June 15, 2013
I know they say that Minnesota is the land of 10,000 lakes but we think it should be 10,000 wind turbines. I’ve heard of wind farms but this was a wind farm city. As far as the eye could see, for miles and miles on both sides of the roads.
Minnesota marked our 10th state to travel through. Legoboy’s map is filling up.
This was our earliest morning on the road, up and out of our desolate RV location a tad after 9, breakfast will be on the road as we see more rain where we are heading in SD. We want to make as much ground as possible before we have to stop for a rain delay.
The boys played with their new campers they picked up at KOA a few nights ago.
Of course, a few pit stops are necessary and one had to be Blue Earth to see the 60′ tall Jolly Green Giant. Funny. The kids wanted souvenirs so Sister Bear bought a green shirt, Carboy got a green Frisbee, and Legoboy bought a Green Giant man magnet.
Then a quick stop into DQ. Ok, what I assumed was going to be Ranch dressing was some kind of gravyish cheese, maybe dip. I have no idea.
And with a chicken basket came fried chicken strips, fries, and two pieces of buttered toast. Hmmm, remember I said nutrition was not going to be high this trip… I have no idea what they just ate, but they didn’t complain.
Our idea to stop at the Freemont water park was derailed by thunder and lightening. As we moved forward on I90 the rain started. It was light and even with no wipers we kept moving.
Soon enough the sky cleared and the ride was beautiful across flat, flat roads in Minnesota to South Dakota. Oscar found a new sun spot.
Did I tell you how accurate and running in tip-top shape everything on Flyer is? Well, the gas gauges are no different. First of all pumping gas is a chore that can take over 1/2 an hour as there is no vent so you have to pump REALLY slowly. The main tank never “fills” (per the gauge) past 2/3 full even though you can see the gas to the top of the tank when pumping. And it is out of gas when it gets a little below 1/2. So, to say the least, the needle doesn’t really move very far. The auxiliary tank is full when it is WAY past the full line and empty when the needle is between 1/4 & 1/2. Oh, and the generator will only run off the main and only if it has more than 1/2 a tank. Confused? Yup, us too.
This algorithm of gas is managed like this… We run off the auxiliary tank the majority of the time to leave the main tank for when we have to run the generator, often for AC for Oscar when we are out of Flyer on an excursion. When Flyer sputters we know the auxiliary tank is empty and we need to switch to the main. Now remember, the needle on the main tank gauge never really moves so Sparky is watching mileage and trying to keep a good eye. As we’ve headed into more remote areas this is getting harder and well… You guessed it, we ran low on gas. I won’t say “out of gas”, because we did make it to the gas station, but Flyer wouldn’t start for about 30 mins while the gas pump got gas back to the carburetor. She finally roared to a start and we were back on our way.
First stop in South Dakota was the Prehistoric Indian Village, the only active archeology dig site in the US. The kids got to dig up a plastic arrow head and turn it in for a real one as a souvenir. We toured the museum and the reconstructed hut and the dome where the active dig is occurring.
Legoboy thought the Buffalo skeleton was really neat. I don’t think I have ever seen one before.
A little bit further up the road in Mitchell, SD we walked the small town, everything was closed on Saturday night as it was already past 6pm. The town is corn everything.
Corn on the street signs.
Corn on the lamp posts
Corn on the benches
Even corn prints on the ground
We toured the Corn Palace, which interestingly enough is open until 9. Funny, to only have that one thing open…
The really amazing thing about the Corn Palace is that they remove the corn EVERY year and replace it with new corn in a new pattern.
Around town were other “Corney” things
We moved across I90 and we noticed how late the sun sets here. Already 9:30 and still the sun was up. It was setting but, wow, we never get that late for sun sets, even in the peak of summer.
We crossed the Missouri River and into Mountain Time.
Setting our clocks back another hour is going to be a little bit more difficult on the body at night than the Central time was. The kids schedules will be off, which might be hard for at least the oldest and the youngest so we’ll have to see. It may be a few days before we see the effects. But I might like it in the morning when we get up at 8 and my body thinks it is 10am…
