Rapid city is actually quite a sleepy place.

Gail and Stan put on a great breakfast for us.

Sorry, THESE were the best eggs in America.

Stan had to run some stuff to the tip, so Gail took us around to look at the town and the historical Fort.  We bought some postcards.

The actual Fort Dodge.

Stores.

We got back and met their neighbour, Pluto, and threw a football around for a while in the street.  The Talk had put on his new Notre Dame t-shirt.  One of Stan's neighbours rang and asked if he knew there was a kid in a Notre Dame shirt throwing a Michigan ball outside his house.  The Talk, suitably ashamed, went inside to change.

Pluto (pup)

Then we had lunch.  And what a lunch.  Hamburgers, more fresh vegetables, a pile of sides, every condiment we could think of.  Afterwards, Gail and Stan made up bags of vegetables for us to eat on the road.  It was exactly what we needed.

An amazing lunch is about to happen.

We made one more stop on our way out of town to buy Iowa Hawkeyes t-shirts to avoid further embarrassment.  Then the drive to Rapid City, South Dakota was in action.

We saw a lot of this crossing Minnesota.

The drive across Minnesota and South Dakota was long, straight and flat.  We did it mostly at high speed, with cruise control on.  Both the Skeptic and I were relying on the other guys to keep us focused on the road.

Meanwhile, somewhere in Minnesota...

The drive was also the worst hammering Maggie has had with insects.  We had to keep pulling over to clean her off, because at night we needed as much help with visibility as we could get.  After a couple of navigational snafus we found our motel and bedded down for a sleep and an early start.

The South Dakota sunset.