DAY 59 SUNDAY 4th NOVEMBER 2007

Hermosa, South Dakota (Miles to date: 5975)

Today we have one of our longer drives down to Hermosa, South Dakota, about 375 miles or so … we therefore set of relatively early for us. Fortunately we are going from Central to Mountain time (and we had daylight saving thrown in) so we “make up" some time. Luckily we set out on a very gloomy overcast day – which doesn’t make you feel so bad about travelling – you feel like you are wasting a day when you travel in the good weather.

We travel down from Stanton to join I-94 at New Salem, where we find Salem Sue, who at 38 feet high and 50 feet long is the world’s largest Holstein cow (not sure there is too much competition). We stopped briefly for some photos, because it was extremely cold.

Some miles further down the road we pull off I-94 at Gladstone and head southwards along the “Enchanted Highway”. Along this 31 mile stretch of road between Gladstone and Regent, ND are sets of huge sculptures in metal – supposedly the largest sculptures of their type in the world. The first sculpture is right at the exit of the highway and is of geese in flight. The artist, one Gary Greff, undertook this project in 1999 with no experience in art work and welding … and the results are certainly impressive. His aim was to try and draw people to the town of Regent, believing it would not survive if it based its future entirely on farming. Our particular favourites were the Grass Hoppers in the Field and Fisherman’s Dream. On reaching Regent we pulled over and went into a new café -come -art store in the main street … it was very trendy and nicely presented … a bit of a surprise in such a remote place. We were served by a 16 year old, attractive girl, whose mother owns the café. She was very articulate and confident for one so young … it seems amazing to me how the young people of today exude such confidence and authority, nothing like when I was that age. Makes me sound geriatric!!

Anyway we soon moved on to the rest of our long and somewhat tedious trip through the flat, endless prairies of the Dakotas. On the way down we had read that we would pass through the geographic centre of the combined 52 United States (apparently this used to be in Kansas before Alaska and Hawaii joined the Union). The exact point is somewhat disputed so it is all a bit unofficial and not clearly marked. So as we approach the city of Belle Fouce we are on the lookout for the signs – by this time the day is drawing to the end. We almost missed it but there is a sign saying that the marker is 8 miles off of the highway so off we pull. The road is a very bumpy dirt track through Government land – so we jiggle and joggle our way along past field of sheep and wild deer. Eventually we reach our destination, somewhat shaken and stirred like a good Martini, to find that the marker is even less official than we had suspected. All there is to show is a hand painted sign saying “CENTER OF THE NATION” stuck in a cobbled fashion to a rickety barb wire fence guarding a Union Flag stuck with little aplomb in the middle of a field. We were somewhat disappointed but at the same time the lack of style did amuse us. So we snap a quick photo and head on our way, stopping at Belle Fouche where there is a more official looking marker so we snap that too. At this stage we see the sign for the Devil’s Tower, a rather impressive monolith in the Blackhills of Dakota that was most famously used in the film “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” but unfortunately it is too much of a detour so we press on. As we enter the Blackhills area we notice signs for Deadwood – which reminds us of Doris Day playing Calamity Jane and we burst into a pretty poor rendition of the “Deadwood Stage”. The light is fading fast so we quickly divert into Deadwood to have a peek. Again we are disappointed to find that the town – especially the old part – has been turned into bars and hotels, all with casinos. South Dakota’s version of Las Vegas!! We suppose this is fitting with the past history of the town with gold prospectors burning their hard found fortunes – but we had expected something more “historic”. One again we are disappointed and it is time to get to out room for the night.

It is late by the time we reach our destination for the next three days. We are staying in a bed and breakfast – attractively known as the Ghost Canyon B&B, which is 15 miles outside Hermosa, South Dakota (the last 5 miles is yet another dirt road). Hermosa is a small town near Rapid City – one of the larger cities in South Dakota. As we pull into our accommodation we startle a small herd of deer – and our host Rick is waiting for us. We are staying in the old bunk house of the Ghost Canyon Ranch, owned by Rick and his wife Judy. It is a delightful place with two bedrooms (hurray alone time for the adults) and a separate sitting area. As close to home as we get nowadays. We settle down in front of a wonderful log fire, tired from a long and eventful journey.