Half way there?

a>Today was a long day on the road. We hit up the Trader Joe's in Madison at 9 AM to restock our cooler. After refueling the Prius, we were back on the road by 10 AM, heading west on I-90 (again). We crossed the Mississippi River around lunch time and stopped on the Minnesota side for a picnic lunch with the ingredients we had picked up that morning. I chatted with a couple that was heading from Wisconsin to Washington and then down to Arizona. And I thought our route was indirect! Apparently they're picking up a new camper in Washington. This picture is great because you can see both Minnesota AND Wisconsin.

Neither Alison nor I had ever been to Minnesota before, so we both got to check that one off our list. The 70 mph speed limit helped things go by more quickly and southern Minnesota's flatness is only rivaled by South Dakota's. Though the monotony of the landscape was broken up by fields of wind turbines. I <3 onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyp6IMdfsuoeWWnpgra84rZLY9qxBBEq9t8FNiVOPiLwoEyNafCHLKYBLl0rMICNMWIqVgiALDWIswrGl4XPFQTgKIjG9wujWIlRiCLNh6IKtDE_A4vaOvTYkW0dGLY_qL6vyObtkHJvYW/s1600-h/DSCN5379.JPG">nscathed (although Alison was really hoping for some rain to clean off the dead bugs on the windshield). We pulled off the road in Fairmont, MN after seeing a billboard for Starbucks. We drove down the side road for about 2 miles until we realized that this was likely one of the stores that had been shut down. Sure enough, on our drive back to the interstate, we saw a shell of a store that had once been. Here's to you, Masa! (Masa, Alison's husband, has been lamenting the closing of some 600 Starbucks stores worldwide for the past four months. Now Alison can truly appreciate the impact). So we pressed on to our next POI, the 55-foot Jolly Green Giant statue in Blue Earth, MN. Yes, we sought this out after having read about it in our AAA book.

From there we crossed the state line into South Dakota, another first for both of us, and where the speed limit is 75 mph. We were greeted by many billboards, most notably "We Dakotans reject all animal activists." This made Alison's heart beat a little faster and made me question whether we would be safe with my Obama sticker proudly displayed with these New York plates. Later this evening, at dinner, Alison thought it better to say she is "allergic to butter" rather than explain that she is a vegan.

Since I planned this trip, I have been looking forward to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. We arrived after 5 pm, so couldn't go inside. But I'll include a picture, and that will be enough said. Except to say that it wasn't all that I hoped and dreamed it would be. Johnny, if you're reading, you were right. But it was worth the stop anyway. If for nothing else, the find dining experience at Chef Louie in Mitchell, SD. It was all about the ambiance and the fine decorating. My favorite is the placement of this painting you can see on the wall. Whoever did this surely has a future in curatorial assistance.

The drive from Mitchell to Chamberlain was the flattest hour of my life. Everything stretched on so far I'm pretty sure we could see North Dakota and Nebraska on either side of the highway. The sunset was the widest one we'd ever seen, and it was all quite beautiful. Alison remarked, "I can't believe there's a place like Tokyo and a place like this in the same world." (Alison lived in Tokyo for 8 years.) So we're driving along this flat plain, and then all of a sudden the highway dips down as we arrive in Chamberlain. We turn right before hitting the Missouri River and find our home for the night, the Best Western Motor Inn. In the morning we will drive a couple of hours to Wall Drug and the Badlands, and then keep going a little further into Rapid City, Mt. Rushmore, and the Black Hills.

We continue to make good progress on our license plate checklist and our new music for the day was Ingrid Michaelson's 'Boys and Girls.' Thanks again, Julia!