Friday, Sept. 14, 2018 - Roadtrip Out West

We're once again on a great adventure.  This year we are stateside and driving.  If you are reading this,  we hope you join us for our 2-week excursion.

We decided it would be best to start out early since our first overnight stop is Gillette,  Wyoming....11 hours away. Up at 2:30 am and on the road by 3:40 am.  Thank goodness we picked up our SUV rental the day before.

Driving down the dirt road we are going slow so as to not wake up our neighbors.  Out of nowhere a small bird comes flying at the windshield.  With an impressive Olympic-style move,  it used its little feet to push off the windshield and flew to safety.  Phew!!

Then before even being 5 miles from home,  we almost collided with two young racoons follicking in the road.  At 4 in the morning,  one would think they could find a trash can to  raid rather than rough-housing in the road.  But they were spared by John's creative driving.

Please...no more critters!!

Our next stop near Willmar, MN for coffee..2 hours away.

Nope.  Didn't get passed Princeton before we made a pit stop at the closest convenience store for that magical hot black potion.  :)

Here we come Sioux Falls,  South Dakota...breakfast!!!

We're making good time.

Nope.  Made it to Paynesville,  MN when an obnoxious sound was coming from under the passenger tire.  What the hell??  Are we ever going to get out of this state?? 

Wait...that sound disappeared...we are good to go.

Nope.  Now on a grooved road in construction and its WORSE!!! Gotta pull over to take a look.   We were dragging something...a piece of plastic from the underside dislodged and was dragging.  Could not tuck it under anywhere!!  John did a little cussing and some man-handling,  and got us back on the road. 

It's now about 6 am.

Moving along and there it goes again.  Umph!!!  Do we call AAA?   What to do...What to do??  Everything is still closed.  Let's find a Walmart - they have to be opened.

Finally we get to Willmar, but not for coffee ---  wait for it ---- a drill and zip ties...because who packs a drill and zip ties for vacation??

John's wizardry temporarily gave us a fix.  It's now 6:30 am and -- we are still in Minnesota.

Tooling along and all is quiet...neither one of us wants to say it out loud for fear of jinxing the fix.

Finally...we made it to Sioux Falls around 8:30 and locate three Enterprise rental agencies close by.  We pick the one at the regional airport.  Hopefully they will let us switch to a different SUV.

AND...WE MADE IT OUT OF MINNESOTA! :)

We arrived early enough that we were the first ones at the counter.  YES!! We can switch without any hassel!! Day is getting better. :)

The new SUV didnt have the fancy features as the first one did,  but I was good with it.  We finished putting the kitchen sink in the back (because now that we are driving instead of fly8ing, I have to pack everything in our house except a drill and zip ties).  

Then the one I married comes up behind me and says "Wanna upgrade?"  

EXCUSE ME...WHAT???  

"Yeah,  Im not happy with this one,  it doesn't have the stuff the other one has.  Let's see if they will give us a bigger one"  

Are you kidding me?? We just put everything from the bad SUV into the new SUV and now you want a different one???  Ugh!!

Okay...lets go see if they have something else.

Yes,  they did.  Thank god!  An Explorer. So...lets move all of our stuff one more *&^% time!

"On the road again...just cant wait to get on the road again"

All turned out just fine.  We drove across South Dakota,  and made a slight detour to take the 240 loop through the Badlands.  Beautiful scenery - that never gets old to look at and take those perfect pictures.  And of course, I made John stop for a picture with. that giant prairie dog before getting back onto the freeway.

Life is good. 

Made it to our hotel for the evening.  Lovely place.  Quiet and roomy.  :) 

Tomorrow's a new day for more sights and adventures.