Travelogue: South Dakota

All photos hosted on my Flickr Technomadic Adventure Set – click any thumbnail for larger versions, comments always welcomed. 🙂 I also usually upload more photos to Flickr than I include in my travelouges.

When Chris and I were doing research on the best states to set up residency for tax and voting purposes while being nomadic, South Dakota stood out as being very attractive. Only 3% excise tax to register new vehicles, low annual fees, no inspections, no state income tax, low insurance rates and no requirement to actually be in the state except to pick-up your driver’s license. And many companies in South Dakota have set up mail forwarding services just for ‘full timers’ that help handle a lot of things remotely (like registering vehicles).

So all of these factors eventually outweighed the hesitancy of setting up residency in somewhere non-exotic sounding like South Dakota, and on we proceeded with virtually moving Chris there back in July. The only thing left to do was pick up a driver’s license within 90 days, so thus our trek eastward began back in early September. Chris had more immediate needs to set up residency than I did.. being a California resident with a new vehicle to register. I still own a house in Florida with a homestead exemption, and Florida is on the list of top states to set up residency in if you’re nomadic.. so I’ll stay there for now.

We usually get raised eyebrows when we tell folks that Chris is ‘moving’ to South Dakota. I’m guessing, like us, they don’t have much prior experience with the state to go from and have it classed as a ‘good place to be from.’ I know I wasn’t much looking forward to having to visit South Dakota even once, and we planned our trip for Chris to stop in Rapid City, the city closest to the southwest corner of the state with a DMV so we could just bounce in and out quickly.

We arrived in South Dakota almost two weeks ago, and we haven’t left yet.

Rapid City

As we were arriving, I researched our camping options. After a month of being on the constant go with no more than 3 nights in any one spot – we were both craving some down time. I found rave reviews of Mystery Mountain Resort on Hwy 16 between Rapid City and Mt. Rushmore – it sounded like our style. And when we arrived, my online intuition proved right. Friendly staff, well maintained, acres and acres of woods, laundry center and wifi. And, we were maybe one of three folks camped there. All the beauty of state and national parks, with the amenities of a private park.. perfect for an extended stay. We got a deal on a weekly rate, and put up camp. And to our delight, there was a cat hanging around who loved getting snuggles in the evenings.

Our week there was so peaceful, recharging and relaxing. We caught up on work and were productive, ventured into Rapid City a few times for dinner, movies, shopping and strolling. A great little city with all the essentials but not too big. And being still for a little bit was such a treat. Mostly we just ‘lived’ and didn’t make efforts to go and see things. We used rainy weather as a perfect opportunity to extend our stay a few more days.

In our time, we did some exploring around the Black Hills.

Mt. Rushmore

I was expecting this to be a somewhat obligatory American tourist destination. It was actually quite impressive.. more so than I was prepared for. The artistry, the dedication to the project, the vision and the representation of the changing times during when it was built all gave some beautiful ties into American history and cultural climate of the 1920s and 30s.

Chris took some amazing night shots, that I hope he’ll post and share later.

Custer State Park

This park is just south of Mt. Rushmore and contains Sylvan Lake (which had been recommended by several people) and Needle’s Highway, winding it’s way through impressive cathedral like rock formations. Some of the roads also were built to give great views of Mt. Rushmore. And we even had our path blocked by a herd of.. donkeys. Yes. Donkeys.

A beautiful drive, and it had me craving a small car or motorcycle to experience it with. I can see why thousands flock to nearby Sturgis to bike in this area.

Eastward through south South Dakota: Wall drug and Badlands

We then headed eastward and decided to stop in the famous Wall Drug, where you too can get FREE ICE WATER! This midwest icon used to be a failing pharmacy that turned into a stopping point for road travelers on their way to Mt. Rushmore and Yellowstone to get some water, ice cream and stock up on supplies. It’s now a huge roadside tourist spot, complete with jackelopes and animatronic T-rex dinosaurs. Bizarre.

And then, the Badlands, which were named exactly because they were bad lands to cross.

But beautiful and other worldly lands indeed.

Eastward and ‘stuck’ in Madison

We overnighted in Pierre, intending to head up to Hwy 12 for our eastward trek into Minneapolis. In the morning however, we noticed that staying on 34 would take us through Madison – which is where Chris’ mail forwarding service, My Dakota Address is located. And since we knew we had some Netflix movies and checks waiting for us, we decided to use the opportunity to stop in and pick up our mail, meet the staff and actually step foot in Chris’ new hometown.

We pulled into Madison mid-afternoon and met the awesome Teri, and picked up our mail. We were starting to contemplate where we might overnight, and as we were pulling out – we noticed Jeep’s check engine light was on again. And the transmission was acting funky. A quick look online showed that there was a 5-star Jeep dealership, Prostrollo Auto Mall, just literally around the corner.

Nomadic Serendipity?

We pulled up, explained our situation to the service representative, Dale. He had his mechanics run a diagnostic and determined that the transmission was indeed starting to have problems. He was so considerate of our traveling situation and plans to get to Minneapolis, and said that we might make it there, but there was a good chance of the transmission getting burned up and us being stranded along the way. But the repairs would take likely until Tuesday to be completed, and he was afraid it might interrupt our weekend plans. Not wanting to take a chance of getting stranded and our plans of socializing could be rescheduled, I asked if he had recommendations for places to camp locally. A few moments later he came back with some campgrounds he had called around on our behalf to see what was open, and an offer of a loaner car for the time we’d be in town without Jeep.

Wow. Was this real? He called around for us? Loaner car without begging for it?

What a complete contrast to our experience with Great Valley Jeep in Sacramento, who we couldn’t even get to return a phone call for a week to get a status update, and refused our request of a loaner vehicle.

So, we set up camp last night at a beautiful campground on a lake on the outskirts of town, that amazingly still has the bathhouse/showers open (so many close down after Oct 1 in the north), with a very friendly staff. It’s simply beautiful here, and we’re soaking in the charm and friendliness of a small town.

Speaking of which, nomadic serendipity just arrived.. Teri from My Dakota Address just dropped off firewood and a town paper for us. And our requisite trailer kitty just appeared.

And I will never again have any shame in my voice when we tell folks that our residency is in South Dakota. It’s a beautiful and friendly state I’m proud to be linked to.