Road Trip: Up The Middle Of The Country

Day 15: Saturday, May 18, 2024 - O'Neill, NE, and Pierre, SD

Day's statistics:
Weather: 74°, very windy
Steps: Steve 3,813; Linda 3,089
Travel: 206 miles

Today's breakfast was light continental.


Linda had a bagel, and I had a waffle and a yogurt.

We weren't expecting to do much in O'Neil because... well... there wasn't much to do.
To make matters worse, as we plotted where we were going last night - so we wouldn't be criss-crossing town - we found that the library was closed. And the Historical Society Museum was closed.
Hmm... We've had luck with parks, so let's go to the park.
The park was on the outskirt of town. So far outskirt that the roads weren't even paved in this area.

The park was a small open field, across the street from a set of ball fields.
So we just passed by. We proceeded down the street, turned right, and came upon a church. We got out to take a look at the inside. Buuuuut it was locked.





So, what to do. What... to... do...
How about start the three-plus hour drive to Pierre!

We weren't expecting to do much in O'Neill, but we thought we would have been there a little longer - you know, at least another hour or two...
We plugged Pierre into the Google machine, and headed out.


We passed through a little town called Spencer, NE. Yes, this is all we have to show for it.


Want to guess what we saw between Spencer and Pierre? Right, a state line.

You know what else we saw? Right again, a whole lotta nothing. Absolutely nothin'. Say it again, war, whoa (h'uh) whoa-whoa...

While it is true there wasn't too much to see, we did catch some sights, like an Amish buggie, an old jail that looked like it was converted into a motel, and an abandoned drive-in theater.




No, we were not back in Texas. If we were, the population would have had four more zeros...

Know what happens when there are a lot of dead bug guts on your windsheild? You get a picture of them.

At one point we encountered some road construction. But the lane was closed and we had to drive on the soft shoulder. Not a fan, but it also wasn't my car.

We continued on, at one point passing what we think - and hope - was some sort of military museum.

Southwest of, and on the other side of the river from, Pierre is Fort Pierre. We had to pass through Fort Pierre to get to Pierre.

We were told that Fort Pierre was in the Mountain timezone but Pierre was in the Central TZ. The bars in Pierre close at 1:00 AM. And the bars in Fort Pieere also close at 1:00, but in the other timezone. So anyone that wants to keep drinking after 1:00 simply has to head over to Fort Pierre for another hour.
This time zone issue played a little bit of havoc with our cell phone picture taking because at any given time, oour phones could be picking up a tower in Fort Pierre rather than Pierre, and the timestamp on the image would then be off an hour.
We passed over the only bridge within 60 miles that crosses the Missouri River.
Then we were in Pierre, SD. It is pronounced "Peer", not "Pee-air".

As we continued on US 83 through the city, we spied the capital in the distance.

We arrived at our lunch destination, Big Tom's Diner, went inside, and took menus to a table to choose our lunch.



We placed our order, paid, and sat while we waited for our order to be called.
While we waited for our order, I happened to notice that the "crown molding" comprised of various state license plates. Most states were there, but I could not locate a Delaware.

When our order was ready, I picked took them from the counter, and brought them back to our table.
Linda had the grilled chicken sandwich with cole slaw, and I had the pulled pork sandwich with a cup of soup that happened to be chili.


It was a good meal, and by 1:00, we were heading out.

At this point, we were a number of hours ahead of schedule as we weren't expecting to be in the city until after dinner.
It was Saturday afternoon, and assumedly a number of locations would be closed due to the fact it was a weekend.
We had already planned on going to the library, on this day, just not so early - not that there is anything wrong with it.
The library was on a bit of a hill, and we sort of overlooked the capital as we approached it.

Then we arrived at the Rawlins Library.


We walked around first, before spending some time reading - Linda, Ghost Orchard by John Kellerman; and I, a couple Consumer Reports and MAD Magazines - and also found a really extensive audio book section.








We were at the library for three-and-a-half hours.
As 5:00 approached, we headed out to go to church.

We arrived at St. Peter & Paul Church, essentially due west of the library.
It was the Pentacost Service, so though someone wanted to hang out in the car for a few more minutes, we went inside to get a seat.
It was a typical Mass, though when the priest passed down the aisles between the parishioners to sprinkle them with holy water, he disappeared for what seemed like five minutes. We found out afterward that he went to the overflow area to bless those parishioners too.
After service, we got some pictures of the inside of the church.






We went downstairs - where the entrance / exit was - and saw the display for the Bishop's charity fishing tournament.

We departed, drove around the church, and I tried to get the front of the church.

We headed to Dakotamart - a supermarket.
We purchased some cookies (big package for three nights), a salad, and some wine.
About the wine... some markets have wine on the regular store shelves, while others, like this place, have a separate alcohol section. We bought a larger bottle of wine to last a couple nights, and I happened to mentally note how much it cost. We were rung up and I noticed the price was different. I went back to check - and take a picture - and sure enough, ours was rung up $4.00 more than the shelf price, plus tax. Had it only been a dollar, I might have just told the clerk about it - but the difference more than covered cost of the package of cookies. So we "returned" the wine, and it was re-rung up at the shelf price.

We headed to the hotel, merely two blocks away, Governor's Inn.
I checked in and after finding out where our room was, we drove to the far end of the building because the room was closer to that end than the main entrance.

We ate our snack, did the luggage thing, played some Pinochle, relaxed a bit, washed up, and went to sleep.

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