Three things a visitor from California notices right away about the Midwest, and South Dakota in particular:
1) People are friendly. Example: when your car meets another going the opposite direction, the other driver will wave hello to you. At first I was, like, WTF? …but I grew to like this strange custom, and even joined in after a while. It’s catching.
2) The freeways and roads are in great shape, and there’s nobody driving on them. To see traffic this light at home, I’d have to be out between 3 and 4 am, between the clubbers going home at 2 and the commuters starting out at 4.
3) Off the freeway, the roads are brightened by the splashes of color from dead birds. That is, roadkill out there is exclusively pheasants. Pheasants seem to be remarkably dumb birds. I am happy to say I did not kill many pheasants while driving, but it took some effort on my part to avoid them as they seemed to be trying to get run over.
But the most impressive thing about South Dakota in early May 2006 was its beauty. Clear blue skies with some puffy clouds, green green grass on either side of the freeway and in the gigantic median strip — it’s like driving in Bavaria but without the tidy white roadside picket fences (or the mountains).
Just gorgeous.
Apparently it stays this way only for a little while; soon the heat comes and everything turns an ugly brown — just like California! I learned this intelligence from store clerks in Mitchell. Why’d I stop in Mitchell?
One word: Cabela’s.
But that deserves its own post.
good point about the driving style difference between Cali and EVERYWHERE ELSE! I have driven in alot of states and you can always tell when you are back in California, the blinkers stop going off, the speed of traffic suddenly goes up to 90, and you get cut off alot more. nice.
Why stop in Mitchell indeed. My Mom and all eight of her brothers and sisters were born there, only one stayed. My lone cousin who still lives there often says “Why do I stay”? “Who the hell knows”! I do know it’s not Cabela’s for her tho. But it is beautiful country with some pretty extreme weather as well.
But I live in Lacey, WA where we are (hopefully) getting our own Cabela’s. The menfolk are salivating!
Ya ever been in So Dak in Feb. when it’s 30 below and the wind has been picking up snow and dust from the Arctic Circle? It ain’t near as pretty then. Or maybe in the middle of August when the temp is 115 in the shade and the only shade has to be trucked in? And mosquitoes that send in crews of biting gnats to take and secure territory for forward bases?
Yup, So Dak is Heaven on Earth. For three weeks a year.
Guess I lucked out being there at the right time!
Occasionally some of my co-workers have had to go to Mitchell for business trips. There doesn’t seem to be anything to do there except go to the Cabela’s. (And no, the Corn Palace doesn’t count as “something to do.”) So I can guess why the Analog Mom’s family all got out of Dodge.
Still, it’s definitely a nice state to visit.
Bullfrog, I drive in LA/OC every day, so I know what you mean. At this point I have a 7-year old Subaru, and my turn signals are a *statement*, not a question. I learned that one from my brother-in-law, the long-haul trucker.
In my informal survey, I have found the group that is the absolute worst for cutting you off then ignoring you has to be Latinas. I don’t know… something about being pissed at the way their men treat them?
Beats me. I just know that if I check 6 to verify I have room to make a lane change, *just* *as* *soon* as I trigger my turn signals the clown behind me speeds up. I typically come over anyway, as long as I still have room…. Oh, yes, I also check that the car behind me is holding speed, I try to not block someone smoothly driving fast in the inner lanes…
The pheasants are suicidal in spring, because they have just lived through a Dakota winter but don’t know summer is coming.