Mobridge, South Dakota to Granite Falls, Minnesota

....and then there were seven!!

Two more ticked off our list of thirteen states to visit: North Dakota and Minnesota.

Our drive today took us from Mobridge, 50 miles south of North Dakota, into North Dakota, back into South Dakota and finally to Granite Falls, Minnesota. It was a total driving distance of 358 miles.

We left our motel, the Wrangler Inn, and drove across the Missouri River to visit the site of the last resting place and memorial to Sitting Bull.

The bridge over the Missouri.

The site is on the western bank of the Missouri overlooking Mobridge. There are in fact two memorials - one to Sitting Bull and the other to a Shoshone woman guide called Sakakawea. She assisted Lewis and Clark, the American explorers of the West, at the beginning of the 19th century.

The memorial to Sitting Bull was carved by Korczak Ziolkowski, the man who started the Crazy Horse mountain memorial in 1948.

 

Click on the memorial headstone to read the story of Sitting Bull's final resting place.

We left Sitting Bull's memorial and drove fifty miles north to the border with North Dakota. It was a lovely drive on a bright sunny morning, along the eastern bank of the Missouri River. We reached the border at about 11.30am.

We then drove for two hours, more or less parallel to the border with South Dakota, before turning south and crossing back into South Dakota. After another 80 miles, we pulled off the highway by a small lake and had a picnic lunch.

Shortly after we started driving again, we heard from Kenny and Dee Anne who were further south in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. We agreed to meet up with them tomorrow on our way to Omaha, Nebraska.

The final 50 miles in South Dakota, driving due east, brought us to the state border with Minnesota.

We took Highway 7, which ran alongside the Minnesota River and Big Stone Lake, where we drove down to the lakeside. As I took this photo, mosquitoes flew up from the water, making me beat a hasty retreat! For some reason they didn't seem to bother Wendy.

The cars parked by the lake.

My planned overnight stop in the town of Montevideo had to be changed when we found that there weren't any good hotels in the town centre, so we made the decision to go 12 miles further on to Granite Falls. On the way, we drove through Montevideo, where there is a statue of the founder of Uruguay, Jose Artigas, which was presented to the town by Uruguay.

Following Bob along Main Street, Montevideo.

We reached Granite Falls around 5.30pm and booked into the Granite Falls Super Motel for the night.

We are now on the long drive south. Tomorrow, we go through two more of the states on our list to visit: Iowa and Nebraska.