TWO DAYS OF DRIVING





MY 4 x 6 PAINTING (because my camera is out of order)


 Sunday, early start from our economy motel - more later - heading toward Omaha, Nebraska.The scenery is about the same and it is still warm 84 degrees or so. In Kansas City we glimpsed the King Stadium where the the Royals play. It has been smoggy!!!???? Notice that the Rest Stops are "modern" in that there is wifi and then there are those that are "regular". On this long part of the trip we passed the time by relearning some of the state capitals.

We noticed many solar panels on homes and buildings. When we stopped for gas we paid $3.05. Made our usual Sunday phone calls to Tom and Joan. We were in Iowa by the time we talked to Joan who was born there. Went across the Missouri River on which we noticed riverboats and thought that would be an interesting trip.

We entered South Dakota at about 1:30 pm after we had driven what seemed like another long trip. Just a note of trivia, there are signs that warn that the interstate highways can be closed if lights are flashing and in order to do this there are gates. There is some very severe weather in this part of the country.

Stayed at a Residence Inn by Marriott on Sunday night in Sioux Falls. Lovely room for two tired travelers. A good nights sleep and off today to Fargo, ND and beyond. The morning is a soft grey and it is 57 degrees outside. Soon we are driving through VERY foggy with some light mist. When the sun comes out now and then we see that the leaves here are turning fast and we realize that we are almost as far north as you can get in the US and have been in Corpus Christi almost as far south as you can get.

We continued in the drizzle and went across the Continental Divide. Today we entertained one another first with the crossword puzzle and then, while I was driving, Pete read aloud some of the book club book, "Reading Like a Writer". Driving the last 100 miles today was easier than in the morning. The highway was straight and quiet and never crowded. We also found Sirius Radio very entertaining.

A room tonight in Comfort Inn Suites in Bismarck, ND, which brings me back to motels in general. We have been lucky getting very nice rooms with prices from $69 (not so good) to Holiday Inn Express high of $134. The best was the Residence Inn. Anyway, thinking about motels made me harken back to the first time we drove across country in 1959. The motels were not much and were not abundant. I remember one night, being young and having driven until well after dark in the middle of nowhere, we could find no place to sleep and pulled over on the side of the road to wake up the next morning with a big cow staring in my window. I was frightened never having been so close to a cow or maybe it was a bull. Of course, there were no cell phones, no phones along the road side and very few rest stops. We went from Virginia to Boston, called home. Then from Boston to Chicago before being able to call home again. From Chicago to Seattle not calling home at all. My parents were in the dark as to how their precious daughter was doing. After all I was going to an unknown part of the world, Seattle, where Indians and cows roamed the streets. LOL

We will try to stop at Roosevelt Park and continue on tomorrow to see how far we can get.