Chicago to the Missouri River

Saturday, May 8, 2010, Chamberlain South Dakota

We left Chicago a bit before 7:00 am, looking for an onramp on to I-90, our chosen route west… We found many east bound onramps, but all lacked a west bound mate… We found a Denny’s and had breakfast… we found the on ramp… Westward Ho!

Through Illinois (a toll road, not easy for visitors) into Wisconsin… at Baraboo we left I-90 and headed a bit south west looking for the town of North Freedom, home of the Mid-Continent Railroad Museum… We found it, I explored, the girls used the restroom and hid in the car…

As railroad museums go it was probably typical… They had done some great work, particularly wooden railroad cars, most of which were under cover. They had an impressive collection of stuff… they had a train ride… but they also had junk, and more stuff than they could care for, and lots of projects which appeared to have been going on a long time with limited success, and less going while I was there…
My train fix taken we returned to the road, and quickly regained I-90 westward continuing through Wisconsin and crossing the Mississippi River into Minnesota.

We had no planned stops in Minnesota, just a transit, an expected 4 hour transit. We were wrong… because, just off the Hwy in the town of Austin we found the SMAM museum… owned and operated by Hormel, the inventors and manufacturers of that iconic luncheon meat. The museum was an unexpected surprise… It was fun, it was very professional, they know that too many of us the meat is a joke, and acknowledged it well. I bought a tee shirt some post cards, and other goodies… refreshed we returned to the road westward.

An hour later outside the town of Blue Earth a billboard promised a 60’ tall “green giant”… We went in search of it… we found it… we took photos.

Again back onto the road… westward again… Steph took over driving for a while, while I napped, awakening as we crossed into South Dakota… An hour or so into South Dakota we reached Mitchell, home of the Corn Palace, somewhat famous institution. A building covered with murals made of corn… It was late, and it and associated tourist stores were closed… we took more photos, and it was fun, but less than expected.

I took back the driver’s seat as we again got back on I-90. Chamberlain, our stop for the night was a little less than an hour away. We reached Chamberlain at sunset… we approached by first dropping down towards the Missouri River… It was truly spectacular… a sudden drop off the plains to the river, the river glowing in the failing sun, the bridges illuminated and silhouetted. We checked in, then went in search of food… We found the Anchor, a local café… buffalo burger for Kelli, a burger for Step, and I had a steak, all good, particularly the meat and the waffle fries…

We returned to the motel, too late for the pool, and too tired to care much…

The WiFi isn’t working, so I will post this next time I find a connection.

Randy