580 miles, 13.8 hours.

The campsite in Wall turned out to be very nice. I had a nice soft patch of grass to sleep on (most places were gravel or scrubby grass and not terribly level). Still, I got up fairly early so I could be at the missile site when they opened at 8.

The first stop on my missile tour was the Minuteman II launch silo. These were unattended launch facilities- they would be activated from a remote location. I was there before it opened, so I used their brochure and listened to the "cell phone tour". Basically, you called a South Dakota phone number and punched in one of a dozen codes to listen to information at various points of the facility. What a brilliant way to do a tour!

Around 8:15, ranger Kerry Davis showed up. He was an older guy and had actually served in the military, working in the Minuteman II program as a crew commander, instructor, and finally a director (word doc about him). I stayed and listened to him talk for an hour- he was full of very interesting information and stories on the program, such as how the missiles were loaded, the advantage over previous missile programs, why the sites weren't camouflaged, and some of the times that people entered the facility (usually protesters).

Next, I headed east to the Minuteman II Visitors Center. I watched a 10-minute movie they had produced, then got on my way. While at the visitors' center I heard a ranger answering the phone and telling people that they were booked 45-90 days in advance for guided tours. Wow.

Once on the road, I pointed east on I-90, across the long, boring plains of South Dakota. I stopped in Mitchell to see the Corn Palace (hardly worth the stop), then jumped on the freeway again.

This stretch was incredibly long and boring. The prairie lands are striking but monotonous. The heat started to get to me, so I stopped in Sioux Falls for a couple hours to cool off. That was a good decision- I was getting loopy from the heat.

I headed east through the plains again and into Minnesota. Minnesota's welcome sign on I-90 is the smallest I've seen- I don't know why, but thought it was funny.

I know I was running "late", but really wanted to get to a specific campground near La Crosse. I rode about 40 minutes past sunset, which meant I had to set up camp and eat in the dark. That's always more of a production than setting up while it is light, but at least I'm familiar with my camping gear, so it wasn't hard to set up.

The campground was at Minnesota's Great River Bluffs State Park and sat up on a ridge (bluff) above the Mississippi River. The day was really hot, but by evening it cooled off nicely. I set up camp while wearing my riding gear, which kept me at a nice temperature.