Fargo, ND through Sioux Falls, SD

Brian: We snuck out of Dan’s early (astute readers will notice a pattern) and hit the road heading south. It wasn’t long before we saw our first billboard advertising Wall Drug. Just turn right on I-90 and go another 300 miles. Wait, what?

Nick: Yeah, this is pretty bizarre actually. There’s apparently some pharmacy or something in Wall, South Dakota with signs posted hundreds of miles away from the actual location. For the entire day of driving we’d pass one of these stupid signs every exit or so. Clearly, Wall Drug was a place we’d need to be visiting in the next day or two. In the meantime, when I got out to pump gas along this long and lonely road, I discovered my credit card to be missing. Which was weird, since I remember having it when we left Dan’s and because I’d purchased some bubble gum from a different gas station about an hour back. Well, we checked the car. No luck. Called Dan. No luck. Must be back at some gas station roughly an hour back down the road. Awesome. So… we headed back, hoping we’d recognize the exit when we came to it. Some time later, for reasons I don’t really understand, we did recognize it. And… joy of joys, they had my card. Apparently someone had found it and given it to the attendant. Brian, without a moment’s hesitation, without a word, walked straight to the casino that was attached to the gas station. It made sense to me, so I went along. We each put a buck in a slot machine. Luck had run out.

Brian: Yes, our luck ended with the reunion of Nick and his credit card. On the plus side, I thought slot machines with an actual arm you have to pull down had been all but eliminated from America. It was refreshing to see surly chain smoking hags actually having to work to throw away their cash. You see, with a one-armed bandit you actually have to switch you cigarette to the right hand to put the coin in, and then back to the left hand to pull the lever. Of course, true professionals never even remove the cigarettes from their mouths. So anyway, by the time we got to Whatevertown we didn’t really have time to check out the town. Something tells me we didn’t miss very much.

Nick: Indeed. So back on the road, seeing some very familiar scenery for the next sixty miles or so, we listened to a pod cast Brian introduced me to called “Uhh, yeah dude.” It’s these two guys from LA just talking about random current events and whatever else they care to, and it’s pretty good. I’d recommend it to some people.

Brian: I would also specifically not recommend it to some people.

Nick: Yep. Anyway, we made it to Sioux Falls, which was our final destination for the day. We met up with our host couple, Matt and Pam, who were apparently the Couchsurfing gurus of the area. We hung out for a bit, chit chatted about this and that, then welcomed the couple’s additional couch surfing guests Matt and Genni, a Canadian couple from Canada. Turns out they’re also on their way to Seattle. Turns out they’re also going to Rapid City tomorrow night. Turns out we’ll be seeing them again, as our host for the next night and their host for the next night are one and the same. Crazy.

Brian: It simply reinforces our original postulation that there are not a lot of people out here, and therefore not a lot of options. Matt and Pam said they have hosted over 80 people since May. I respect their devotion to the community. The night ended with a game of Cranium, which I hate, but still delivered a decisive victory in. So now you can’t even say I don’t like it because I suck at it. In fact I’m awesome. The teamwork aspects of the game were especially easy, due to the fact the Nick and I have spent the last two months within arms reach of each other. Oh, we almost forget to mention that today is day 60, our official 2-month-iversary. Thanks for sticking with us! We are out like shoulder pads.