Back on the road! We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Des Moines with Dennis and Maia, and it wasn't easy saying good bye to our beds, but we had an adventure to continue. Next stop, Rapid City, SD!

I woke up that Tuesday morning at 6:00am so that I could organize my things and say goodbye to my cousins. After they left I continued to watch CBS with my coffee and scrambled eggs. At about 9 or so Louie woke up and came upstairs to start his day. We slowly moved our belongings back into the civic and reorganized the car. We were on the road by 10:00am.

Driving through northern Iowa can feel like an eternity. The route we were taking would take us into the north west corner of the state and have us enter South Dakota through Sioux City. The drive through Iowa alone would be about 3 hours leaving us with another 5 to go in South Dakota.

Here is a visual representation of our journey so far, with the line already drawn from Des Moines to Rapid City.

We had seen cows along the way already, but now they seemed to be everywhere. I wanted at least one cow picture. As I slowly approached the grazing heifers they took notice of me and darted to the top of the hill. I wonder if they've had poor interactions with their farmers? Did that make them wary of humans? I hope not. Regardless, I persisted to snap some shots of them.

Fields of cattle were occasionally broken up with some horses.

Paved two lane highways quickly became lumpy dirt roads. We were stopped at an intersection by a man in a hardhat and couldn't identify the source of the hold up. Louie asked the construction worker why we were waiting and the man said to Louie, "They are pouring a concrete road, we need to wait until it dries."

Wait until it dries?! I'm no mason, but I don't think waiting for an entire cement road to dry was going to happen in a matter of minutes. We had to find a detour. The alternative route was lumpy dirt farm roads, just the type of terrain the fine people at Honda designed my civic to endure...

I drove at a thrilling 10-15 mph for at least 30 minutes.

Farms on farms on farms.

It wasn't terribly long before we crossed the border into what would be another 5 hours of farmland fun!

South Dakota is the real deal plains. The middle of the country. Not quite Nebraska, but pretty damn flat.

I drove and drove and drove. Luckily these 600 mile car rides are allowed to be done at speeds of 80+ mph, so you sort of feel like you are getting somewhere.

All of this land out here seems reserved for cows and corn. I suppose it explains Americas obsession with hamburgers and corn syrup.

After stopping for gas and coffee somewhere around 250 miles outside of Rapid City, we get back on the interstate and I notice something odd. After just filling up my car minutes ago I'm down an eighth of a tank. Maybe the gauge is just taking a minute to adjust?

Nope. I look back at the meter and it's reading 3/4 full. What the hell's the big idea?! Another 10 mins and I'm at half a tank. For the love of god!

I know I said that I was in the middle of nowhere when my car was giving me trouble the last two times, but this time it was really nowhere, and it was 5:30pm, so it was getting cold and dark.

After running a few tests we decided to just gun it to Rapid City. I'd see a mechanic the next day.

You can imagine this was a stressful time. The car was starting to drive me nuts (no pun intended). I had dumped a considerable amount of money into the thing since the start of this trip to ensure that nothing like this would happen. This stress, along with some other pains, came to a head during those last 200 miles to Rapid City. As I'm sure some people may be wondering, "How are those two getting along the entire time?" Well we have known each other for quite a while so we've had plenty of practice when it comes to understanding our unique personalities. At this point though I will admit, we were being tested and I was considering throwing in the towel.

We had what I'd call an "emotional discussion". Louie and I let each other know what we were thinking, what was bothering us, and what we needed each of us to work on to assure that this trip could continue. The air was cleared and we were ready to take on the next challenge. Nothing preserves a relationship like honesty. Our bond was only made stronger by these trying times.

Louie treated me to a dinner at Outback to celebrate my birthday that had just passed. It was really nice. We made friends with the server, Sam, and he hooked the meal up for us. Sam lives in Rapid City and works full time as a waiter. Super nice guy. Oh, he also sold us some weed, which at this point was incredibly necessary. Louie and I have been pretty good at making friends out here.

After having an awesome steak dinner and a beer with Louie, we went back to the hotel, awaited Sam's arrival with our goodies, indulged, and we were on our way to the hotel pool!

Pretty gross right? We had a lot of fun.

What a nice way to forget about my car troubles. We went up and down the slide for about an hour before wearing ourselves out. After returning to the room, we ate some more, watched some TV, and passed out.

We've been quoting this Key & Peele skit a lot.

The next morning we had a mission of getting the car to a shop and getting it resolved ASAP, or otherwise looking for a Plan B. We went down to Meineke after engulfing the continental breakfast at the hotel. God bless continental breakfasts.

Seriously, every place we've checked into on this trip has been chosen solely on their complimentary breakfasts. Rapid City definitely did it best, omelettes made to order, waffles, the whole nine.

We dropped the car off at Meineke and told them our story. They told us they'd take a look, so in the meantime we were going to walk around this bland part of the city. We found a "casino" in a strip mall. Louie got change for a $5 and tried his luck. It was unsuccessful.

After about an hour at the casino I receive a phone call from the mechanic asking me to come back. It doesn't sound good.

They told me I was leaking oil profusely. Apparently the oil pan gasket was shot and therefore allowing my precious oil to escape. The gasket was like one of those really old rubber bands that become hard and brittle to the touch. So essentially useless. The bill would be about $400...

I was given a loaner car while my civic was tinkered with in the shop. They told me the only rule about the loaner was that I couldn't roll down the drivers side window. It made sense after I noticed the inner mechanics of the door were completely exposed.

After getting an afternoon breakfast at the local Denny's I received a call from the shop to pick up the car. We were told that it should be better off now, not entirely sure if the fuel consumption problem would be resolved, but there were no more visible defects in the car that they could work on. Oh, they also told us they were expecting 6" of snow that night. For the love of god!

The next morning Louie and I got up to see Mount Rushmore, because why the hell not. It wasn't something I was dying to see but you know, when in Rome? We drove through a snow flurry to the monument and were disappointed to find out there was zero visibility due to the storm. Ah well.

Our next stop was the Badlands! I was pumped. For years I've seen pictures of this park and I've always been so curious. I never heard much about the park until reading about it in Nat Geo, and since then I've wanted to see it with my own eyes. We drove quite a ways into the desolate plains of south western South Dakota (that was weird to type) to see the dried up canyon. It exceeded my expectations. With very few guard rails, you can get right up to the edge of the sandy cliffs. Things like this really make you feel small, in a good way.

If you ever find yourself passing through South Dakota, I can highly recommend Badlands National Park.

While we were there I met this dude named Damian. As it turned out, Damian was moving to Utah from Westchester county in NY. He was doing a solo road trip. It was nice seeing another traveling New Yorker here in the middle of the country.

Overall our experience here in South Dakota was great! There were hurdles to overcome for sure, but it only made us stronger! Louie and I talked through our personality differences, and now we are better friends than before. Sure my car is still driving me insane (and poor) but this trip would be boring if it were too easy.

Bring on the next challenge! We are ready!

The Badlands gallery