Roadtripping

A long-awaited sign. Along I-94.

Our vacation is featuring a few long driving days. By a long driving day I mean a day in which the job of getting from one place to another doesn’t allow for detours or diversions. I see at least three such days on this trip.

The first came on day 1 when we left Lansdale at about 5:15 am and arrived in St. Louis around 7:30. A pretty easy trip to do. Get on the PA Turnpike, turn right in Plymouth Meeting, and going straight for about 12 ½ hours.

Sherry traverses the South Dakota badlands. 

The second is today. Day 7. We left Omaha around 8:30 with a goal of getting to Rapid City with time enough to get groceries and settle in at Yak Ridge. This involves taking I-29 north until we get to Sioux Falls, then turning left on I-90.

Our third long driving day will be a week from tomorrow. We’ll leave Medora for Willmar. This will involve perhaps the longest, straightest drive of the trip on I-94 east across North Dakota.

I took a turn in the back back with Marvin. Along I-94 in North Dakota. 

I guess there will be a fourth long driving day when Sam, Caroline, and I finish the trip next week. The kids and I will figure out if we want to extend our vacation by a day or two in Chicago, Toledo, or Cleveland.

As loaded as the van would ever be. Outside our cabin in the Black Hills. 

Magazines from the first day of driving. 

The first long driving day went more quickly than I expected. We have a lot of room in the car (we packed pretty smartly, I think). And I talked a bit about the old magazine trick in a previous post. It’s funny, I look back on that first day of the trip as a pretty good day for learning. After all, there were a few good gems in those old Economist articles. Articles about using calories as a measurement, the use (and misuse) of nostalgia in politics, why monarchy is an institution on the rebound, and the powerfully pessimistic market forces at work on car-hire services stand out among the things I read.

Perhaps the most astute comment I read on that trip was an observation by The Economist in which it said America is a nation of temporarily embarrassed millionaires. That's a particularly funny thing to read before trekking through the west.

Sherry's adeptness at packing lunches meant we could drive by many bad restaurants. This photo was taken at TR National Park's north unit. 

There are some interesting sites we have to pass up as we drive through the countryside. This morning we passed by some sites outside of Omaha important to understanding the Mormons’ journey westward. Today we also decided not to add two hours to our trip, which could’ve allowed a stop at Scott’s Bluff. It’s tough to say no to those places.

A tourist trap we couldn't drive by, Wall Drug. In fairness, we only stopped after passing by it for the third time. 

It’s getting easier to say no to restaurants and coffee stops, though. I guess I figure that if I drink my normal amount of coffee we won’t be able to go 2 ½ or 3 hours between stops which, I think, one has to try to do to make these trips unmiserable.

These trips haven’t been filled with the kind of outstanding scenery I’ve had on other trips. One friend sent a link to a witty YouTube video about how plain it is to drive the length of Iowa on I-80. There’s truth to it (and the same video could be produced for driving across Iowa south-to-north on I-29). That being said, we’re constantly driving by someone’s home. There is a tranquil beauty to the seas of corn we drive by as we make our way up the Missouri River valley. Also, the ability to appreciate the land as we arrive someplace means something. I’ve done my fair share of air travel recently and there’s a sense of having been plopped in someplace which creates a thrill of having gotten somewhere else so quickly but there’s also a blindspot about what lies beyond the periphery of where one has arrived.

The van at its dirtiest, entering Wind Cave National Park.