Day Two of the Cross Country Trip

The second day, we slept in. We had developed a plan the previous night to wake up around 8, get breakfast, and then go to the City Museum before we left. Sadly, when we woke it was closer to 10. It was much needed sleep though, as sitting in the car for hours is surprisingly tiring. We went to breakfast with Alex at the Shack, a really cool restaurant, and we all wrote our names on the wall, among the thousands of other names. I got chicken and waffles, which was exquisite. We took pictures in front of the "BACON" sign, learned not to ask guys for pictures, as the pictures were not that great, and then got a better one outside.

Then I bought three movies and an old St Louis Rams jersey from the thrift store for a grand total of $6. Solid purchase. We were running late so we had to cut the City Museum sadly. It pained us all to do so, but it was simply necessary. Mark drove through a hail storm all the way through Missouri, until we stopped to do handstands and pushups at a gas station, then went to Target. I purchased gum and Connor spent 15 minutes deciding which $2 toothbrush was the best, since he thought he lost his. He actually did not lose it but hey, now he has a spare. Kansas City had cool bridges, almost as nice as Louisville's, but not quite. When Danny was driving it was just a desert of fields, with a little mountain/hill range to the right of us.

We also saw lots of signs that were broken, and our collective guess as to the root of their destruction was a tornado, as there seriously were lots of broken signs. We stopped in Little Sioux, a town known for nothing, but extremely nice nonetheless. I peed on the railroad tracks and we did more push ups. Overall solid experience. Then we went driving in search of Sioux Falls. Now that was an adventure. South Dakota had an 80 mph speed limit so that was extremely nice for getting around. Mark doesn't know how to use directions apparently, so we almost were there, drove a couple miles the other way, then finally went back and found them. The whole dilemma was that Sioux Falls is both the name of an actual city, and of the falls. So we arrived at the city, realized it was clearly not the falls, and then Mark decided that the falls were actually three miles back. We drove back, and then realized that the falls were actually only 4 blocks away from where we were initially, before we drove back. The search was worth it though because the falls were really cool.

They were fairly similar to Great Falls in Virginia, but you could actually get much closer to these. There was a little picnic spot with wifi, and we all used the wifi to FaceTime our families and shove cold cuts down our throat. Except Danny, of course, as he is vegan. There was also a bridge across the river, and Mark was throwing goldfish to me from the picnic spot to the bridge, and I was exhibiting my skill of catching food in my mouth. Next, we climbed around the falls and then realized that we should definitely try to find out where we were spending the night, as it was already very dark. As we were pulling out of the parking lot for the falls, my brand new Hydroflask got destroyed. Like run over destroyed. By the Connor Walls. It happens. I shook it off. It did save the pillows though, as we realized those were still on the roof after we picked up my Hydro. Connor drove a little more, then we just pulled over on the side of the interstate and I started driving. It was a very easy drive, even though I took over around 10:30. While I was very tired, Mark was my DJ for a little while and kept me hype, and he only snoozed off like once. Connor and Danny were fast asleep though. I don't blame them. I ended up driving through the second time change, so at least we gained an hour. Mark woke Connor and Danny, and at about 12:30 AM Mountain Time, we decided to pull off the interstate randomly and I drove down a random road. I cannot emphasize enough how absolutely lost we were, on an unknown dirt road in South Dakota, in the middle of the night. The stars looked insane, mainly because there were no lights nearby to interfere with them. We ended up pulling over and we camped with lots of weapons, just in case, and I was on the inside, so I was cozy.