Highway nights

So much is going on in South Dakota.  My goodness!

First off, great news!  Roads are in good shape!

Now, the bad news.  The roads totally suck!

Yes, I found both stories today, and they are both new.  Talk about a case of the pothole being half empty and the pothole being half full.  For what it’s worth, I can’t think of a road I’ve been on in South Dakota lately that was really bad, but I haven’t been on a lot of South Dakota roads lately.  I will be in a few weeks, so maybe I’ll have a better opinion to give on this topic.  Feel free to add your road reports to the comments section.

Meanwhile, in non-asphalt news…

Burt Gummer won’t be moving to South Dakota.  Curse you eminent domain!  If you don’t know who Burt Gummer is, rent Tremors already.  It’s only been out almost 20 years.  You’ll find no finer movie with Kevin Bacon, Fred Ward, Finn Carter and Michael Gross.

Yahoo had a story about the top tech states, and South Dakota was in the bottom ten.  Take this yahoo!

The next two towns in South Dakota to do the consolidation tango are Emery and Bridgewater.

Tim Johnson wants to drill off the coasts, and John Thune is still riding the waaaambulance about ANWAR.  Stephanie Herseth-Sandlin’s views are oddly absent.

Huron residents are done letting their foliage go, or so the city sayeth.

This is a story we don’t see often.  Early?

Seriously, there is a street in Rapid City called Disk Drive?

My hometown might soon be handling 15 % of the state’s dairy production.  Go us!

One of Pierre’s new features this summer is that hot book smell. 

South Dakota opponents of NAFTA won’t be happy to hear we’re importing our wildfire smoke from Canada, rather than using U.S. made California wildfire smoke.

Finally, this week’s birthday report goes to Gettysburg, which oddly transitions into what I’ve been thinking about lately.

In a few weeks I’ll be travelling back to South Dakota for a few days.  Kate and I will be spending a few nights in Veblen, then we’re taking my mom on a road trip to the state capitol for my nephew’s wedding.  We’ll be in beautiful downtown Pierre for two nights, with world class accommodations at the AmericInn.  After that, we’ll be taking historic Highway 14 back to Minnesota, while my mom gets a ride from some other relatives.  I’ve taken to studying my new atlas for a route from Veblen to Pierre that is both somewhat new and not too out of the way.  I’m happy to report the route I’ve chosen not only adds just five miles to the drive, but it is full of road that I have not seen in maybe 20 years, and some that I’ve never seen.  Our trip will roll through exciting diversions like Lake City, Britton, Groton, Aberdeen, Mina, Ipswich, Roscoe, Bowdle, Hoven, Gettysburg, Agar, Onida, and finally Pierre and Fort Pierre (hotel in one, wedding in the other).  I might bone up on those towns thanks to this book that I’d recommend, but the price seems a lot higher than the forty bucks I paid a few years ago.  I really hope someday Kate and I can do something like that, even without publishing a book about it.  Granted, selling a book that expensive might be the only way to pay for gas by then.

What’s your favorite stretch of South Dakota asphalt, or even gravel?