WY IAm Seldom NE-where MT-haNDed. It's MN-inently How I Was RaiSD

I'm on my road trip to Minnesota via Montana...

I hadn't even started Thursday evening when a severe thunderstorm blew through the Chicago area. I waited it out until it cleared in my area, but only an hour or so on my way...


This eerie-looking storm-front loomed, threatened and eventually got me.


I stayed right at the edge most of the time, but then the road curved
and I drove into the thick of it.

I pulled into Des Moines, Iowa, a little before midnight and stayed in an Econo-lodge. It wasn't pretty, but it was comfortable enough.


Iowa


Nebraska


You know damn WELL that I scoured the road atlas for Hardy
(there's one in Arkansas)!


Why is the road pink?


Any guesses as to what this is?* (O'Neil, Nebraska)


I guess this town thinks it's Irish. (O'Neil, Nebraska)


In case you ever wondered exactly where that was (not to be confused
with Themiddleoffuckingnowhere, where Professor lives).


I'm not sure what this place is called, but apparently they have
large toilets. (Ainsworth, Nebraska)


I love this town...I'm just not sure why.


White, now? If I had ever asked someone how the roads were in Nebraska
and South Dakota, I never would have expected the answer to be "colorful."


The hay-rolls on their annual westward migration.


South Dakota


Badlands!

And so I pulled into Wall, South Dakota, hoping to take a gape at Wall Drug, the attraction for which you start seeing billboards as far east as Illinois. I figured I would spend the night in that town, but when I tried to get a room there were none left. There were smoking rooms, but I had a little time to be picky. That time ran out, however. I wound up driving to Rapid City, but just about everywhere I looked was booked or had their honeymoon suites available for $200/night! I got the last room available at a Fairfield Inn and bedded down for the night.




*It's a single blade for one of these!