Around noon on May 7 the sun came out and we crossed the Big Sioux River leaving Iowa and entering South Dakota. Half an hour later we rolled into Vermillion, SD, home of both the U of South Dakota Coyotes and of the multiple state championship winning Vermillion High School Tanagers. How ‘bout that Tanager Pride!

We will camp in Vermillion for a couple of days and try to pass the SD drivers license exam Thursday. Don’t laugh: much of what we have considered routine road behavior in Louisiana is subject to a fine or incarceration here. It’s not like this is a no-brainer.

The weather forecast called for rain beginning after midnight, but I wanted to grill.  I bought some chops and long before dark fired up the grill. About the time the flames began to dance over the charcoal rain began to fall. I had to finish it all up inside the trailer, in a skillet. It worked well enough: grub is grub.

The rain fell off and on all night. Rain has followed us from south Louisiana to Arkansas to Oklahoma to Kansas to Iowa and now to the Dakotas. An hour or so after noon the rain took a break, and we took a short ride into the town of Vermillion. Kat loves to see old downtowns, and this one is much more lively than most small town down-towns, probably thanks to the U of South Dakota. I spotted an old style bar whose signage claimed that it had been running since 1954.

Enter us. The décor was plenty old. So was most of the clientele. Matt, the bartender, is but a child of 30. We took seats at the bar next to Coach, and we all watched the Cincinnati – Atlanta baseball game. About the time our drafts hit the counter an Atlanta guy crushed a grand slam home run and turned a 3-1 game into a 7-1 blowout. It was time to take some pictures, and Kat did so. Here’s the biggest deer I’ve ever seen, and he got that big despite smoking but more important was his elk DNA.

Below is Carey’s cigarette machine. Price is the same as in the Gold Mine in the French Quarter.  Which is the better deal?  And what other product, when used as directed, is guaranteed to shorten the user’s lifespan?  We saw no one smoking in Carey’s today.  How about that?

What was Clint Eastwood doing here in his Dirty Harry days?

My guess:  he was already doing research for Bridges of Madison County.