June 11

We got an early start heading down through south central South Dakota. Nothing much to see. We were still surrounded by huge expanses of farmland and ranches; only now the houses, barns, and silos are fewer and farther between - just desolate green fields with an occasional smattering of cattle. We have seen a few rolling hills but not many.

We laughed when we saw the sign for Nebraska that claimed it was the home to Arbor Day since we have never noticed many trees here before. The upper central part does seem to have a little bit of elevation and some trees though. We drove through Valentine, the first town of any size we have seen today. It has been very common to drive for miles and miles and see only a few buildings. The roadways have been very long and straight. Signs with town names are just a teaser because once the mileage promised to this town has been covered, we still find no sign of life. I have decided that this part of the trip is different from the Nevada and New Mexico only in that it is green instead of brown.

We finished up our day of driving at around 11:30 p.m. That gave us about 14 hours of sitting in the car and traveling. We seem to always have at least a couple of these types of days by the time we are heading home.  We should find ourselves at home by tomorrow afternoon though.