Kline Road Trips

Well – the trip rolls on… We’re getting deeper and deeper into the red states.

Sounds like Hayley isn’t doing too well at Jack & Linda’s. Hang in there pup. Stop eating their backyard…that might help.

Mark & Steph – welcome home. Too bad we couldn’t meet out here somewhere. We’ll upload some pictures from Jenny Lake when we get there. It should look familiar!

The Badlands were incredible. That’s where the picture is taken. We took the Badlands Scenic Byway which was absolutely beautiful. The scenery went from flat prairie to gorgeous rock in a few miles. Unreal… Wall Drug was a riot. We got some tacky souvenirs and had some ice cream. Pretty fun day all-in-all.

We’re in the shadows of Mt. Rushmore right now. We’re off to Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Devils Tower tomorrow. 105 was the high temp today (112 at the bottom of the Badlands.) We’re supposed to have some high winds move through tonight and then MUCH cooler temps for the next few days. Devils Tower should have a high in the 70’s tomorrow.

Stupid observations:

Corn Palace: HUGE waste of time. The billboards make everything in SD look fantastic. The billboards also lied when they said this tourist trap was 3 minutes off the highway.

We now know what “Amber waves of grain” means…

MN speed limit: 70 MPH
SD speed limit: 75 MPH
We’re almost to the point of the average speed on the tri-state tollway in Chicago…

Based on the number of RV’s on the road, we’re not the only ones with flexible work schedules…

SD has really cool road kill. Much better than the usual squirrels and deer back in Wisconsin.

Anna Nalick is stalking us. We saw her perform at Summerfest and now she’s on every radio station out here…

SD is an interesting place. They’ve managed to take the Wisconsin Dells concept and expand it to an entire state!

That’s about it. Thanks to all for the comments. Sounds like Jack had a good time at Bill & Stel’s. Tracy – we’re looking forward to food, wine and civilization. We may or may not be able to check in over the next couple of days – all depends on wireless connections.
Love, Jeff & Amy

Road Trek 2005 is underway! We were on the road Friday at 5:30 a.m. Quick run to Oshkosh to drop our dog off with Amy’s parents. Thanks Mom & Dad Verwiel! Hope she’s doing well! We then hopped on 21 and raced across Wisconsin. We stopped in LaCrosse to drive up Granddad Bluff. Took some great pictures up there. We were then on I-90 westbound over the Mississippi and into Minnesota. I was a bit crushed that we didn’t have time to visit the SPAM museum in Austin, MN. We rolled into Walnut Grove, MN around 3:30 p.m. We established our campsite and then did the whole “Laura Ingalls Wilder” thing in town. It’s a neat museum and a nice visit for two history majors. We then drove out to the site of the original “dugout” house back in the 1800’s. Amy had a field day snapping pictures of wildflowers in a prairie restoration project in this area.

95 degrees today and pretty humid. I had a whole thought in my head about how I could gain sympathy about the heat on this trip. However, Amy and I later received an email from our friend Pete who is based in Iraq. He’s got us beat regarding temperature… (Great chatting with you Thursday night Pete…)

We’re off to Mt. Rushmore, The Badlands, and the Crazy Horse Monument on Sunday. See ya…

Love,

Jeff

P.S. – It’s unreal how much corn this country produces…

We are in the midst of packing everything but the kitchen sink (at least it feels like that)! We leave at 5 am on Friday to drop the dog off at mom and dad’s and then off to Walnut Grove, Minnesota for the first night.

After hearing that many campgrounds along the way filled up, we kind of panicked today about not having reservations for campsites. Jeff has been on the laptop all day making reservations in shady campsites with scenic views. Can’t wait!

Off to do some errands!
Amy