Clarion Sioux City Hotel

... own rabbitry and knows a lot about them.
They disliked the car ride and I disliked saying goodbye.
Due to construction, we drove around Kansas City for 2 hours.

Celebrated Nick's birthday by going out for drinks at a chill bar.

Today we departed early from Chicago...a fine and sunny Chicago!...for Iowa. Pretty much a day of transition with a few surprises. The country side is wonderful to look at as it is full of corn and soy bean fields. We stopped mid morning in a place called Galena. Galena is like a time warp ...a better description is that it looks like a movie set with fake looking buildings but it is a real town. The historical significance is that the ...

... across South Dakota to our destination for the night, the North Sioux City KOA Kampground. On the way, Maggie pointed out that we were going right by the famous Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. It's listed in the book 1000 Places To See Before You Die. So of course, we had to stop. The local corn farmers have been decorating this with corn cobs and corn husks after the harvest each year since 1892.

... between Rapid City and Sioux Falls SD is like driving around Ritzville for 5 hours at 80 miles an hour. On the iPod: Not much of anything today...not sure why that is. Compensation for an oops: Bob got his photo take in front of a fake Mt. Rushmore at Wall Drug.

Have any of you been to the Mall of America? Well, we stopped there for lunch today. I was so excited to experience the materialism of America. You know, I walked around that thing for 2 hours. It is just a mall, only bigger. Yeah, they had some neat stores, but it was just a mall. And yeah, they did have a roller coaster in the center, but I wasn't about to get on that thing with all the screaming kiddies. So needless to ...

... 5 cents. It provided a plethora of kitschy picture opportunities for the O'Briens - including lots of hats...Abby was a sport. Apparently Wall Drug employees and patrons had never seen a baby in a Bjorn carrier because Ann received a number of slant glances and comments about carrying her baby in "that thing." Next we drove through Badlands National Park. Paul and Ann had been there seperately a number of years ago, but we had a nice drive through the ...

Another sunny day and once packed a trip back to the airport Alamo service centre and they were expecting us!! Dave took the car away and was back in 10 mins - which makes you wonder how much UK garages must make on these things. We'd seen a sign to a Zoo coming into Omaha and having seen enough museums and Lewis&Clark stuff thought that might make a nice 2 hour break before we headed north to Sioux City. Five hours later ...

Greetings from Omaha, It is a beautiful town here in Omaha. Everyone here are so friendly and warm. I had a wonderful stay here and I have learnt so much from my visit to Boystown Research Hospital. They are doing great stuff. I just got back from the hotel after the staff's Christmas party and it made me think a lot about the TPS staff and how much I miss working with everyone. I am so looking forward to seeing you all again. (I also have good ideas for next year's ...

... on to Iowa, but we liked it so much we decided to camp here for the night. We found a really cool campground that was right on the Missouri River. We're getting pretty efficient with making/breaking down our camp. Jenny set up the tent while I got water going on the pocket rocket and looked for firewood. Then we got a raging fire going and just sat around it reading and stuff. What a great day! We LOVE Nebraska!!
Day #3 Mileage: 372.8
Total Mileage: 1262.4
Allison

... Nothing much else of interest for the rest of the day, just more driving. We're staying in Dakota Dunes, SD tonight. This town is right on the border with Iowa and Nebraska. We actually ate dinner in Sioux City, IA (just 3 miles down the road) and then headed over the Missouri River to South Sioux City, NE, where we spent about 10 minutes driving around. Now Emily can add Nebraska to her list of states visited.