I started out the day helping Riley with some yard maintenance; mowing the lawn, edging the front sidewalks, and raking the leaves. We ended up filling his garbage bin with yard waste. Kathy packed up the truck, I took a quick shower, and we headed off to find some Bagels. There are two Einstein Bagel places in Tapid City but one was closed for the summer and the other was closed due to lack of staff. We gave up and headed to Riley and Lizzy’s place. She had a cool little place that is constructed for gardening and small farm animals. Thy have planted a huge number of crops in the containers and boxes around the home. They even have 6 chickens. It’s a really cool place and this will be their first full summer with the gardens.
Since we didn’t get breakfast, we had lunch with them at a local Irish restaurant. Another great visit and good food. We said our goodbyes and headed out of town toward the minuteman middle monument. It is about 1 hour east of Rapid City, just past Ellsworth AFB and we were amazed at how many missiles the world still has. A different time than when our parents grew up.
We turned Howie northward and spent the next 3 hours crossing the vast grasslands of central and eastern South Dakota. We did pass the 45th parallel are are officially halfway between the equator and the top of the earth. Again, the lack of public lands makes it hard to find camping so we drove until about 7PM and got a rather expensive spot at a Shadehill State park, which charges out of staters more for the same campsite. It’s beautiful, and a nice lady helped us reserve a spot with her app. $40 for the night, although it does have an electrical hookup and showers.
Chicken and rice for dinner and we finally settled down about 11:30.

