9. August 15-Toni's birthday and in South Dakota? Huh?

Late start today. We left Minot, ND about 9:20, very late for us. The Hampton Inn so far exceeds most places we have used. They have a 'brown bag' breakfast to grab as you leave without breakfast, so we grabbed and used as another roadside lunch. Plan on staying at more of them going forward.

Even tho oil is king in the Dakotas, there are vast fields of windmills in both North and South Dakota. As were entering North Dakota yesterday, without exaggeration there was 15 miles of windmills on both sides of the highway. Less in South Dakota today but still quite a few.

One of 10,000 along the way. Sign of the future?

 

 

 

We had heard from a local couple at dinner last night that traffic and construction along the route we wanted to take to Theodore Roosevelt National Park through the oil fields was to be avoided. Having scored take-away breakfast/lunch bags from Hampton, having a cooler with water and other essential adult beverages, we decided to stick to the original plan of taking the smaller road routes through the oil fields, the oil boom town of Newtown, and then south toward the TR National Park.

 As we worked our way (on small roads, not the interstates) toward South Dakota, we came across a cemetery used by the local Indian nations to bury their dead who have served in defense of America. Buried here are soldiers of the four local Indian tribes who have died in US service from the late 1800's (Spanish American War) through the Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts. Very moving and in the middle of absolutely nowhere in southern North Dakota.

Entrance to cemetery

Very moving tribute to patriotism

While we mostly skirted the major portion of the newly discovered oil producing sites using the 'fracking method' of oil production, what we saw was astounding. Sites of 1/2 acre to 3 acre sites with drilling rigs, storage tanks, 'flare-off' natural gas burn-offs, very heavy truck transport clogging the roads, stop-and-go traffic, dust and dirt thick everywhere made it a location not for the faint of stomach.

There must be hundreds of these fracking sites nearby

We passed many sites of housing/trailers used for the thousands who have come to the area to work the oil fields. Depressing.

The route of the oil fields toward Teddy Roosevelt National Park

 Naturally after all that, we had to stop for a road side lunch:

Alongside the road, first view of badlands landscapes

Then the fun started.

As we headed south after lunch toward the North 'Unit' (as the two parts of the park are called) of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, the rains started. Started hell, they dumped! As a result, we missed the entrance to the northern part of the Park. Once we recognized we had not seen the entrance to the north part (see map above on left side), we decided to head for the lower (southern) part of the park. It was still raining cats and dogs but the park guide book said the southern part had the visitor center with 'Teddy's' memorobilia.

We stopped in the visitors center and then took a short trip through the park. The weather was still pretty crappy and we could not see much of anything so we left the park and headed south toward our next day planned route further west toward Yellowstone.

@200 miles later, we ended up in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. Honest. At an AmericInn. Not a major chain but seems really nice.

Tomorrow we head for Yellowstone.