminds me; from Rushmore I could look out and see the edge of the mountains and the great nothingness that lies beyond. Quite a sight.

I hopped back in the car and continued on my way. Back at Rapid City my locos has gone, but left their train. Go figure. I soon passed them on the freeway going the opposite way, but didn't feel like explaining to a cop that I thought I had a flat tire and had pulled over to check, and the fact I had a camera in my hands pointing at the railroad was a mere coincidence. So I continued on.

A few minutes later I was talking to a cop! Coming out of Rapid City I noticed lots of cops lined up on the freeway median, no doubt waiting for speeders. There were lots of cars and trucks going very slowly so I was casually passing them, in no hurry and still well under the speed limit. Only… it turns out the speed limit on I90 through Rapid City is 65, not 75. So a few minutes down the road I noticed a cop drawing up beside me, then he squeezed in behind me and the lights went on. I had no idea what it was about this time, as usual actually, but he was very friendly and only gave me a verbal warning and I was back on the road a couple of minutes later. I think as soon as he heard the word "New Zealand" he decided I just wasn't worth the hassle, sides I was only doing 69 in a 65 zone. Sure makes a change from Nevada though, where 80 is considered slow!

After 2 and then 3 hours I came across some nice churches. The second one was all on its lonesome and is called, according to the sign, the "Little Brown Church on the Prairie". It was United Methodist; they have whole denominations out here that I've never even heard of.

 

Out on the freeways I started noticing changes. Gone were the car insurance adverts; out here there are adverts for farming insurance, and tractor adverts play on the radio. Each town, no matter how small, seems to have a John Deere dealership. At one freeway onramp I could swear I saw a sign about taking your harvester on the freeway! A more common option though seems to be to take off the wheels and then load the whole thing onto a low-boy trailer, with tyres stored fore and aft; even so, it is still an oversize load. In case you hadn't guessed, I'm in big time farming country now. Some radio stations broadcast the latest corn, soy, and wheat prices for each state, much like the TV news does for stock prices.

And of course there are grain elevators. Every single town, no matter how tiny, has a massive grain elevator and silos everywhere. Forget aliens, I think the real invaders we have to watch out for are grain silos!

The weather out here is getting progressively colder. I can't remember the exact figures, but sights like this were pretty common:

… a completely iced up and frozen over river. The wind chill was pretty impressive too.

Around quarter to 5 I arrived in Pierre (said: peer), where I crossed the Missouri River. Wikipedia says the Missouri River is the longest river in the US and spans parts of ten US states and two Canadian provinces, and is over 2000 miles long. So it's a biggy.

Imagine my surprise then when I pulled up at a riverside park to take a breather and found it totally frozen over!

I especially liked the beach with snow lapping at the sand. Looking at the map this is actually a little inlet isolated from the main river, and so that might explain why it was frozen. I was still impressed!

Onwards I drove into the night, and witnessed a sunset and then the full moon.

Checked into Aberdeen, SD well into the night. The Inn was pretty busy with people rushing between shelter and wrapped up in warm coats and fluffy hats. The temp that night was a cool -13°C (high was -7°C). Another 8 hours of driving, covering 450 miles. I'm now much closer to my destination…