Days Thirteen and Forteen

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Set off once more through the Badlands for I-90 at Cactus Flats. The
drive east was once more littered with sign pollution but uneventful
otherwise. There was little to relieve the tedium of the drive. At the
two hour mark stopped at Al's Oasis in business since 1919. Not quite
the size of Wall Drug but hopeful. Gave up on brunch at the restaurant
after no one approached me even with 5¢ coffee after 5 minutes. The
grocery store was well stocked with fresh goods--I picked up Mesquite
BBQ Sauce and smoked Cheese from Kansas.

Two hours later reached Sioux Falls near the border with Minnesota. The
only place open to camping was Yogi Bear's Jellystone and it was a
construction site in preparation for the pouring of the deck around the
new pool behind the office. My A/C covered the majority of the noise.
Next morning drove the 10 miles north and 1 mile east to a dead end that
marked the USGS EROS Centre:

http://eros.usgs.gov/

In spite of the fact that almost all their displays were of locations
outside the US the guided tour emphasized their principle task as being
the tracking of land changes on the US Continent. Tracking the Landstat
Satellite this facility adds 1 Terabyte of information to its existing 4
petabytes daily. The security one is subjected to suggests that 600
people working in the middle of a cornfield do much more but who will
tell. The place has been there since 1972. Interesting tour.