Three States

Tuesday 01 September 2015

Our room in Sioux Falls was surprisingly quiet considering it was in the middle of the city, we could hear traffic noise and the distant hooting of a train, but nothing to disturb a good nights sleep. Our plan for the day, simply put, was to drive to Minnespolis.

There was no complimentary breakfast at the Holiday Inn, so after a slow start, we set out east on the route 42. We stopped within a couple of miles at a Denny's we just happened upon. We've been joking about having breakfast at Denny's for most of the trip, but because we've had so many complimentary breakfasts, haven't stopped at one. To be truthful we haven't seen many since Seattle.

They have a new 'healthy' menu and their signature breakfast offering of the 'Grand Slam' meal is quite well hidden. I found it. It consists of two very thin rashers of streaky bacon, two minuscule (smaller than chipolatas) sausages, two eggs (sunny-side up, over easy, scrambled or omelette) and two buttermilk pancakes. This apparently adds up to 840 calories, always assuming you don't smother your pancakes with maple syrup. Oh, and as much coffee as you can consume without leaking. I can confirm it was delicious and removed the need to find lunch later.

Lynn, on the other hand, decided that she should try the healthy option rather appropriately called, 'The a Invisible Woman Breakfast'. I almost wet myself when it arrived! The first plate had bacon, a hash brown and two eggs over easy. The second plate had two buttermilk pancakes covered in strawberries and bananas. It looked huge compared to my breakfast. I have the pictures to prove it, even Lynn was laughing!

Following this gastronomic orgy, we waddled out of Denny's and got in the car to head for Minnespolis. Our route, and I confess this was my suggestion, took us east on route 42 until it crossed into Iowa, another new state for us. After a quick stop for the now obligatory photo, we continued East on what had become the route 9. This took us through mainly dairy and cereal farms in rolling countryside through Larchwood to the small town of Rock Rapids. Here we turned north up route 75 towards Luverne. Nine miles later, we crossed into the State of Minnesota, our fourth new State of the trip. I usually reckon I've not visited a state unless I've had a beer there, but I'll have to make an exception for Iowa. Beer at 1030 whilst driving didn't seem appropriate.

Once at Luverne, we joined 'Old Faithful' the I-90 yet again. We had decided that we'd do Interstate the rest of the way as there wasn't much to see. We didn't even have a map of Minnesota (and still don't) so relied on going on the I-90 and the I-35 all the way. This cost us about 40 miles as we should have cut across country on the mainly 4-lane highway, the route 60. Take note should you ever pass this way!

The I-90 was pretty dull to be honest. We stopped briefly at Blue Earth ( really this a place name) for a comfort break before we met the I-35 at Albert Lea, another good place name. Here we turned North towards Minnespolis and left the I-90 for the last time. The remainder of the journey was uneventful. We did encounter several sets of raid work on both Interstates. Each involved long stretches of driving in one lane on the opposite carriageway. Due to the lack of cross-over points, these sections of road works were often 10 - 15 miles long. Even though this was a 'contra flow' with no barriers between traffic lanes, the speed limit is still 60mph for all traffic. It seems to work well too.

By 1630, we'd managed to find our hotel, the Comfort Inn, next the the I-494 and Minnespolis/St Paul's International airport. We are booked in for two nights. The hotel is comfortable, if a bit shabby, and we have a ground floor room. The hotel has an Outback restaurant attached to it. It also has a swimming pool and complimentary breakfast.

Having emptied the car into our room. We took a trip to the local Walmart. Does this have a familiar sound to it? Sadly for Lynn, there was no 'material' section, so it was a very quick visit. Having failed here, we decided to go the Mall of the Americas, a huge indoor mall, like Meadowhall, only far bigger. So much bigger, in fact, it had a full sized indoor theme park in the middle! There are at least three rollercoasters, a log flume and several other large, rather scary rides there.

We didn't buy anything or go on any rides, but did watch the splash down part of the log flume for a while. Having exhausted this pastime, we plucked up courage and went for dinner at Bubba Gump's Shrimp House. We ate shrimps just because you should. Now we have to plan how to find several craft shops, the premium outlet centre and a Cabelas outdoor shop for tomorrow.

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