Day 1, Omaha to Spearfish, SD

May 9  I can't tell you how hard it was to sleep last night!  Not that the trip had us worried, but you wonder what you might have forgotten to do for prepping the house to be empty for 4 months!  And then to top it off, it was thundering off and on during the night.  Shheeeeez!  :o)

Peggy and I loaded up and were on the road at 6:58 a.m.  Just as we were to leave, we got to say goodbye to Peggy's sister, Donna, one more time as she was just leaving the neighborhood for who knows where at that time of the day.

This day was basically putting the cruise control at 62 MPH and steering.  We got onto I-29 north and got into some rather heavy fog.  Then the fog turned to drizzle, and the drizzle to rain.  We drove in rain on and off all the way to Sioux Falls where we picked up I-90 west.  We continued in and out of rain/drizzle until Chamberlain, SD.

Then the sun came out, the temps rose from the 40's into the 60's all the way to Spearfish, SD.  After about 11 hours we decided to stop.  We are camped at Chris' Campground.  Very nice digs...all the amenities of home- water, electricity, sewer (yum!), Internet, and best of all...cable TV!

Today was to cover territory which we did quite well.  We drove 568 miles.  Between Omaha and here  we have generally seen it all over the years of camping.  So we bade the Badlands and Black Hills an adieu and kept going.

Tomorrow will be much the same...cover territory.  Why 62 MPH you ask??  Our diesel pickup will lock up the torque converter in 6th gear giving us the best fuel mileage.  We don't ask for much...but if Mother Nature could provide us a tail wind, it would help increase the distance traveled between fueling stops!

Miles traveled: 585
Miles to Wasilla, AK:  just less than 3000

Today's Photos Uploaded to Picassa