Day 2: Adults of the Corn

Entering South Dakota on the I90

Mile 430: Sioux Falls SD

So, the people of South Dakota are very friendly--they will go out of their way to help you out.  Also, they are very easily impressed.  For example, when Kate asked our hotel concierge if there were many restaurants in downtown Sioux Falls, her enthusiastic response was: "Oh, yes! Lots. I think there are ten!"

Downtown Sioux Falls, SD

Bustling downtown Sioux Falls (the largest city in SD) with almost 10 restaurants and 150,000 residents in the city limits

And a nice waterfall, after which the town is named...

Beautiful waterfall in the center of the city

James and I attempting to take a picture of ourselves in front of the falls

Lunch in Sioux Falls as recommended by the book Mamma Mac (Regan's mom) gifted to us of our trip (thanks Mama Mac!)

Book from Mamma Mac that led us to Bob's 

Bob's Lunch- Turns out their famous "broasted" chicken does not mean broiled-roasted, but rather fried. Sorry Scott, we tried to be healthy-ish

The inside of Bob's when we first arrived. For some reason, men over 70 love hanging out at the counter of these greasy spoons. James is planning his retirement.

Mile 451: After lunch, we head over to the local corn maze in Harrisburg, SD

The maze was in the shape above. The black lines are the paths... this was our map to navigate to each clue. 

I was scared. Can you believe they let people do this at night? What if we were lost in the corn forever? 

James was our navigator. He did an awesome job of getting us to all 10 clues and getting us out of the maze in record time. 

...where social media meets farm implements. Marketers, take note. 

Back on the road. Start to head towards Kadoka SD. Lots more cornfields...

Then we saw this massive tire being transported

Don't judge. At least it's not a cornfield

Mile 528: Until we saw signs for the Corn Palace in Mitchel SD. People have told us that this place is a tourist trap and to skip it. Regardless of their warnings, we were lured in and happy we stopped.

Corn Palace

Each year, the outside of the palace is decorated with a corn mural. This year's theme was sports. Look closely at the photo and you will see the corn and husks creating the football player

We had the luck of going when it was corn palace festival!!! It was awesome. 

View of the festival outside the Corn Palace

 Back on the road... and it's Kadoka or bust. But wait...

Could you really drive by this sign and not stop?

Yes, we had to stop and have a beer at the Busted Nut

Mile 690: We enter into Mountain time zone. Yay! An extra hour in our day! We will soon be in Kadoka. Check in tomorrow for more on the trip

Day 1: 430 miles

We learned something today: it is 3023 miles from Boston to Seattle along I90.  Today we drove across 14% of America. Some highlights...

Mile 0: Our last sunrise over Lake Monona

Mile 137:  Lunch at Maid-Rite

We stopped for lunch in LaCrosse, WI.  Maid-Rite has classic small town charm... right up to the old guys at the lunch counter talking about how what's wrong with America today (including how there used to be 2 pieces of fish on their sandwich, not just 1).  The Maid-Rite sandwich was rockin--like a burger but with loose ground beef.  Worth a stop.

Maid-Rite Menu

Maid-Rite Sandwich

Maid-Rite

After that it was just a lot of corn,

until this...

Mile 297: Blue Earth, MN

Jolly Green Giant.

Then more corn.

...And yes, those were the highlights!

Tomorrow: Sioux Falls, SD, The Heart of America & More

It's on!!

James is setting the odometer to zero and we're off. We are on our way to Sioux Falls SD- home of... well, we're not sure but we're about to find out!

Road Bump

It is now approximately 26 days until the start of our trip. You may be saying- 'what happened!?!'

We have hit our first road bump (pardon the pun). As of early this morning, we have accepted an offer on our Dodgeville house. Since it makes more sense for us to live in our house while we have one, we are postponing our trip until we close- sometime in August.

Sorry for the anti-climactic start, but it will be worth the wait!

5 days and counting...

 Hi everyone... welcome to blog documenting our epic journey out West.  Right now we are in the final planning/prep phase (you can see Kate plotting over breakfast at left).  

We're not planning too much, though... we're going 'hippie style' once we hit the Coast.  (Sean K says it's not really hippie style, since our tent will be an absolute last resort, but whatevs.)  Here's what we know so far...

We're going to take about a week to get to the coast from Dodgeville (WI, where we live), passing through (and stopping at, and fishing in) some prime trout country.  Badlands, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, assorted giant balls of string, and the Rockies lay in wait. 

Then we're going to work our way down the coast--all the way.  Vancouver, Seattle, Portland, redwood country, wine country, Santa Barbara, LA, and Kate's fave San Diego, and a bunch of stuff in between. 

Then we head back, probably stopping at the Grand Canyon and Santa Fe if we haven't stopped speaking to each other after 100+ hours in the car :)

We're psyched, no doubt about it.  Feel free to follow, comment, make place rec's, etc.  Only 5 more days...