Early Sunday morning our hostess, Gale, stops by on her way to church and leaves a breakfast basket by the back door of our cottage. The basket contains fresh milk and orange juice, yoghurt müsli and fresh fruit and still hot homemade scones. These Airbnb places are SO much better value for money than motels and highly recommendable! And so much more”hyggelig” of course!

After breakfast we drove north on Interstate 29 and then west on the smaller Highway 14. We were now on the prairie described by Laura Ingalls Wilder in her books about the little house on the prairie. By the town of De Smet where the family settled their house has been reconstructed and there were small exhibitions about Laura’s life and her books. The house was small and did not look anything like the idyllic one in the films – which I guess is not a big surprise.

After lunch in De Smet we drove south to the town of Mitchell to see their famous Corn Palace, which is covered in mosaic pictures made with different coloured corn cobs. The building is used for concerts and shows which is why this summer’s pictures have a music theme. After a quick look at the palace inside with more corn mosaics we drove further west on the I95. The first part was rather flat but gradually the landscape grew hillier with gorgeous views of the grass plains.

Around seven in the evening we reach Reapid City in northeastern South Dakota and found the house of Brenda and Kelly who live on the outskirts of the town in a wooden house overlooking the forest. Kelly had smoked ribs and pork in his smoker which they served with baked potatoes and a salad, and it tasted delicious. During dinner we talked of cultural differences, homeexchanging,house renovations, electricity prices (Kelly works in a utility company) and Brenda’s online vintage and antiques shop.