SIOUX FALLS, South Dakota — The defending national champion Ashland University Eagles had a closed practice and there was no press availability on Tuesday.
When you are on the road covering a team for a week, this is called an off day.
The reporter still heads down to the arena, researches the next opponent, tries to find an athletic director or tournament coordinator for a quote, but there are still 12 hours to fill.
In Sioux Falls, South Dakota, there aren’t a lot of options. Disclaimer to the proud people of Sioux Falls: I’m sorry the boom town, westward expansion manifest destiny is over, and all that remains are the neon signs of corporate chains, half-illuminated and flickering against a soot backdrop.
If you want to experience South Dakota, much like the farmers of Ohio were told two centuries ago, you have to head west.
It’s either drink all day and try to forget about the family you left 900 miles away, while realizing the only human conversations you’ve had over the past few days have been with gas station attendants and coaches. Or go explore. The loneliness still exists, but at least the new experiences bring padding to the solitude.
Interstate 90 runs from Sioux Falls through the bottom third of South Dakota for 350 miles to Rapid City. That’s the general direction I was heading.
The speed limit was 80, and even with the light snow coating from the night before evaporating and fogging the landscape, pushing the speedometer felt necessary and safe. No traffic or really any civilization. But billboards. An entire prairie landscape blotched with sign after sign advertising novelty, reptile farms, the original “General Lee” car and Wall Drug.
Don’t ever go to Wall Drug, if nothing else as punishment for making your eyes read advertisements instead of scenery.
Two hours into the jaunt west on I-90 you run into the mighty Missouri River, with the ghosts of Louis and Clark and Sacagawea.
Here’s an actual conversation they had while floating up the Missouri:
Clark: Hey, we’re going to be the first to find a northwest passage to the Pacific Ocean!
Sacagawea: Umm, that’s already been done by like every tribe around here.
Clark: Shut up and translate!
Don’t worry; I’m not gonna ruin American history with facts. Like Churchill said, “History will be kind to me, for I intend to write it.”
Another 230 miles west from the Missouri River is Mount Rushmore, one of the most iconic pieces of sculpture in the U.S. The South Dakota license plates use it as a backdrop and in athletics, if you want to talk about the best ever for a sport, you say,
“My Mt. Rushmore of basketball is LeBron, Jordan, Mark Price and Oscar Robertson” (lists may dramatically vary from person to person).
When it comes to founding fathers, Mt. Rushmore should just be Thomas Jefferson with four different “looks,” like a “Zoolander” calendar.
For balance, the Crazy Horse monument is pretty awesome and deserves a stop. But that is right by Custer City and Custer State Park (CSP), so not sure you can really win on the American frontier.
At CSP, I interviewed a bison (don’t call ‘em buffalo and they get really upset just like Buffalo Bills fans do when you talk about cowboys). The grunting made me believe the bison was in fact a fan of the Ashland University women’s basketball team.
Continuing west on I-90, 50 miles east of Rapid City, is Badlands National Park. That is one amazing place. It’s its own little mountain range on the prairie plateau, and the rock formations simply don’t belong on planet Earth.
When I stopped, there was no one there. The gate where you paid your entrance fee had been abandoned; the parking lots of all the vistas and lookouts were empty. The snow coated the rocks but there was enough melt so the different hues of orange and sand poked through.
As the sun was setting, I found a little spot to pull over and fired up my camp stove and cooked dinner. National Park, table for one.
The 270-mile return trip pulled on my eye sockets and I didn’t make it back to my hotel room until 12:30 a.m. I’m typing right now and it’s 1:52 a.m. and I have to send this story to the editor for tomorrow morning’s deadline.
After an 800-mile tour of South Dakota, I’m more in love with this state than I’ve ever been. Off to dream about the Black Hills and Badlands…
WATCH PARTY: Ashland University will hold a Watch Party for the AU Eagle women’s basketball game on Wednesday night in the Final Four of the NCAA Division II tournament.
The AU Eagles will play Indiana (Pa.) at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time and the watch party will be held in the Hawkins-Conard Student Center Eagles’ Nest and Student Center Auditorium.
The Student Center is located at the corner of Claremont Avenue and King Road.
The Watch Party is free and open to the public. The game will be televised live on CBS Sports Network.
Coverage of Ashland University Eagles athletics is produced in partnership with OhioHealth, the official sports medicine provider for Ashland University.
