Day 3 - Wednesday, Sept 5 - Cedar Rapids, IA to Murdo, SD
Starting mileage: 1070 Starting time: 8:00 am
Ending mileage: 1639 Ending time: 5:30 pm
Travel mileage: 569 Travel time: 9:30 hours
Pouring rain when we left this morning but fortunately it didn't last too long. It sprinkled lightly until we got to Minnesota. We could see signs of flooding along the rivers that we passed. It was not nearly as hot today, with temperatures only in the 70s - a relief.
As we got to northern Iowa we started to see large wind farms and by the time we got to South Dakota, passed a number of wind farms with 50 to 100+ turbines. GO WIND! At one of the rest areas there were two trucks with turbine blades which are each longer than 3 semi-trailers. They have a set of wheels at the back that are steered by the van following the truck. At one point we were behind one of these trucks and it was interesting seeing them navigate around corners.
One of the items on our bucket list was the World's Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The Corn Palace has been in operation since the late 1800s when it was initiated to promote agricultural products and attract visitors. It currently has huge murals inside and out that are made from 325,000 ears of colorful corn that are sliced in half. It was quite impressive to visit.
The terrain and agriculture until we got to Mitchell was pretty much as it had been, fairly level and growing corn and soybeans. After Mitchell it changed with rolling hills (very slight) and cattle grazing. Billboards suggested that we should eat South Dakota beef. We also passed red fields of sorghum and bright yellow fields of sunflowers.
During most of the trip with speed limits of 65 and 70, traffic moved along at 5-10 mph above the speed limit. Once we got into South Dakota, the speed limit was 80mph, enough for me and most of the drivers.
We wanted to visit the Minuteman Missile National Monument first thing in the morning and are staying in Murdo, SD, the closest town on the way that had hotels. It is unfortunately a pretty dreary worn down town. We are staying at a Super 8 with a musty-smelling room. We had hoped to have a nice steak dinner but there were just a few poorly rated restaurants on TripAdvisor.
The first few weeks and the first day of our trip we were getting 32-33mpg in our new car but for the past two days we've only gotten 26mpg. There was a metallic "clunk" under the car yesterday and hope that nothing has broken.
Ending mileage: 1639 Ending time: 5:30 pm
Travel mileage: 569 Travel time: 9:30 hours
Pouring rain when we left this morning but fortunately it didn't last too long. It sprinkled lightly until we got to Minnesota. We could see signs of flooding along the rivers that we passed. It was not nearly as hot today, with temperatures only in the 70s - a relief.
As we got to northern Iowa we started to see large wind farms and by the time we got to South Dakota, passed a number of wind farms with 50 to 100+ turbines. GO WIND! At one of the rest areas there were two trucks with turbine blades which are each longer than 3 semi-trailers. They have a set of wheels at the back that are steered by the van following the truck. At one point we were behind one of these trucks and it was interesting seeing them navigate around corners.
One of the items on our bucket list was the World's Only Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. The Corn Palace has been in operation since the late 1800s when it was initiated to promote agricultural products and attract visitors. It currently has huge murals inside and out that are made from 325,000 ears of colorful corn that are sliced in half. It was quite impressive to visit.
The terrain and agriculture until we got to Mitchell was pretty much as it had been, fairly level and growing corn and soybeans. After Mitchell it changed with rolling hills (very slight) and cattle grazing. Billboards suggested that we should eat South Dakota beef. We also passed red fields of sorghum and bright yellow fields of sunflowers.
During most of the trip with speed limits of 65 and 70, traffic moved along at 5-10 mph above the speed limit. Once we got into South Dakota, the speed limit was 80mph, enough for me and most of the drivers.
We wanted to visit the Minuteman Missile National Monument first thing in the morning and are staying in Murdo, SD, the closest town on the way that had hotels. It is unfortunately a pretty dreary worn down town. We are staying at a Super 8 with a musty-smelling room. We had hoped to have a nice steak dinner but there were just a few poorly rated restaurants on TripAdvisor.
The first few weeks and the first day of our trip we were getting 32-33mpg in our new car but for the past two days we've only gotten 26mpg. There was a metallic "clunk" under the car yesterday and hope that nothing has broken.
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| Day 3 map |
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| Turbine blade on the move |
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| Corn Palace |
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