South Dakota...I like this land!

I'm sitting in Watertown, SD doing a 34 hour restart...and it has been cool, quiet and relaxing. Now, there have been a lot of storms, wind, drove thru hail and heavy wind and rain on the way up here from CA....but I really do like the land up here. It is rolling hills, the Badlands, grasslands, gorgeous farm land...

 The really nice thing about storms out in the plains is you really get to have a good look at the clouds!  And they can be magnificient! The thunderhead above took on the look of an atomic blast in the light of the setting sun....that you don't see very often...if at all!!  :-)

 The other nice thing about the plains is the cars that you get to see....and you can see just about anything out here!  Caught this rod while looking for a spot to park here in Watertown.

 The drive up here thru the Badlands is just fabulous! The rolling hills go on for ever, it seems, and just blend into the horizon. And there was so much snow this past winter and they are getting so much rain so far this year that everything is green....and I mean everything!!

And I was not sure when I would be back thru this area, so while I had the chance I stopped at the Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD to pick up a couple of books on the ghost and gold towns of this part of the world. That is one of the things I plan on doing is getting back up here and finding some of these old towns from the gold rush days...and the silver rush days.

And what I hauled up here from CA was about 24,000 pounds of "bee protein"....honey bee food!!  And it was rainy and wet and windy and stormy for over half of the run. In fact, we unloaded in a nice steady rain that was just enough to get you soaked in 30 minutes!  But the storm that came along after that was just really massive!  I sat and watched it pass by...missed where I was sitting by just a couple of miles...but once it went by....on the rain that we got here for the next several hours....such fabulous sleeping weather!!!











I was able to get a couple of more of the modular drawers to try to finish up my storage issues in the truck. Added a 5 drawer to the closet since I have very little that needs to be hung up (because in the cold weather I keep my coats hanging on hooks that I can get to easy), almost all my clothing is in drawers (or will be before the night is over).  I'll get a pic of them when I get them all set up.

I have no real idea yet of where I am headed tomorrow. I'll be heading down towards Sioux Falls, SD to get a load out. And am working on making another run to CA for the AutoDisplay folks. We'll have to see how that one comes together.

But I think that the rest of the evening will be a movie night, just kick back and relax, get a good night's sleep and be ready to run for 7 days. Of course, tomorrow is the first day of the annual 3 day escapade of the DOT to check trucks, as many as they can, in their annual crack down on bad trucks. Let's just hope I can roll thru it without getting stopped....kind of like last year...it is just an inconvenience for time!  I'm not worried about passing one of them, it is just the hassle of it all. But if there were not so many crappy trucks out here with equally crappy drivers they wouldn't have to be doing it.  That is just the point that the trucking industry has gotten to. Not like it was several decades ago....and it just keeps getting worse!  

805 more days to go!!!  :-)