California Bound...and a few other places!

Tuesday, May 23, 2017

Our big adventure this year takes us on another month-long car trip to California to visit Brent and Jackie...and a few other places.  Deciding on a route was hard and we didn't want to come back the same way we went and finally decided to take the northern route and check several places off our bucket list and then come home the southern route and check off more.  Also, we wanted to deliver to Brent those things he told us to "save and not throw away".  After 20 years we decided it was time to let him store them  We left home on a Tuesday, May 23rd at 4:53 am.  Our original plan was to drive to just north of Omaha, NE to spend the night but when we got there, it was mid afternoon and too early to stop.  So, we decided to just go until we were too tired to go any further.  

One state down, many more to go...

It was an uneventful trip and we've made the drive between Maumelle and Kansas City many times so that was pretty boring.  Once we were north of Kansas City, we were on a new road.  Coming through northern Iowa, the area to the west was flat and to the right was really hilly.  On the west side was the Missouri River.  Driving through Sioux City, Iowa we saw a monument dedicated to Sgt Floyd who died and was buried here in 1804 on the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  In 1960, the monument was recognized by the US Department of Interior as the first National Historic Landmark.  

The Sgt Floyd Monument - almost missed it!

The weather was mostly cloudy with some sun.  It rained a few times but not more than 5 minutes at a time.  We did have a short, hard rain once.  We saw a possible wall cloud to the east in northern Iowa, before we got to Sioux City.

 Scenery along the way

 Lots of clouds

Big storm

After 783.2 miles, we arrived in Sioux Falls, South Dakota at 6:25 pm.  I drove the whole way.  We found the Red Rock Inn (cost $61.40).  The Fryin' Pan Family Restaurant was right next door so we just walked over there for supper.  We had some good fried chicken with enough left over to put in the cooler for lunch the next day.  We got back to our room, made our plans for the next day and collapsed!  We're already a half day ahead of schedule.