South Dakota - Where every day's a Sunday

As I stare out the window at Pierre, South Dakota's State Capital. A general comfortable numbness rears it's head. South Dakota has been good to me. Apart from the Black Hills, it's fairly flat and although the weather has been variable. It's been predictably variable.The thunderstorms begin between 5 and 7 pm and take place over whichever town you happen to be staying in. The most interesting consequence is finding new rivers. To date, I've discovered and named 3, the Rivers Dobbo, Ash and Stretch.

The trouble with South Dakota, I think, is that nothing much seems to happen. Only today in Hayes, which according to Wikipedia, has been assigned a Zip Code, a shop bearing an open sign was visited. Behind the counter was a man on a telephone, conducting a conversation with somewhere further away than the shop's only customer of the day. Exactly seven minutes later, the customer left the shop empty handed. There is no reason whatsoever for anyone to visit that shop if they had not just spent 2.75 hours battling a vicious crosswind for 22 miles.

I suspect the shop is visited no more than ten times a year. This is South Dakota in a nutshell.

It encompasses over 77,000 square miles and it manages to squeeze in 781,919 people. You will rarely see any of them. Even on a Friday afternoon, I'm in the Capital remember, a late afternoon walk may result in a chance encounter with another human, but it's unlikely. The Capitol building is open to the public so in I went and strolled around for 20 odd minutes. It's a lovely building and I know that neither politicians nor their acolytes can't be expected to work on Friday Afternoons but did I see anyone. Did I fuck!

That was a bit unnecessary wasn't it? I hear you cry. Not a bit of it. This is simply impossible to describe, excluding the traffic, there is nobody about. The shops will have a dozen cars parked outside so in you go hoping to have a conversation with another sentient being. Are there any in there? Nope, only the tellers. I said sentient, remember.

Don't get me wrong, as I said earlier, South Dakota's been good to me and it is a lovely place. The Black Hills, although Green (I know), are decidedly delicious to the eye and the monuments to Crazy Horse and the Presidents are truly monumental. The River Missouri flows majestically down through the middle of the State and the Capital, adding to the beauty as only rivers can.

And yet, and yet, there's no-one here.

Hello! Hello! Hello! Is there anybody in there? Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone at home?