Driving through western South Dakota is like taking a space flight to Mars. You don’t think it’s ever going to end. There are vast stretches of nothing more than ranch land and long distances between communities.
For our travel itinerary, it was go to Dickinson, then south on N.D. Highway 22 to Reeder and on into Harding County, South Dakota. If you think North Dakota is dull, take this trip from south of Reeder on S.D. Highway 79 to Newell, then Rapid City. I guarantee you won’t think that way about North Dakota in the future.
Approximately 35 miles south and west of Reeder is the town…. or outpost called Reva. It’s actually an unincorporated community, but only a couple of people live there. They operate a small convenience store and gas station, as well as the post office. It’s kind of crazy. When you drive past there or pull in, there’s always vehicles there unless it’s late at night.
After another 35 miles of open country, you come upon Hoover, another unincorporated village that has a small convenience store and gas station. Hoover never really was a community, but started out as a trading post and essentially got frozen in time.
Drive another 35 miles and you come to Newell, a community of about 500. It’s the first place with any services between there and Reeder. After that, Sturgis is a quick drive and Rapid City, even quicker on Interstate 90.
On Dec. 24, my wife and I were on our way to Rapid City somewhere between Hoover and Reva. Because we had been driving since a gas stop in Dickinson, we decided to find a wide approach, pull in and go walkabout to stretch our legs and get some fresh air.
Wouldn’t you know it, a man of about 50 and a women who we assumed to be his mother, stopped to ask if we were having trouble. We told him we were just taking a break getting out of the car since it was such a nice day. That’s not something we can normally say on Christmas Eve as it was 58 degrees.
Anyway, the couple in the red car darted off to the north, headed toward Reva. It wasn’t 3 minutes later and a young lady, about college age, stopped to ask if we were having trouble. We told her the same thing and that we had been in the car since Dickinson. She said that is where she was headed.
She must have grown up in that neighborhood because she seemed quite informed about the surroundings and told us the area is quite isolated and if you break down, it’s going to be a real bummer finding a tow truck or getting to point B.
We appreciated the gestures, got back in the car and headed toward Hoover and Newell. As we drove away from this surrounding where we didn’t see a single tree, we were discussing how this kind of thing doesn’t happen anymore, especially given a calm afternoon with the temperature in the upper 50s.
We ran across the same kind of people in Rapid City. Everywhere we went, people were talkative, curious and humorous. Before we left, I had to pick up some duct tape. I stopped at a local hardware store. An associate asked if he could help me and told I needed duct tape.
The first thing he then said to me is, “You must watch Red Green.” That started a long conversation about Canadian TV, duct tape and handyman repairs.
On the way home, we stopped in Reva to take a bathroom break and get a snack. The guy looked out the window and said, “I see you have North Dakota license plates. Where are you headed?” We told him we live near Minot and that started a conversation about the Minot Air Force Base, fishing on Lake Sakakawea and deteriorating weather conditions.
Maybe it’s because we aren’t from western South Dakota, maybe it’s something else, but the people we met opened up and so did we. I’m sure we could have forged some friendships had we had more time.
It wasn’t all doom and gloom. Underneath all that sage brush, sheep and pronghorns, there were some really nice people and they helped make it a memorable Christmas week.
