Into the Great Wide Open

Hello, from the open road!  We continue to trek across this great nation, barrelling down I-90 West at record speeds of 65 mph.  Kevin is heavy, and, if I’m being honest, she’s a little rattly.  Between the squeaky front door and the rumbling of five axles, we all spend a lot of time saying, “What?” and yelling, “I can’t hear you” to one another.

Dawn broke gloriously over the Walmart in Janesville, Wisconsin. All kidding aside, RV traveling is made so much more convenient by places like travel plazas, Walmarts, and RV dealerships that provide (sometimes for a small fee) a safe place to park for the night.  

Wisconsin and Minnesota are stunningly beautiful and so open. 

I’m happy to report that the corn crops are looking good and should definitely be knee high by the fourth of July – not quite ready to harvest as it is not yet as high as an elephant’s eye.  Connecticut is full of farms, but nothing quite like the vast tracts of land out here.  Rolling hills covered with green as far as the eye can see.  And the barns – they are incredible – so many unique styles.  Interestingly, we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse of an Amish farm with several men plowing the fields with teams of horses.  We even passed a huge wind farm in Minnesota with turbines as far as the eye can see – giants lined up on the horizon.  This is definitely the way to see the country.

One of my favorite observations over the past few days has been learning what makes each of Kevin’s passengers “ooh” and “ahhh”.  Most of the time, it’s just Rob and me who are looking out the windows, but the kids like to point out unique billboards: The Spam Museum (I’m assuming this is right near Hormel HQ), Humbird Cheese Mart, Wizard’s Quest, Wall Drug (pictures coming as we get closer).   Rob never fails to point out the large number of RV dealerships and manufacturers, the Jeep Cherokee factory, Caterpillar, Harley Davidson, and other places with heavy machinery.  As for me, I am a “Look, brown cows!”, “Look!  Black and white cows!”, “Look!  A building painted like a black and white cow!” kind of girl.  I will never not point out a cow when I see one.  Needless to say, I have been very busy in Wisconsin and Minnesota. **After reviewing all my photos, I am sorely disappointed that not ONE cow picture exists.

We have now crossed eight(ish) states and I am shocked at the amount of roadkill we have seen.  I commute on the highway to work each and every day, where I see a fair number of unlucky chipmunks and squirrels, the occasional possum, but the butchery on the interstate is astounding. It’s one grisly scene after another, a wide variety of creatures in various states of decay.  Many are deer, and judging by the size of the corpses, they had to have made some major damage to the vehicle that struck them.  It seems like such an inhumane way to go, just laid out in the breakdown lane.  Carnage in America’s Heartland – yikes!

Around the 28 hour mark of the trip, you need to take care of some serious camper business.  Friends, we have arrived at the dark side of camping: the pump out.  We left CT with a half tank of fresh water.  The water we use goes into our gray and black water tank.  Gray water is shower water, dish water, hand washing water and black water is: sewer. You do not want to overflow the black water tank in your RV.  There will be a mess and a stench you cannot recover from.  There is no amount of bleach that will fix a black water tank overflow.  That said, we found a Gander Camping Center where we promptly paid to become “Good Sam” members to get perks such as free pump outs and discounts on camping gear.  We poked around the store for a bit – it is a cross between Walmart (if you know me at all, you know my love for a good Walmart supercenter) and Cabela’s if both of those stores only sold camping swag.  A-MAZING.  And the bonus is that you can also pump out your gray and black tanks and fill up the fresh water.  Rob is usually in charge of this job – not because I can’t do it (but partially because I don’t want to do it), but because he is pretty good at getting it done quickly.  Of course, every time we pump out the black water tank, one of us utters the classic phrase, “Sh!*#er’s full!”.  It’s become a tradition and if we have to deal with this nastiness, we are at least going to have a good chuckle.  It never gets old.

We are ending our day in South Dakota.  From flat plains to rolling hills, the landscape changes dramatically as you drive across the state.  Passing through Chamberlain, population 2,500, you marvel at the sheer amount of wide open spaces here.  So much land and so few people.  It’s a fascinating terrain dotted with cattle herds, more turbines, and fields of grain.  At 9:00 PM, the sun was just setting and we pulled into the Dignity sculpture rest area to stretch out and eat a late supper before the last leg of the day.  The 50-foot tall Native American woman stands in front of the Missouri River representing the Dakota and Lakota Tribes of South Dakota.  It is a graceful and calming image despite its immense size and she captured all our attention.  What also captured our attention was the warning sign that there might be poisonous snakes in the area.  (Alyssa has corrected this sign – the snakes are venomous.  Poisonous refers to items you ingest, while venom is injected into the body.  Now you know.)  

After a much needed rest, we loaded up Kevin and here we are, plugging long in the dark, marveling at the silhouettes of hills that lie on either side of the highway.  It’s peaceful now as we drive toward tonight’s Walmart parking lot.

Today’s big takeaways:

• I am feeling more confident and comfortable behind the wheel. I did accidentally take us to an abandoned gas station to fill up, but I can’t be held responsible for mismarked travel signs.  

• The kids continue to amaze me with how easygoing they are at this whole traveling thing. I mean, what more do they really need besides a full fridge, a comfy place to lay their head, and their iPads? Earphones. I suppose they need earphones to drown out the grown-ups’ music. Whatever.  Bon Jovi’s Wanted Dead or Alive is one of the greatest songs of all time.  Change my mind.
• Kai has just informed me he doesn’t eat orange lifesavers because he doesn’t like the “carrot” flavor.  Ummm… since when are orange lifesavers flavored “carrot”?  I’m floored.  I’m questioning my every parenting move over the last 12 years.  Where did I go wrong?  Carrot?  Carrot. Ugh.
• Travel plazas are a welcome break from driving.  They sell all kinds of wonders such as sleeveless collared shirts, knives, and a giant rag doll, among other local treats and the usual junk-food offerings.  So fun to look around when you’re punchy from 12-plus hours of travel.  I narrowly avoided a truly idiotic purchase around 12:30 this morning –  It never hurts to remind yourself, “You do not need to purchase clothing from a travel plaza.”

• We have so much to see and so little time to do it.  I am doing my best to be present, to see this trip through the kids’ eyes, to slow down, to go with the flow, to throw the “plan” out the window (teacher friends –  this is so hard because we are major control freaks) and to remember we are making memories at every turn in the road.  We are so very  fortunate to have this opportunity to experience this all together.

Until tomorrow…

“Into the great wide open. Under them skies of blue. Out in the great wide open. A rebel without a clue.”

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers