Major travel day

We pulled out of Gillette, WY early this morning and headed east across the antelope plains into the rising sun. And there were herds of pronghorn up and about as we drove to South Dakota.

This is a road trip though the northern plains and that means only one thing...a stop at Wall Drug was mandatory.

Wall Drug, South Dakota

We lingered over a second breakfast/early lunch and then hit the road again still heading east. We stopped at the visitors' center on the east shore of the Missouri River where they have a wonderful display dedicated to the Lewis and Clark expedition and its travel through South Dakota.

Then it was east once more as we headed to Mitchell, SD and the Cabela's store there. We planned to make this a lunch stop at Cabela's but were disappointed to learn they had closed their cafeteria last year. Just not enough custom, the clerk said. Oh, well. A brief tour of the store to pick up one or two items and then Hardee's for lunch and back on I-90 east bound.

Out of South Dakota and into Minnesota we went, finally stopping at Albert Lea for the night.

Our total distance traveled for the day was around 660 miles (about 9 hours driving) but we spent time at both Cabela's and the visitors' center (about 1 1/2 hours). Plus we "lost" and hour due to crossing a time zone (Mountain to Central) in the center of South Dakota. Lets call it a 10 1/2 hour day plus the hour "lost" to the time zone gods.

Tomorrow will also be a long day but virtually all of it will be spent behind the wheel as we will go all the way to the Aerie crossing the rest of Minnesota, portions of Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. MapQuest says that's about 1065 miles and 17 hours (add one more for a time zone leap and say 18 hours) which should get us home a little after 1 AM Saturday night/Sunday morning. There's nothing we wish to see between here and there so gas, potty and meals are the only stops we'll be making.

Back in 1993 we drove non-stop (except for a three hour visit to the Cabela's in Sydney, Nebraska) from Denver, Colorado to northern New Jersey. That little trip was 1775 miles and took 35 hours. (Including the Cabela's stop that seems ridiculously long today having seen the store again.) And my son has been known to do crazy things like drive non-stop from Moscow, Idaho to Morristown, NJ and from Jackson, WY to the Aerie in 36-40 hours...alone.

Okay, I agree. We're not that young any more, but we should still be able to handle this. Especially since I've actually gotten Terry to drive the Tundra a little--one hour yesterday and another today. She'll get her turns behind the wheel tomorrow.