Lots and Lots of

NOTHING!!!!  Sorry South Dakota, but you are boring so far. Hopefully that will change when we get to the Badlands!

Don't fuss at me for driving and taking pics...Hiawatha is too slow trying to get to the camera on the phone. Trust me, there is no traffic

Missouri river

Goodbye MN Hello SD

Our last rest area in Mn; it is the smallest rest area I have ever seen

South Dakota rest area

Road side attraction

Here we are all set up at Dakota campground. Nice enough cg full hookups, close to interstate.  We are in Mitchell, SD to see the world famous Corn Palace. Here it is

And last but not least...sweet dreams from Mitchell, SD home of the Corn Palace!

By Popular Demand

Here he is in all his glory!

And the cool thing is that they do a scarfing ceremony to kick off winter here.  That would be one big scarf!

Ho, ho, ho

And it isn't Santa Claus..we are at Blue Earth, Mn. The home of the Jolly Green Giant. We are in a nine site campground at their fairgrounds. Full hook up and the price for one day is FREE!  Nice little historic area and within walking distance to the Jolly Green Giant (we plan to walk over there in the morning so pics will be online tomorrow). A walmart is just across the street and this cg is just over a mile off I-90. A real deal!

I forgot to mention what really nice welcome centers and rest areas that Iowa has. Here we are parked in front of one

It also has a cute casino that we toured but didn't play

I loved these door handles into the casino

Sweet dreams from Mn!  Oh yeah, i forgot to mention the language barrier we are up against here..they talk funny 😳

Casino camping

Tonight we are at Isles casino at Waterloo, Iowa.   We are free camping in their parking lot.  At least we didn't loose any money and we got free buffets. I hate eating at buffets, we always eat too much.  Sort of noisy in this parking lot since it is fairly close to the interstate.  Too dark for pics tonight, I will add them tomorrow!  Here are a few pics from Cedar Rapids   Looks like a nice place, but the rolling hills are tough on mileage.

Sweet dreams from Iowa!

Day 2

Another driving day. We drove in the rain again and made it past Peoria to Jubilee College State Park. 

Illinois has nice rest areas but they could sure put some money into their state parks. This park is in dire need of a mow and their is no one available to check in or dispense information. Finally last night a guy came by who "said" he was the host, to collect our $18.00. I saw on the news that Illinois is very broke and are closing some state parks. They could probably close this one and no one would notice. Electric only, good over the air tv, no showers

My sister is across the road

Peoria is a neat looking older river town. Not a large city but not a lot of traffic either.

ATT cell phone coverage is sketchy in the area so i didnt post yesterday so their might be 2 posts today...casino bound for some more "free" camping!  LOL

North to Alaska!

And we are off.....

We finally got underway after I made a trip to the dentist to replace a filling!  Not a fun way to start. 

Looks like we are starting out in some stormy weather.  Oh well.

First night...camping in the parking lot of Indiana Grand Casino.  They call it "free" camping!  Ha!  We could probably stay in the most expensive private campground in Indiana a week on what I will drop here tonight. Cha-Ching !!