Mini Soda

It was a short drive today, in comparison to the other days on this trip. I drove more than half the way from TMOFN, Montana, to Montevideo, Minnesota, yesterday, so today's drive was only about four and a half hours. And the landscape becomes more tame the farther east one drives from Montana, so the roadside spectacles became fewer, though there were a few things worth noticing.


It looked like the wind in eastern North Dakota was pretty stiff this morning!

Not long after I entered Minnesota, I started feeling lethargic and depressed... and then I discovered why....



Western Minnesota

So I guess this means the trip is pretty much over, unless anyone wants to hear about my niece's wedding. After that it's a 10-hour drive home through the rest of Minnesota, Wisconsin and northern Illinois.

The Road Can Teach You Things
What did I learn on my trip?

- During the recent flooding in Iowa, I heard it said that this country's corn crop was "ruined." That may be true for the riverside farmers in Iowa, but not true of the whole state. There's L O T S of corn out there!

- It's really unfair when, after you leave a place, they go in behind you and change all the stuff you remember. And it's inevitable.

- No matter how hard life is kicking you, it's always kicking someone else harder. It's just rare that you meet one of them.

- The tap water in Themiddleoffuckingnowhere SUCKS! ...or so I was warned...

-There's a real prime idiot who drives a white Buick in Minnesota who, thanks to my quick reaction -- at 60 mph, no less -- is not having to breathe with the aid of a machine!

- There is no reason one should not try to see this country up close and at ground level at least once in a lifetime. None.

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!