550 miles

15mpg (what a headwind!)

$20: Cedar View Municipal Park (Nashua, Iowa)

I’m so glad I made it a short driving day yesterday to stop at Badlands. A very dry heat made for a peaceful view of the sunset sitting out in a chair.

I’ll sleep when I get home. While I’m in the presence of these skies, I am compelled to get up and take shots like this. It’s like a Milky Way rainbow.

The morning was no less dramatic as I left the park.

Interstate 90 was windy! The Touareg usually doesn’t feel squirrelly, but I wrestled with crosswinds for the early part of the day, even when I got on 18, south of Sioux Falls. The corn fields undulated like a stormy sea.

18, and roads like it, are my favorite alternative to the interstates. Sure, there are some stop lights, tractors, and hay trucks. But it breaks up the monotony of a 300-mile stretch of 80mph interstate, and you really get a flavor for a state through the eyes of the small towns.

Hey – watch that root beer! I just washed the trailer.

Byeeee.

And unlike I-90 and I-80, there are a passel* of reasonable county parks to camp in. Like this one in Nashua, Iowa.

$20 (includes electric & water).

*I’ve been out here on the open prairie so long, the word “passel” was on the tip of my tongue. Really.