Fernanda & Karl - Road Trip, Day 3 -- Website by Now Interactive Solutions

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[...]
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Monday, August 20, 2007

Road Trip, Day 3

The town of Canistota, South Dakota
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From Chicago, through the Wisconsin Dairyland (Cheese!), Minnesota, and into South Dakota

Making miles today! I drove for a change, and we put three and a half states under our belts today. (We also discovered how to reset the car's mileage indicator, so now we have a true idea of our average, without the data of the idiots who drove the car before us messing it up: the car gets about 35-36 highway.)

We left Chicago and my cousin bright and early at 9 o'clock. It was raining on and off as we left Chicago. They take EZ Pass out here, even though they didn't in Ohio and most of Indiana. Illinois passed in a blur. Wisconsin is very nice. We stopped for a bit of shopping to replenish our supplies in La Crosse -- everything clean and neat, every other station on the radio a classical music station, an Aldi food store... We heartily approve of Wisconsin. Plus that particular area is beautiful, forested hills and neat little settlements.

Wisconsin pushes the dairy aspect of itself fairly strongly, there were lots of tall billboards we saw proclaiming in large letters, "CHEESE"!

We had to check out one of those fireworks places, since the billboards are so insistent (for anyone counting, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota all seem to sell fireworks and let you know about it on huge billboards). We borrowed Henry Reed's Journey by Keith Robertson -- a book I read in my childhood -- from the library to prepare for this trip. Henry was obsessed with finding fireworks in a state where they were legal. He finally succeeded in Missouri, but really he just should have taken the northern route -- no shortage of fireworks or fireworks stores. The one we went to next to the gas station we filled up at in Wisconsin was new, huge, and empty -- no one parked in the ample parking lot. The place was packed with all kinds of fireworks, but we didn't buy any (what's the point, living in an apartment in Hackensack?)

We drove through Minnesota, stopping only for gas, and then shot on into South Dakota. We sort of had been planning to stop and stay at a hotel in a nice, cheap area with lots of choices and free Internet access, probably in Minnesota, but before we knew it we were past Souix Falls, South Dakota, and into the back of beyond. Signs are advertising hotels hundreds of miles down the road, because there are so few towns, and even fewer with accommodations. But, be brave, drive slightly off the very beaten path, and it's OK. We got off the Interstate following a Best Western sign, and ended up in a little town well off the Interstate with a half dozen options, from run down to quaint to full of character. The Best Western was a rebranded motel, and full up anyway. Besides, by this point we had decided we wanted to stay at the hotel on Main St., a place full of character with nice rooms and good rates. They had a nice lobby, full of books and Amish people and people sitting at a table doing a jigsaw puzzle. And the best thing is, even though this place doesn't come with Internet access, I am able to pick up an open wifi connection, so I can even post this tonight!

Tomorrow we drive on to the Badlands. We will probably camp there, unless the smoke from neighboring states' forest fires is too bad (the weather forecast map shows "smoke"), so we probably won't have internet access, so we won't be posting for a few days.

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Previous Entries

:-(
06/19/21

Açores
08/29/18

Our New Bathroom Saga
11/17/16

Europe 2015
03/16/15

The Berkshires
10/18/14

Road Trip South
03/23/13

Greece!
07/26/12

Our Trip to Ireland
08/09/09

Google Map of our Trip
09/17/07