South Dakota is much prettier than I’d expected it to be. I’m not sure exactly what I was expecting, but it wasn’t the nice rolling hills and bucolic farms we found there.

It was pleasant driving today, and the iPod was apparently picking up on that. It was pretty mellow from the time we plugged it in — a little ways into South Dakota — until we crossed into North Dakota.

iPod’s South Dakota mix

Summertime Killer Luis Bucalov

Pass in Time Beth Orton

Green Grow the Rushes REM

I Saw the Light Todd Rundgren

Coldsweat The Sugarcubes

Cemetery Party Air

Yellow and Rose James Taylor

Friend Golden Smog

Under Control The Strokes

Distant Land Mad Lib

Auctioneer REM

Surfin’ USA The Beach Boys

Catch the Sun The Doves

Kate Ben Folds Five

Take My Word Uncle Tupelo

Angel Band The Stanley Brothers

Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down Uncle Tupelo

Nicotine and Gravy Beck

Bouncin’ Round the Room Phish (as we passed over the Continental Divide!)

Everloving Moby

Retrieval of You The Minus 5

At Least That’s What You Said Wilco

Vertigo U2

The Girl from Ipanema A. Gilberto