6/18/17 As I sit typing this I will have to reprocess the last three days and sort it out. I had hoped to write each night,  the same way I thought I’d watch a movie on the iPad. Well sleep hit real fast as soon as I had set the camper up and had a bite to eat and a beer. Bam…  I have crossed the States and Canada before, when I was younger: Once on a hippie bus the Grey Rabbit, Once by hitch hiking and taking the Canadian National train, once on my old R50 BMW and  once on the R100 BMW with Luann on the back. All of these some time ago. 

I can still do the long hauls but I pay for it more now. Having left Friday just before 6 AM, the drive to the highway took an hour and 45 minutes. That got me into the Albany morning commute… child’s play compared with what lay ahead but at the time for a hill town man it was a shock. Rochester, Buffalo built up the realization of traveling into the old industrial northern cities whose roadways are worse for your life expectancy than demolition derby. What has happened to our beautiful roadway system?

On to Cleveland, Ohio but first Pennsylvania …even just a hundred miles is too much in Pennsylvania. Their roads are a disaster. Whoever was in charge of them should be made to drive them all day every day as punishment. Cleveland is another of the northern cities who has, what could be reinvented a cool city. As it is now it seems that is in the future as so much of its past still stands gone to seed. The first day was meant as an exit not a leisurely departure. I bolted the northeast with visions of wide open spaces ahead and it would be there I could slow the pace. The first day of 660 miles in 12 hours ended at a very clean roadside service plaza on I-90 called Indian Meadow. They have 12 RV parking slots in the back of the parking lot that have electric hook ups as well as a place for ‘blackwater’ dumping…for this they ask $20. As I needed none of that it was free. Ear plugs and airline eye patches were needed to blunt the highway noise and flood lights. I was so tired I slept pretty well. Alarm set for 5 am, coffee and such done I was on the road at 6 AM again.The plan was to make it through Chicago to Madison Wisconsin. 

Well all I can say is I will never do that again. I have not seen anything more than the trailer for “Fast and Furious” but I bet they were all filmed on this route. What has happened in the last 20 years? People, mostly young males drive at insane speeds with no regard for lanes nor any semblance of human empathy. They are in a video game. My new truck steering wheel is now 20 years older. Traffic continued to be fast and bumper to bumper all the way to Madison though the number of lanes went down from 5 to 2. The place I had thought would be acceptable to do as I had done the night before was packed solid ( a truck plaza on I-90 right before the Wisconsin River). So I kept going as I had gained an hour in Indiana being Central Time. I had researched a few free spots and had packed them away not thinking I had needed them. One of which Luann reminded me of and actually texted me the exit number. So on through Wisconsin (stopping at a rest area in Sand County…. yes the home of Aldo Leopold … a hero of mine) and arrived at the end of a 10 hour drive at the Town of Blue Earth, Minnesota. They have a beautiful …”ya-ah” …little town ….(spoiler alert) of none other then the home of The Jolly Green Giant! That is right! In the center is a 60 foot green giant and right next door is the town’s fair grounds with 10, no longer free, super spots for a small camper or tents (which are free). They have a shower, bathrooms and electricity if you want. The kind of place that is squeaky clean and left wide open with no vandalism or concerns. A real lucky spot for me. 

I had done 607 miles that second day, crossing over the Mississippi River. As soon as I did life changed. Driving became civilized and though still fast all were spread out and greatly diminished in number. Again getting up early and finishing a breakfast by 6:20 I was on the hi way at 6:30 this morning, day three. As I had gone further than expected I had either a day that I could travel farther again, a day to drive slowly (hard going into South Dakota) or a day I could drive the same number of hours but get off the interstate I-90 and drive out into the prairie on ‘blue highways’. This I did and I have to say… There is a LOT OF GRASS LANDS in South Dakota. It s astounding people (settlers) crossed this expanse in carts and wagons… Even at speeds of 70 MPH it goes on and on and what you see is a small fraction of what lies hundreds of miles off at 90 degrees from the road. Everyone drives a Chevy (GM) or a Ford. Big trucks doing a lot of miles. Literally I have not seen a Toyota once today. So I wandered up route 37 north to 34 west and on to 14 west. It goes through the Crow Reservation along the Missouri River and thereafter to Fort Pierre and eventually to Wall, South Dakota, home of THE Wall Drug store. The little town is nuts….everything a theme park tourist attraction. However…. it sits on the boundary of the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands where they abut the Badlands. As I type this the camper is being buffeted by fair-weather gusts as the camper sits on a bluff at the edge of the grasslands looking out on the badlands. A dispersed site in that we are allowed to go off on the dirt roads and camp within 300 feet of the road. There are a few others doing the same but they are at least a thousand feet or more away. It is quiet and it overlooks some great geology. All told I had a long day but less mileage today but the luck has held out. Rain last night but dry now. 1,767 miles  in 3 days. I hope to do a short 6 hour day tomorrow and get into Montana a bit off the beaten track too.