We started off with some breakfast provided by the hotel, and it was actually pretty good.
As we were leaving, it started raining pretty bad
But we had to go, because we had a long, long way to go
There were huge wind farms in Minnesota!
After the wind farms, the weather cleared up!
And while there were dark clouds, we only encountered little spurts of rain here and there after that
We headed into South Dakota! We may have missed the picture of the sign by a few seconds, but we got the back of it!
There was a big bull's head somewhere in SD, don't ask questions!
Cathy's proof that she helped drive (for her mom)
We drove by the way to Laura Ingalls Wilder's hometown, but didn't have time to stop
South Dakota is really long. Like, really, really long. And it's filled with billboards -- tons and tons of them. There were some billboards as far away as 400 miles from what they were advertising! Wow. It was really annoying to see the same billboards every mile for 400 miles. Especially Wall Drug!
We then drove over the Missouri River and it was beautiful
Cathy was able to snap a really cool panorama of the road as we were moving
The clouds were really nice the entire drive
We decided to take the scenic route through Badlands National Park. It was absolutely amazing!
We were lucky enough to have some nice people take a picture of us
Then we were out of the Badlands and back to our path -- towards Wyoming
At the end of South Dakota we went through the Black Hills
And into Wyoming!
At first Wyoming had lots of trees
But then shifted more towards grasslands
We finally made it to our destination of Gillette, WY.
Here we got dinner from Pokey's BBQ -- I had a buffalo burger (was delicious) and Cathy had a Baked Potato, BBQ Beans, and Cole Slaw. Yum!
It was a very long traveling day, but we're now 2 time zones behind Boston! Whoo! We are now over 2,000 miles through our trip. About 1400 more to go!
It's a very calm night tonight, and we hope to get lots of rest, ready to go through Denver and the Rocky Mountains tomorrow.
We had a big surprise for our license plate game today when we saw a plate from Alaska! So now we're missing South Carolina, Louisiana, and New Mexico (Not including Hawaii, that'll be 1000x bonus points ;) )
So we're almost through, but SC and Louisiana will be really tough to get. We'll see what happens!
Again, we love the comments so keep them coming! Great for encouragement after a long day.
We're off to bed now! See you back here tomorrow night for another blog update.
Love,
Tim and Cathy
Beautiful pictures, you two! Thanks so much for taking the time to post these. It's like a free vacation. The Badlands look amazing. And great to see Cathy's driving! Thanks again.
ReplyDeleteInteresting, I never thought about driving cross country, but this trip is amazing! Now, I want to drive cross country too! I laughed at the back of the sign. That was funny. I never realized South Dakota is so long! Boy, They advertise a lot! Cathy you look great in the drivers seat! Great Job! I love the picture of you two at the Badlands. All the pictures are great. I am amazed at how far you went in 3 days! The pictures of the map with your location speaks volume. Also, what a find a license plate from ALASKA! You never know about the other 2! Can't wait for tonight's blog! Love you~Dre
ReplyDeleteYour trip is so exciting and amazing to me. The highlights each day are so interesting to read and all your pictures are so, so nice. It's the first thing in the morning that I look forward to reading. Never knew about the Black Hills, now I do. I will reread myself several more times today and also to your G-pa. He too, looks forward to it. I enjoy it. Onward to Denver and the Rocky Mountains. Can't wait till tomorrow's blog. Love you G-ma
ReplyDeleteok, so I missed day 2. Sorry:( I want to go to the badlands and black hills. Sweetie lets plan it for like May or June. I won't miss another day this is really amazing. Love Padre
ReplyDeletenice progress you two, grandma hughes is amazed that you both have the energy to do all this at the end of a long day of driving. She loves the beautiful pictures--esp. the badlands photos. Your uncle Larry and Alexandra are enjoying them too! Great travel food photos--pokeys bbq reminds me of corkys bbq in nashville! Forwarded your blog spot to Hope and Patrick and will send the address to Faith and Jerry. Hope all is well and look forward to seeing day four tonight.
ReplyDeleteLove the pics...the sights are incredible. Such an exciting adventure. Enjoy every minute.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I missed this day, I had to come back and repost. I love that you are keeping us included. So awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe updates are great & what awesome pictures! Glad you're having a good trip - the blog idea ia amazing!! We love you & miss you guys .... John, Paula, Sarah & Nicholas xoxo
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