A long day from Interior to Jackson, MN

        This was a long day in the RV!  Beautiful driving day, though,    sunny and temps in the 60's and up to 72 degrees.  When you think they still have snow here occasionally in April, we've been pretty lucky!

     We had a nice relaxed morning getting going, and took advantage of the best "dog park" we've found on the trip--Dudley and Rosie had a great time playing Frisbee, and it wore them out for the morning!  Note Dudley's technique--stand on one, and lock his teeth around the other!

         Our drive started at the South end of the North unit of the Badlands, and we had a nice 8 mile drive through the picturesque mountains prior to getting on the highway.  The natural effectgs of wind and rain on this area of the continent make for truly dramatic effects.  It was a nice way to start our trip.  Here are two more photos of what we saw in the park today.

       Driving I90 through South Dakota can be one tremendously boring experience!  We drove nearly 300 miles in South Dakota today, and saw more agricultural fields than about anywhere we've ever been!  Very few hills, not many trees, small towns for the most part, and very isolated farms.  Wonderful for the economy, but this drive falls into the category of  "been there, done that, don't want to do it again!"  The one thing that is noteworthy, though, (and unfortunately we saw scores of these signs) are the "X marks the spot".  Evidently South Dakota places one of  these markers at every spot where a motorist is killed, and we saw way too many.  Some are decorated with flowers, momentos, and other rememberances left by friends and families, but when you know what the signs stand for you see every single one! 

       One of the few highlights of the drive was detouring through the town of Mitchell, which is in the middle of "corn country".  They have a very elaborate building located there (along with accompanying museums and souvenir shops) called the "Corn Palace".  Mitchell is also noted as being the home of the 5 Sullivan brothers, who were killed at the same time in World War II on a destroyer that was sunk.

       At one point we crossed the Missouri, and there is a rest stop located on the eastern side up on a bluff.  We stopped there for lunch and some exercise for the four of us, and read a little about how Lewis and Clark had had several encampments in this area.  The bridge was built in 1974, and is the Lewis and Clark Memorial Bridge!

       We decided that we wanted to swing through a small part of Iowa while on this trip, so after crossing into Minnesota we detoured south on US 75 (same one that goes through Plano and Dallas, TX) and crossed into Iowa.  We traveled east on Iowa 9 for about 60 miles, and went through what appears to be very prosperous farm country.  Between South Dakota and Iowa we got a good feel for what the "breadbasket" of American looks like.  We also felt like we've finally arrived in Spring, as grass is greening up, trees are blooming, and the farmers are plowing the fields with huge tractor-like devices.  Nice to be where it's warmer, too!  Tonight we're at another KOA, this one in Jackson, MN.  Like several others, we're among the very few RV's here in this off season.