Day 5: Reflections after 1,470 miles on I-90
Tuesday July 2nd, 2018. Rapid City, South Dakota to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. ~4 1/2 hours. Great day again, kids were in great form. We ended our 1,470+ miles on I-90 when we headed south on I-29 for the last ~5 miles today. Tomorrow we head further south and then east along I-80 to Des Moines, Iowa.
Whitney let me drive about 2 miles on day 3 to get groceries, obviously that affirmed my role as passenger and cabin chief - serving the 3 highly demanding backseat passengers. Whitney drove all day again, love her work for that, and she is loving not getting motion sick with the combination of me driving and having to service our passenger needs by turning around all the time.
Baby Hazel was flawless again today, definitely MVP/best on ground for the daylight hours. The same cannot be said for the night hours. Scarlett and Nora were both rock solid all day long with just a few moments of cluster presenting but each time we were able to avert it.
So what did almost 1,500 miles on Interstate 90 from Seattle, Washington to just north of Sioux Falls, South Dakota offer/remind me:
USA is a big, with an unbelievable rich and productive land all the way across; amazing rivers, mountains and beautiful sky
Trains… I always forget just how key trains are to the USA economy, saw sooooooo many, going east and west.
The beauty and vulnerability of small towns is universal… be it in country Australia 🇦🇺, USA 🇺🇸 or anywhere around the world small towns are a unique lifeblood of a nation. The issues, strengths and challenges, are so similar and yet so easily forgotten and/or misunderstood in city life.
Some early takeaways for this first few days of our global adventure:
the cooler/esky in the car is key to knocking out the miles each day
arriving to our hotel early afternoon, ideally 3-5pm or earlier, gets us checked in before it gets busy. Realized this was a good move as tonight we were later and it was a cluster at the pool. End of the day witching hour for our kids and a dozen others in a hotel pool.
Hotel with an indoor pool. It was the only requirement we had for every hotel on this road trip. Whitney was lead on the hotels and she crushed it. Each pool has been a crucial ingredient to our day and the kids being happy to hang out once we got to each hotel. I.e. no more getting everyone back in the car!
Whitney and I are enjoying an audio book together in the car, we get about 30% of drive time listening in. That would usually be double that but the World Cup cricket is on so today I had to watch Bangladesh 🇧🇩 try to chase down India’s 🇮🇳 300+ runs today - 🇧🇩 fell 21 runs short but it was a great effort.
Fully charge the iPads for the girls before the day. I know this and yet I forgot last night… foolish… creates an unnecessary loss of a critical tantrum recovery tool. iPads are charging next to me as I type this.
Hotel rooms with a suite are a huge bonus. Last night and tonight we have been at hotels that had a small side room where the sofa folds out to a bed. Amazing what that extra little space does for everyone and gives us a lot of confidence that our 1 and 2 bedroom rentals approach for this entire trip will work. Time will tell…
eating well on road trips is a bloody nightmare. Feel like we are eating enough carbohydrates to feed an army but it is also keeping the stress of mealtime to a minimum. That is our priority at the moment so that is fine. Looking forward to some better eating habits once we get to Iowa tomorrow. Of course we may need to push healthy eating off until post July 4 (Thursday) and the ensuing weekend. So perhaps I will just look to July 8…
Last day of our road trip tomorrow. As we reach Des Moines, Iowa where Whitney is from and where her parents still live. Iowa Grandma and Grandpa here we come, and we will achieve one of Whitney’s first objectives of our trip - July 4th at home! Cheers to that.
Ps Below is a picture of me trying to get Hazel to nap 😴 on the bike path behind our hotel, not successfully though, enjoyed the walk with her instead!
