Day One. Journey to Mitchell, SD

We both woke before the alarm. Feed the fish, pack and roll.

The software program would not generate a route from Freeport to Mitchell, SD that I liked, so we used a hand drawn sketch map to navigate north and west of Madison across country. That was our first mistake. The computer probably knew a thing or two. After 110 miles and two hours of winding roads that would thrill any rally driver, we reached I90. We then made good speed

Time for breakfast. “This exit has lots of motels, so there must be food too.”

“But, Martin I don’t see any signs.”

After pulling off, it was clear from the ramp that food was not in sight. Strike two.

At the next exit was a Country Kitchen. There were only two other tables in use. “This should be quick.” We ordered. After 25 minutes, and no sign of food I asked the lady who had seated us was there a problem with eggs and bacon. She went to see. Another five minutes passed.

“This should be worth a free breakfast” muttered Jan.

Finally the waitress arrived, accompanied by a smartly presented dame, who must have been the manager. “We are so sorry for the wait. This breakfast is on the house.” Said she. “And, would you like a slice of pie to take with you?” We declined.

We ate in silence. Jan reached in her purse and pulled out a couple of dollar bills. “It was not the waitress fault.” Strike three.

And now for the fourth. I could not find the power supply for the computer. “I must have left it at home.” But Jan pointed out that there was nothing left on the counter top. I finally discovered that I had interchanged the power supplies for the computer and video camera!

I am checking the GPS to see where we are. Jan just reads a road sign and says “Dover.”

Andy loaned us a thermoelectric cooler, no ice, so everything is nice and dry. We have packed ourselves fixings for ham sandwiches. Our stop at a clean bench in a rest area allowed us to have a nice picnic in the sun. I had struggled to make everything fit and stacked all the packages neatly. In contrast, when Jan re-packed, she just flopped everything in. I asked why we had so much more space, then realized that Jan had unwittingly applied chaos theory, which results in tighter packing.

Just before lunch the temperature midway across Minnesota was 87oF

We left this morning at 6:00am and after stops for breakfast, lunch and gas reached Mitchell around 5:30pm having driven 587 miles.