Day 2: South Dakota

So we explored Watertown, SD. It, in fact, has A LOT of the same stuff as Watertown, WI as far as restaurants and stores (and a Watertown High School…). We stopped at Culvers and Wal Mart and we got excited over every sign that said Watertown. Yea…

So we had lunch at a local park. It was in a nice suburban area. We watched kids play baseball and heard a man play trash cans as drums in his garage. We had lunchables and soda, ‘cause we’re just that cool.

Then we found this huge clock tower in the middle of town so we went to check it out. The clock was originally purchased from Dakota Loan and Trust Co in 1887 for $1,000 and was housed at the top of city hall in 1889. But the clock had been sold in 1965 when that city hall was demolished. However, for a South Dakota Centennial Project in 1987, Mayor Herb Jenson searched for the clock and discovered it at Gem College in Quincy Illinois and purchased it (again) for $1,000. The tower we saw it in now was constructed from contributions and pledges of at least $35/person and the total cost was $80,000. Names cover all sides of the clock tower of all the major contributions. I thought it was so funny that they purchased this clock for essentially $2,000 just to keep it as a historical landmark!

Anyway, after exploring Watertown we moved on through SD; here are the road notes:

-Did you know that random country roads in SD have names like 213th Street or 406th Avenue? And…they don’t go in order. In fact, there’s a lot of gaps in the numbers. We can’t figure out why they are numbered this way. Especially out in the middle of nowhere.

-Cows….

-Lots of flat land and straight roads. And quite a bit of flooding (we don’t think it’s marsh land…but maybe we’re wrong?)

-More cows…

-They really want us to adopt a highway.

-Pierre, SD is scenic. Finally lots of hills! Surprise from all the flat farmland for miles.

-Fields of cows…

-Cross Missouri River and enter Mountain Time Zone around 4:50 pm…er..3:50pm
-There’s a liquor store with a drive-thru.

-Re-enter central time zone about 5:00pm CDT. Time zone border isn’t apparently a straight line…

-Holy cows, South Dakota has a lot of angus!

Now, we are in Murdo, SD. At another Best Western. We got here and enjoyed the last bit of sunshine by hitting the outdoor pool here. This town has a population of about 835. It’s SMALL. They’re “business” area (Main Street) looks like an old western saloon with how the shops are all lined up and designed! They are known for this small automobile museum that we passed when we entered. This town must mostly be rural because there seems to literally be 4 roads to this town and the town mostly consists of the intersection where they meet. We went down the only road that has like 3 hotels all by each other. A few feet up the road from the Best Western is some local pizza place and also Buffalo Bar and Restaurant. We went there for dinner. Wanna know why they call it Buffalo? ….Yup…they serve it. After we ate, we had a drink at the bar to wait out the hail and rain (It’s storming again…). I noticed at the bar they have a collection tin to collect money for a dock and fishing pier in the town. We threw some change in. I think the closeness of community out here is heartwarming. In fact, (it being a small town) everyone at Buffalo knew each other, and some kids (younger than 8 maybe) that knew the bartender came in after a baseball game and played at the pool table.
Now we’re just lying in the hotel, watching TV, and listening to the thunder outside. I hope tomorrow is sunny.

Love Always & Forever,

Stephanie


Songs of the day:

Clocks by Coldplay
La Vie Bohem from Rent soundtrack