Day 3, Tuesday, May 3, 2016 Worthington, Minnesota to Midland, South Dakota

“Sometimes it’s the journey that teaches you a lot about your destination.”  Drake

The Roads

Leaving Worthington and then traveling on I 90 left little for distraction.  Straight, unrelenting, and continuous, the interstate, viewing it from the cab of our RV, seemed an asphalt line disappearing into some vanishing point out in the great beyond.  This sight repeats itself at every crest…mile after mile…straight and narrow…on and on.  There is a consistency in the scenery until one takes the landscape as a whole.  The sky, terrain, and vastness engenders a hypnotic pull on the conscience if you let it.  One must wonder what went through the minds of the early settlers as they passed through these lands at

oxen speed.  Of course there were the flocks of passenger pigeons in Eastern South Dakota that could literally block out the sun and awe the observer.  The remaining herds of buffalo must have been a wondrous sight as well.  The indigenous dangers, scarcity of good water, and the vast expanse must have been daunting.  Certainly when I bicycled across similar terrain in 2014, with only my thoughts as company, I found the best coping mechanism was to simply live in the moment.  Remarkably, I found there is a gentle peace in this…no distractions…only the journey…only the path immediately in front.

Belvidere East KOA

Exit 170 on I 90 offered a reprieve from the endless interstate.  First could be seen the recreated 1880’s town and then there is a small lake alongside which reside longhorn cattle and a solitary camel.  It seems that in the 1850’s the U.S. Military used camels, on and experimental basis, as a means to cope with the scarcity of suitable watering holes.  It is a nod to this historical oddity that a camel (Otis) resides as part of the display for this 1880’s recreated township.  The longhorns have a long history here, their rugged tenacity for survival, paved the way for fortunes won and lost on these great plains.  There may be few trees, shrubs are at a minimum, and while the land is vast, there is a serene beauty, a quiet meditative quality, that can grow on the traveler.  While seemingly barren, we went to bed to a symphony of amphibian residents near and in the pond and awoke to the morning songbirds.  All in all, four star accompaniments, free of charge, thanks to nature.