ROADTRIP LESSON

June 21
The plan after leaving Badlands, and you know we had a plan, was to drive a long day to Sioux Falls, South Dakota and stay in a Flying J truck stop there. We had been seeing them along the highways, and thought it would be interesting to park with all the 18-wheelers, possibly fun. But, as we got within three hours to Sioux Falls, a huge “American Recovery and Reinvestment Act” project had been undertaken, reducing a four-lane highway to two narrow lanes with no shoulder for 50 miles.

(It was Sunday, so there were no workers working on this "stimulus project". But there was little evidence of construction equipment, so I wondered how many guys were put to work fixing this 50-mile stretch of highway. --Tom)

We were both wide awake for this one, it was pretty tense! I looked over at Tom and his lips were white, not to mention his knuckles. So I googled a KOA in Mitchell, South Dakota and we got off the highway right after the construction. We had planned to eat dinner in the truck stop so we had sardines, crackers, walnuts and raisins and a salad of olives and canned tomatoes. Plenty of ice, vodka and a Scrabble game so we made it through the night.