Stoney Creek Inn Sioux City

Happy birthday Nick! 25 years young. Unfortunately on his birthday we had to drive 10 hours. We left at 11am to Warrensburg, MO to deliver our bunnies, Maggie and Sam to Kristin. She is a nice girl who responded to my craiglist ad to foster our bunnies. She has ...

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.

... Motorcycle Colors Not Allowed" in bar windows and "Beware Of Rattlesnakes" signs everywhere. Question of the Day: What the heck does 'Motorcycle Colors Not Allowed' mean? Cultural Experience: Ate lunch at an Arbys with a small casino in the back Observation: The ...

... I wasn't that impressed. And I walked out of the Mall of America empty handed. Yes, I didn't buy one thing. (Chris is now happy, knowing our bank account is safe.) Sioux City had a great little theatre. Actually, it wasn't little at all, but it was very quaint. Here is a picture of our dressing room. It was a great, full crowd. You could tell they really enjoyed the show. Too bad, the critique who was also there did not...

... We had another quirk-filled day in South Dakota. Immediately upon entering Highway 90 East out of Rapid City, we were inundated with signs advertising Wall Drug 51 miles away in Wall, S.D., so of course we set our GPS for a stop. If you aren't familiar with Wall Drug, it is tourist attraction with the same advertising zeal (we saw our first billboard in Wyoming actually) and general road trip stop appeal as South of the Border, but with a Western town theme. It ...

... I've ever had, Chris had a coffee and a Fish O'Fillet - all for $7. As always, finding the hotel couldn't have been simpler - the signage is always excellent. It does a free cocktail each at 5.30pm so I've got to finish now to dash off to try them. Apparently they are $1 thereafter - so they are either gonna be awful or it's a ploy to get businessmen to stay here with the company paying for the room. I'll tell you tomorrow.

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.