Westward Ho - Day Four

Chicago, Illinois to Sioux Falls, South Dakota

Rick's company is closing, he has been looking for a new job. He had a meeting / interview scheduled for Tuesday. That morning we found out that the meeting had been moved to Monday at 9am. Hmmmm. He had a Sunday night flight home, arriving at 5:30am Monday, would that be enough time? We decided to book him a Saturday night flight & pick up the pace a little. If we didn't get there in time for the Saturday flight, he would still have the Sunday one - and we'd just cancel whichever one he didn't use & use the credit for his return trip.

So, to that end on our fourth day we drove across Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota & into South Dakota. On our way we pulled off the freeway for a bathroom / snack break and look what we came across in Blue Earth, Minnesota!
The Big Green Giant!
He really was big, look how small my kids are standing by his feet.

There was a baby green giant too - which made Jane happy.

Oh yeah, and did I mention their healthy snack was an ice cream cone?

Jacob liked the little barn and garden area next to it.

Illinois, Wisconsin & Minnesota were pretty enough - green farmland, some cattle and horses & lots & LOTS of corn growing. Of course, I only saw what we drove though. Then we hit South Dakota and I was in heaven. It is really beautiful and I had a yearning to watch "Dances With Wolves." Rolling hills, with long green grasses waving in the wind, less corn once we past mid-state, & instead wheat growing - amber waves of grain - and it was less humid there, and I love anywhere that is not humid.

We arrived at the Ramkota Inn in Sioux Falls at 9pm (the "7 hour" trip took us 11+.) The motel was nothing special, and smelled like it had once allowed smoking, and now was non-smoking (that yucky old smoke smell.) However, they had an indoor, heated water park there and we only had to sleep in the rooms for 1 night. The water park closed at 10, room service also ended at 10 (there were no other places to eat anywhere nearby) and we hadn't had dinner yet.

Dinner or water park? Guess which one my little fishies chose?


This isn't out of focus - it was so nice and warm, this is steam!

OK, I'm not SO irresponsible that I would let them not eat at all and just swim! I called room service before we went to play, and had food brought at 9:45 - the latest they would deliver. Rick ran back to the room to let them in at 9:45 then we all went back at 10. After wolfing down food we collapsed into bed for a well deserved solid nights sleep.

Of course, we were back at the pool at 8am (as soon as it opened.) We had the advantage of having the place to ourselves (all the sane people were still sleeping.) However, all good things must end & by 10:30am we were back on the road headed for Mt. Rushmore.