to Platte, South Dakota 23 August 2014 : Caspar Institute

Up early because the altitude at Sylvan Lake was bothering us both, we rolled out of the hills into Rapid City for breakfast, and then onward across the prairie.

Interstates are soulless highways, blasting straightly over hill and through dale. The Prius doesn't like them much (as evidenced by the mileage) either. So off-highway we go at the first opportunity: into the Badlands.

Can you imagine crossing this before highways? Of course it was also the territory of the most "hostile" of Amerinds, the Sioux ... hostile meaning that they actively resented it when white guys shot their buffalo and traversed their land in a proprietary fashion. "The very idea!" as my Granfazzer would say.

The Badlands were created when the ash produced by the volcanoes of the Black Hills was washed and blown into the shallow sea that covered this part of the North American Plate. As it subsequently rose up, the draining away of the water caused much of the erosion, but wind and water in the following 15 million years has put on the finishing touches. It looks and feels like hard clay mud ... punctuated by areas of amazingly green prairie.

Rochelle says "You better use this photo." It's her birthday today (the 24th, as I post this while waiting for breakfast at our lovely B&B in Platte, South Dakota – look it up!) and so I will.

We left the Badlands and traversed a good chunk of prairie and farmland on state Highway 44, a soulful two-laner that our Prius loved (52.4 mpg.)

In Platte we enjoyed the hospitality of a native who'd left a career in Denver and elsewhere to return to her home, care for her 90-year-old Dad, and run a b&b and catering business – "I have the best job in the world", said she as she saw us off to bed in the 1918 craftsman house that reminded us of Rochelle's house in Caspar. We slept like rocks.