Day 2 - Drive to South Dakota

After a long day of driving we made it to our campground in Kennebec, SD. The total drive time today was the same as yesterday which was about 7.5 hours, but it ended up taking us 14 hours to make it here from Wisconsin Dells, WI. We left at about 6:30am and the first 3.5 hours seemed to go fast, but then reality started to set in a bit. The first 3.5 hour leg of the drive got us to Blue Earth, Minnesota, home of the Jolly Green Giant statue. The statue is kinda fun, and there's a park and visitor center so it turned out to be a good stop. They have a museum in the visitor center which was actually rather interesting, although I couldn't read too much of the stuff because we had to keep the girls from touching everything. The cliff notes version is that Green Giant started as a canning company which developed a novel way to harvest more food and better feed America back in the early 1900's. They grew and eventually got bought by Pillsbury and then General Mills, which I did not know and would not have known if this statue were not the only reasonable stop along I-90 in Minnesota.

After the Green Giant stop we pushed on and made our way into South Dakota and eventually stopped in Sioux Falls. Unfortunately for Allyson (but fortunately for the rest of us) we did not run into Chelsea from Teen Mom 2. We had to run into Target to get some pajamas for Julia and Sam because we accidentally did not pack them enough. After Target we went downtown and checked out a sculpture walk they had. Sioux Falls has a pretty nice downtown area, complete will some cute little shops, restaurants, bars, and plenty of bums. The sculpture walk was intended to just be something to get us walking around and out of the motorhome, but it turned out to be a lot of fun and the girls liked it.

After the walk, we got some gas and headed off to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. Yes, there is a "palace" dedicated to corn. If I'm being honest, it was overrated. I just don't understand the need to concoct a shrine to corn. We know you people are into corn, we just drove through a couple hundred miles of it, so is the palace necessary? But hey, I'm the sucker who bought a Christmas ornament from them, so what do I know?

At this point we had to break down and get some McDonalds for the kids. It was 6:30 and we still had 1.5 hours to get to the campground. So we got dinner and then made the final drive to the campground. The highlight of the last 50 or so miles of the drive was crossing the Missouri River. It's a neat spot that reminds you how cool the USA is. All through South Dakota you drive through flat, straight terrain, and then suddenly this is a large river and beautiful green hills all around it. The girls and I loved it. Unfortunately Allyson was tending to Nolan when we crossed it.

At about 8:30 we pulled into the campground, a KOA Journey. KOA Journeys are inexpensive, no-frills campgrounds meant for people stopping for a night or two while on a trip. So it was exactly what we need before we move on tomorrow morning for the Badlands, which everyone is excited for. We will have far less driving tomorrow and it will be broken up by many stops in the National Park, so it should be an easier day.

More random thoughts accumulated while driving:

• Wisconsin had a ton of concrete-paved highways. It was really surprising because concrete roads are expensive. So I guess we know where they are spending their cheese money. While driving on them for so long I learned that hundreds of patches in concrete roads is just as annoying as hundreds of patches in asphalt roads.

• Despite being so well known for cheese, we only saw two signs for cheese shops. That's only one more than I see when driving to Columbus and Ohio isn't known for cheese. When you go to Maine they are literally serving lobster rolls along the side of the road, so my hopes were high in the land of cheese. But there was nothing much to see. There was a sign for the "Cheese Chalet", but it didn't look like anything special from the highway.

• We must have seen at least one hundred ads for Wall Drug. I mean, damn people.....we know about you. Is anyone really driving this direction and not planning on going to Wall Drug?

• In Sioux Falls I showed off some baller maneuverability skills when I wheeled ol' Sweet Sassy Molassy into a tight spot at the Kum & Go gas station (you read that right). For the first time I got some appreciation from Allyson for it! About every other trip I pull off a near magic trick driving the motorhome through tight spaces and no one cares, but not today!

• The speed limit in South Dakota is 80mph on the highway. When you first see that you can't help but feel a moment of excitement. And it makes sense because the roads are so long and flat and straight. But in the motorhome reality quickly sets in for a few reasons:

  • You can't really drive a motorhome 80mph. I mean you can, but you shouldn't. It's a house on wheels and when you get moving that fast you feel all sorts of vibrations you don't want to.

  • Fuel economy starts heading south real fast as you keep speeding up past about 65mph. I'd love to get from point A to point B as fast as possible, but if I do 80mph we'll go broke on this trip!

  • The biggest bummer is that while we're doing 70-75mph, Google Maps assumes I'm doing 80. So you end up in this time warp while watching Google Maps, because 30 minutes starts taking like 35.

The last thing I will note is that today Allyson drove the motorhome for the first time. Twice she took over on the highway and did really good. She's more than just a pretty face folks!

That's all for now. Thanks for reading!