Westward Ho!: Decorah and Sioux Falls
A very short distance out of Chicago and the US starts to feel different. It’s not just the change in landscape, or the thinning traffic, or the striking demographic shift… but those all certainly contribute. There’s been a lot of Alison Krauss and Andrew Bird playing in the car.
From Chicago you very quickly end up in Wisconsin, which as far as we can tell is one giant highway construction project. Lots of orange construction barriers, zero cheese. Do not recommend (except as another first on Zeynep’s state list).
We did make another stop at a Walmart, one of several such stops thus far for resupply. Many moons ago I worked for the labor union trying to organize Walmart, and I still have strong negative feelings about the company. But when you’re many, many miles from, say, Washington DC or Chicago, they’re impossible to beat for convenience. My picket-line organizing past self rolls in his grave, but also enjoys a diverse selection of auto parts, beer, and shower shoes.
We finally emerged from Wisconsin into the far northeastern corner of Iowa, another first for Zeynep, two in one day! I went to college just across the border from Iowa, but on the southern end, and up north was a much more pleasant, less pig-smelling place. We were stopping in Decorah to visit a college professor of mine and her family, and had a fantastic evening of cold beverages at the local brewery, meandering conversations about the old and the new, and first-class pizza from Mabe’s. As a bonus we also got sweet hoodies from their family’s John Deere business!
Today we cruised through the southern edge of Minnesota on our way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota (another Zeynep first!), a stopover on our way tomorrow to Badlands National Park. Turns out the southern part of Minnesota and this corner of South Dakota are swarming with wind turbines, hundreds of them as far as the eye can see. Oddly beautiful machines.
In closing, this may be the last post you get from us, ever, because we may be driving into a bitter(ly cold) end. Over the last couple of days, the forecast has taken a frightening turn, so when we arrive at Badlands tomorrow it’s supposed to be 79F/26C, but by Thursday it will be 14F/-10C. I’ve been reading a lot on the Airstream blogs about how to not freeze all of the pipes, and because it’s the Internet every possible solution is proposed, with zeal. We’ll see.
