Start:  Naperville, IL
Destination:  Mitchell, SD
Odometer: 102,387 (start) - 103,062 (end) 675 miles
Date:  September 1st, 2011

The road to the west, for us, will go through South Dakota.  We left Chicago around 6am, after a good night sleep and sharing goodbyes with George and Lynn.   Dad had the first driving shift of what was going to be a long driving day:  roughly 10.5 hours.

Fortunately, the time flew by for Dad, who found it a pleasure to cruise along (at 80mph) with little traffic and take in the scenery.  Wisconsin will be remembered for rock formations that seemed to jut out of nowhere (anyone familiar with these?), having a lot of interesting scenes blocked by trees, an exit that cost us time, but had some interesting structures associated with the businesses along the strip, and being passed several times by a speeding house.

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We crossed into Minnesota through a bridge over the Mississippi River. I must admit to be surprised that the Mississippi River went that far north.  I’m glad it did, because it was a magnificent scene to behold. It is a very big and powerful river.  Minnesota was so welcoming, that they had two Welcome to Minnesota signs.  Another unique thing about Minnesota was the preponderance of wind farms amongst food farms.

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Driving the width of Minnesota was perhaps the longest distance of the trip, but it also went by quickly.  I took driving duty after having lunch less than half way through Minnesota.  The time flew by, thanks to limited traffic and an engaging discussion of religion and politics.  Before we knew it, we arrived in South Dakota.  In fact, we almost didn’t see the sign and had to turn back to get the picture.

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A short time later, we arrived in Mitchell, SD.  Before we went to the campground, we decided to fill up the gas tank for tomorrow.  Fortunately, there was a Sinclair gas station (all of which apparently have a dinosaur of some form at their stations), right in front of the campgrounds.  I, of course, had to get a picture with one wearing my tourist hat.

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I also learned an interesting difference about gas in SD at this station.  As far as I’ve ever seen, regular 87 octane is the cheapest, followed by 89 plus, and 91 premium.  No so in SD.  Apparently, “regular plus” has 10% ethanol (not that different from other states), but there is such an ethanol subsidy that it can be 10 cents/gal cheaper.  Unfortunately, I didn’t realize this until after I filled up with regular, my Dad noticed the seeming price discrepancy on the receipt, and I enquired of the station cashier.

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Having had enough fun at the Sinclair gas station, we drove a few hundred feet to Rondee’s campground (ADD LINK).  If you are ever in or near Mitchell, SD, you should stay at Rondee’s campground.  The management was friendly, the campsites, showers, and bathrooms were very clean, the free wireless internet was very fast, and there is a great indoor water park. That’s right, for $5, you have access to a great water slide, a big pool, and a hot tub…at a campground.  After the long day of driving, I had a blast at their water park.

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I wish I could say the same about dinner that night.  My Dad likes hot dogs, and we had a pack of Hebrew Nationals that we had in the cooler since we left Philadelphia, and planned to make that night.  Now, I’m not a hot dog person and don’t think I’ve ever cooked them, but all it basically requires is boiling water (we didn’t have firewood or a fire pit that night for cooking them over the fire, which is how I had originally expected to do it).  I don’t know whether it was the propane stove, the inexpensive and new skillet for cooking meat, or the incredibly strong and constant winds, but after around an hour, the water had yet to boil (no, we were not in high altitudes as far as we know).  Still intent on making hot dogs, I tried a different approach.  I dumped the water, added some oil, and basically tried to fry them.  This seemed to work.  My Dad tried a bite, and while the outside was cooked, it was unclear if the inside was cooked enough.  Added to the fact that they had been in the cooler, not a refrigerator, for some time, we erred on the side of caution and admitted defeat.  For dinner that night, we had Bush’s vegetarian baked beans (which did get hot on the stove) and some tuna fish and cracker snack packets my Dad had brought along.  Fortunately, neither of us was particularly hungry that night.

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By the time we finished dinner, it was dark.  I made good use of the cell phone reception and internet that would likely not be available for the next couple days, while my Dad cleaned dishes and prepared for bed.  It was about 10 when we went to bed, unaware that our tent was to be tested once again.