The next day of walking was equally dull. No, more so, illustrated by the fact that the day’s highlight was when the shoulders of the road turned from brown dirt to red gravel. At the end of the day, I took exit 260 to Oacoma, a real town with a car dealership and, more important, Al’s Oasis.

Al’s Oasis was sort of a Wall Drug knockoff, a strip mall with an Old West façade and a grocery store, restaurant, and inn. I ate a roast beef dinner at Al’s Restaurant and stayed at the inn for seventy-nine dollars. My room had a view of the Missouri River.

The next morning I crossed over the river, passing the South Dakota Hall of Fame, which I had read about in a tourist brochure in my hotel room. South Dakotan inductees to the hall included TV news personalities Mary Hart and Tom Brokaw, Bob Barker (The Price Is Right), Al Neuharth (founder of USA Today), and Crazy Horse, though not in that order.

I walked twenty-four miles and spent the night in the town of Kimball, where I ate a basket of popcorn shrimp at the Frosty King and stayed at Dakota Winds Motel for fifty-four dollars.

The next morning, on my way back to the freeway, I passed a sign for a tractor museum. I was tempted, but I resisted the site’s magnetic pull and got on the freeway instead.

That evening I slept behind a grove of pine trees planted near the side of the road, which looked like a Christmas tree lot on the edge of a cornfield. I could have pushed myself to the next city, but I just didn’t feel like it. I wish I had.

Chapter Eleven

C H A P T E R

Eleven

Heroes and angels usually

arrive in disguise.

Alan Christoffersen’s diary

When I woke the next morning everything was spinning. I felt as if I’d just gotten off the teacup ride in Disneyland. I lay in my sleeping bag, holding my head for nearly twenty minutes, hoping that whatever was making me dizzy and nauseous would pass. When my vertigo had eased a little, I packed my sleeping bag and started walking, skipping breakfast out of necessity.

I walked three miles to the town of Plankinton. By then I was feeling almost normal again, so I stopped for breakfast at a convenience store called the Coffee Cup Fuel Stop. A mile later I passed a sign for the Corn Palace.

Ears to You …

Visit the Corn Palace. Mitchell, South Dakota

Mitchell was the largest city I’d encountered since Rapid City. I figured that I could reach Mitchell by late afternoon and find a decent hotel to crash in.