Days Four-Five: Chicago to the Badlands
921.8 miles and 13 hours 10 minutes, by Sacajawea's reckoning. Here's a screenshot of her readout at about 13 hours and 10 minutes into the trip. We weren't quite there yet (in fact, about two hours out). Obviously, we didn't drive straight through; we had some deviations.
To start with, before we made more than 10 miles, the driver's side windshield wiper malfunctioned, and the end started flopping about. We pulled off into a very fortuitously located WalMart parking lot, where Jason and Zach deduced the need for a new wiper. WalMart was open, so we purchased two, just in case. With Penelope back at full strength, we continued on our late journey.
It was, at this point, about 11:30pm, as we made our way through Illinois up to Wisconsin. We took a pee break in WI, thereby officially visiting, and made our way northwest on I-90. Crossing the Mississippi at about 4:21am, Zach miserably failed to get a picture of the Minnesota state sign:
We pushed through Minnesota and made it to the border with South Dakota,
at which point we took a brief detour to visit Iowa on non-interstate highways.
It looked just like Iowa.
Our first stop in South Dakota was at the Corn Palace, where we stopped to change drivers and maybe have a look at some corn. But lo and behold, to our surprise the corn palace shockingly lacked both corn and palatialness. Instead, it resembled a public high school (complete with basketball court) that was decorated with a few corn cobs (and, in the basketball court's case, a gift shop). Lame. We did see an Indian mannequin named Zack, though.
The Badlands beckoned, and we purchased Penelope's Golden Eagle Pass, which will admit her and us to basically every National Park. The Badlands need no text, just photos. If only the sun had come out sooner.
On to Rapid City and Rushmore. Next entry.
To start with, before we made more than 10 miles, the driver's side windshield wiper malfunctioned, and the end started flopping about. We pulled off into a very fortuitously located WalMart parking lot, where Jason and Zach deduced the need for a new wiper. WalMart was open, so we purchased two, just in case. With Penelope back at full strength, we continued on our late journey.
It was, at this point, about 11:30pm, as we made our way through Illinois up to Wisconsin. We took a pee break in WI, thereby officially visiting, and made our way northwest on I-90. Crossing the Mississippi at about 4:21am, Zach miserably failed to get a picture of the Minnesota state sign:
We pushed through Minnesota and made it to the border with South Dakota,
at which point we took a brief detour to visit Iowa on non-interstate highways.
It looked just like Iowa.
Our first stop in South Dakota was at the Corn Palace, where we stopped to change drivers and maybe have a look at some corn. But lo and behold, to our surprise the corn palace shockingly lacked both corn and palatialness. Instead, it resembled a public high school (complete with basketball court) that was decorated with a few corn cobs (and, in the basketball court's case, a gift shop). Lame. We did see an Indian mannequin named Zack, though.
The Badlands beckoned, and we purchased Penelope's Golden Eagle Pass, which will admit her and us to basically every National Park. The Badlands need no text, just photos. If only the sun had come out sooner.
On to Rapid City and Rushmore. Next entry.
posted by The Odyssey Gentlemen at 8:09 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home