An American Journey: Westbound

…Continued from Preparations.

I had originally planned to leave Milwaukee around sunrise on the 20th, but I was too excited to sleep well, so I ended up leaving earlier, around 4:30 AM.  I stopped for gas in Brookfield, a suburb of Milwaukee, and added fuel injector cleaner and cleaned all the windows for the first of many times.  This was at about 5:00 AM.

Daybreak in Wisconsin

I stopped briefly at a Burger King in LaCrosse, WI for breakfast around 8:00, and drank my first ever cup of coffee (I figured I'd need the caffeine).  I didn't need gas yet, so I moved on, crossing the mighty Mississippi River at the Wisconsin-Minnesota border.  As I had just bought the car, I hadn't driven it much, and wasn't sure what to expect in the way of gas mileage.  At about 8:45, I got off the interstate at the Rochester, Minnesota exit in search of a gas station.  Rochester isn't actually on I-90, and I had to search a little to find one, but didn't have to go too far.  I was only 260 miles from Brookfield, and so far my mileage wasn't too good, but I wasn't using cruise control at this point, and I had actually stopped sooner than I really needed to.

The Mississippi River

While in Minnesota, I stopped at a rest area with some photogenic views, and decided to try out the digital camera a little.  I'd only taken a couple of shots from the car at this point, but figured I'd get what stationary shots I could.  This being Minnesota in December, there was snow and ice everywhere, including in a newspaper vending machine!

View of I-90 from the Minnesota rest area

 

Large icicle hanging from rest area roof

 

Snow in the newspaper box

Aside from the break at the rest stop, Minnesota was largely uneventful, although I did spot a few electricity-generating windmills.

Windmills in Minnesota

As 1:00 approached, I stopped for lunch at Burger King in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and also got gas at a station named... wait for it... Kum and Go!  I don't want to know where they came up with it.  South Dakota is a big state with few places to stop, so I made sure to fill up here before moving on.

One thing I tried to photograph, but it didn't show up well, was the reddish color of the asphalt in South Dakota.
South Dakota is a big, boring state, the highlights of which are big signs for such attractions as the Corn Palace, Wall Drug, Mt. Rushmore and others, and it was while in this state I finally turned on the cruise control, and really got to appreciate it.  Unfortunately I only turned it on after getting pulled over by one of South Dakota's finest for going 84 mph in a 75 mph zone.  Truth be told I had been going faster for a while.  I ran the car up to 100 mph briefly, just to be able to say I've driven that fast, though it's really nothing to be proud of.  Fortunately, the officer only gave me a warning, and I vowed to myself to use the cruise control as much as practical from then on, at least in South Dakota.  Also, it was right around this point that I found South Dakota's scenic highlight: the Missouri River.

Approaching the Missouri River

Around 4:00 I ended up stopping for gas near the Badlands of South Dakota, as I didn't think I could make it further, though I probably could have.  The gas station was in the middle of nowhere, and virtually closed down, though the pumps still worked with a credit card.  The store itself was shut down and no one was there.  The station probably did decent business, in gas anyway, as I wasn't the only visitor during the short time I was there.

The Badlands in the distance

I wanted to get as far as I could that first night, so I cruised on past Rapid City, despite being tired.  Originally, I had wanted to get into Montana before I stopped for the night, but considering it was dark when I entered Wyoming, I realized that wasn't going to happen.  Out there in the dark, I-90 doesn't feel like an Interstate, more like a country road.  Little other traffic, and you often can't see the lanes for the other direction.  I was going to try for Sheridan, Wyoming, but ended up stopping when I got to Gillette instead.  I was just getting that tired.  I checked into a Budget Inn Express, while proved to be much nicer than a Motel 6, but only a few dollars more expensive.  It even had an indoor pool, which I visited after dinner at a local establishment called Grandma's Kitchen.  It was the only non-fast-food restaurant I stopped at.

Continue to Westbound (Part 2)…