Once again, apologies for the late update. We're driving huge distances pretty much every day now (as those of you following our progress with a map may have figured) and arriving in motels quite late, so this is really the first chance we've had in a few days!


Friday 24th June

Not the most exciting of days; we spent the whole day in the car getting from Ashtabula to Chicago. The only thing of any note was when our trusty sat nav decided to take us onto a closed road, a fact that slowly dawned on us as we noticed that for a highway on the outskirts of one of the largest cities in the country, no other cars and no street lights was a little bit odd, as was the stretch of road to our left that climbed up as if to be a bridge and then stopped abruptly. Luckily the road we were on was still driveable.


Saturday 25th June

We spent pretty much the whole of Saturday exploring Chicago, our first stop being the Adler Planetarium, which kept us amused for a couple of hours, our behaviour tumbling to that of four unsupervised school children. From there we walked along the waterfront aiming for downtown Chicago and in particular Millenium Park - we even checked a map before we set off to work out where we might be going. This seemed to be a great idea, apart from our disorganised minds had a small problem with the concept of scale, and we ended up walking about twice as far as we needed to, before having to double back through Chicago to eventually stumble upon the park. The main feature of the park, and certainly the thing that amused us for far longer than it should have done, is The Bean, a sculpture by a British artist which is basically a giant mirror in the shape of a more giant bean.
Our next intended stop in our grand tour was the Willis Tower, which, being the tallest building in the United States of America, we found remarkably difficult to actually track down (this could only be possible with us). Just as we were giving up hope, we headed for a skyscraper that looked fairly big and got lucky. Now, our regular readership may be aware that we have already seen the fantastic panorama from the top of the Empire State Building. The Willis Tower is several storeys higher, and we can faithfully report that it has a very nice lobby and gift shop.
Sightseeing mostly complete, we got back into the Millenium She-Dave (yes, we named the car) and a few hours later arrived in Madison, Wisconsin, and somehow landed a king-size bed. Well, Simon and Ed got a king-size bed. Tim and Guy got the sofa.

HOD: Guy for climbing the concave 8/9 ft wall on the waterfront.
DOD: For making the bathroom unsuitable for human use for quite some time.

Sunday 26th June

Another driving day, about 7 hours from Madison to Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Wisonsin gave us beautiful scenery for the first hour or so, with dramatic forested hills and the vastness of the Mississippi. However, it wasn't long before we joined Interstate 90, which our guidebook warned us was one of the dullest roads in America. We can verify this claim. Have a look on Google Maps - it really is that straight, for the best part of 300 miles. Dead straight, very flat, and absolutely sod all in the way of scenery, unless crops are your thing.

DOD: Ed for blocking the toilet.

Monday 27th June
The Not-Very-Good Day

Apart from Ed banging his head in the gym, Monday got off to a good start! We deduced that Sioux Falls must have got its name somehow, and successfully found the predictably named Sioux Falls. We had a pleasant couple of hours taking pictures and scrambling over rocks, until more bad luck befell Ed as he slipped and gashed his shin on the exact same spot where he'd grazed it in Havana. With Ed plastered up, we spent another hour or so exploring and scrambling, then set off in search of lunch. Appetites sated, we headed out onto the highway. We haven't listed all of the car's faults here, but one of them is that occasionally the automatic gearbox becomes a trifle indecisive, and flits between any two gears of its choosing. Well this time, it decided it didn't like the top gear, or the gear below that, or the gear below that, or the gear below that, until eventually it decided that forward motion was considerably over-rated and stopping right here seemed quite an appealing option thank-you-very-much. Many sighs were sighed and heads were held in hands, until Ed and Tim took it upon themselves to walk back to the town we'd just left in search of suitable phone numbers of knights in shining armour.
After a brief walk, a police car approached us, and to cut a long story short, the highway patrol officer in said vehicle saved our backsides. He called a tow truck to come and get us, called up a local garage he trusted and then stayed with us making sure everything ran smoothly, even giving Ed and Tim a lift to the garage when there wasn't enough room in the tow truck (we were tempted to just upload a picture of us in a police car and say nothing but we thought that might annoy some of you). After a brief wait in the lobby of Sioux Empire Automotive, the diagnosis was delivered: an entire new transmission, and $1600 please. It wouldn't be done until the following day, so the garage very kindly gave us a lift back to our motel of the previous night. "Hooray!", we hear you cry, "it all worked out in the end after all!" Oh, dear reader, how wrong you are.
Upon arriving back at the front desk of the motel, we were told that we needed to be 21 to book a room, despite the fact that the rather dim-witted girl on the front desk had our booking from the night before on the screen in front of her, and we later found out that this law only applies to South Dakotan residents. Still, in this country rules is rules, and the man from the garage kindly gave us a lift to a less strict motel around the corner. With an evening to kill, we decided to wander into town in search of stamps so we could send a select few of you lovely people postcards (yes, we know the ones from Cuba still haven't arrived). We found a post office, and then toddled across to KFC for dinner so we could tick another fast-food chain off (we're trying to eat at every one before leaving America). While there we found some free wi-fi, so we thought we'd cheer ourselves up by using their interwebs to download Top Gear. Two hours and one failed download later, we stumbled dejectedly back to our motel room, hoping the next day would be an improvement.

DOD: Ed - cutting his leg (a repeat offence)


Tuesday 28th June

With the car fixed and our wallets lighter, we hit the road again aiming for Badlands National Park. After a few more dull hours on the infernal I90, the miles upon miles of rolling plains (not even farmland anymore) very suddenly and very dramatically gave way to the most stunning landscapes we've seen so far this trip. Words cannot do the craggy red canyons of Badlands justice, we hope our pictures convey at least some of the drama. We stayed in the park till late so as to see the sunset and then watch the stars come out in clear skies. Having watched the fireflies flit about the fields to a chorus of cicadas, we drove to a motel and charmed ourselves another discount.

HOD: Simon for spotting the signs to the trail that took us through the heart of the Badlands.
DOD: Simon for leaving the key in the car overnight.


Wednesday 29th June

This was a long but enjoyable day. In the morning we headed back to the Badlands and did another trail, taking more pictures and generally being stunned by the scenery and the wildlife. The sheer drama of the morning made the next leg of I90 bearable as we headed towards the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore itself proved to be rather underwhelming as it first poked its four faces out from between the beautiful pine-carpeted valleys of the Black Hills; the monument itself takes up far less of the mountain than you might think. Our original intention was to briefly stop off, admire the monument from afar while taking pictures and making suitably touristy comments, then hit the road again, but having been charged $11 for parking we decided we may as well go up close, where the monument did become more impressive. From there it was another couple of hours in the car into Wyoming and the Devil's Tower, which has to be one of the most surreal rock formations we've ever seen, partly due to its sheer size and the almost completely flat land surrounding it.
While we don't deny that these all made an amazing day, they paled into comparison when we sat down for dinner in a restaurant somewhere off the highway and were greeted with the words, "Would you like some free pie?" Ecstasy doesn't begin to cover it. Appetites pampered, we ended the night in Buffalo Wyoming.

DOD: Tim for forgetting to put the filler cap back on after fuelling up.




Our swamp barbeque!



The Bean

He's doing exactly what it looks like...

Guy, mid backflip

:(

The Badlands...indescribable

What a poser

RATTLESNAKES?!

Us, mimicking the monument

The kind of roads we have to deal with