6:15 a.m.
MV wakes me up. And leaves to go get free breakfast. Haha! See how long I stay awake.
7:15 or so
I actually wake up.
Free breakfast is mostly pastries and waffles, so I eat plain oatmeal, two spoonfuls of peanut butter and one of those little cups of cream cheese. Breakfast of champions.
Later added fresh veggies from the truck stop. Amazing truck stop – had veggies, all sorts of fruit and, not sure why, raw potatoes.
And we get back on the road.
It is rainy and cold.
We eat up the whole package of smokehouse almonds. At this rate, I am going to be completely round by he time we get there.
Around noon
The weather clears up and it is sunny and gorgeous. I miss the transition because I am sleeping like a pretzel trying to not get pocked by the seatbelt thing that doesn’t fold in. I wake up when I move and almost fall, butt-first, off the seat.
1:53 p.m.
The truck stop employees are extremely friendly here in South Dakota. Not fake scary friendly, but just kind of nice and cheerful. And if you ask directions, they actually know where something is. Mark says the coffee if really good too. I had a push up.
2:33 p.m.
It is 20 minutes to the corn palace, the Wall Drug signs are popping up and I just saw a billboard for an auto shop offering “24 hour toe service.” What exactly do they plan to do to your feet in the middle of the night?
5:12 p.m.
When you travel, you sometimes discover things about yourself. Such as, we are nerds. What, you already knew that about us? OK, so did I, but here is a story to back it up.
We’re about mid-way through So. Dakota and we pass a sign saying that we are entering the Mountain Time Zone. We both grab for our cell phones to watch them change. Yeah, right at the same time. So we are staring at them and the time is not changing. I think I will be cute and call MV because maybe that will make the phone check the time. I am wondering why his phone is not ringing and notice that my screen now says CALL WAITING, Yep, he had the same idea and is calling me at the same time.
4:22 p.m. Mtn Time
Whew, just checked and the phone time changed. Can relax…
6:31 p.m.
We are pulling onto the freeway after our visit to Wall Drug. It wasn’t on the agenda, but we needed to stop and eat. While I would not recommend the Cactus Café to anyone with discriminating tastes, the waiter was extremely nice about my having to order weirdly and seemed to actually understand how I needed it prepared. He was from Ukraine – all the staff seemed to be on summer work visas – with a cute accent to go with his fabulous English. I just said I was allergic to wheat (easier) and he said he would make sure to tell them to prepare my broiled chicken with no “flavors” (which in context, we took to mean flavorings or seasonings but it still cracked us up.) Turns out, the general plan with all the food there was not much flavor – but the ice cream absolutely made up for Mark’s cold fries.
Then we wandered around Wall Drug to stretch our legs. There was some serious people watching available! We stopped for a postcard (which was 35 cents – shocking as I expected it to be a touristy $1.50) and we got a free bumper sticker.
Yeah, as we climbed (I do actually have to climb) into the truck, we agreed that Wall Drug was a great break. The whole place is a big tourist stop, but it really didn’t feel like a tourist “trap.” MV says he is now ready to drive for three more hours. Just enough time for me to finish reading Bicycling magazine aloud.
12:45 a.m.
Tucked in at the Days Inn. Free Internet and flat screen for under $100 a night. We’ll see how the free breakfast is though…
Final Thought
There is only so many times you can say, "Look, baby cows! How cute!"
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