For those that were wondering, we did find a hotel last night about 45 minutes West of our planned destination. Every hotel told us it was the ONLY hotel with rooms left without having to drive to Iowa. We quickly found out why. Trains ran ALL night through the town on two tracks one of which was one block from our hotel. And did you know that when a train runs through the middle of a town it blows its horn VERY LOUDLY. I think this might end up being worse than the camping! I am happy to report that today we are in a Ramada with an indoor pool AND indoor putt putt.

Today was a shorter driving day -- only 9 hours instead of 13. We saw A LOT of corn fields in Iowa. Besides being amazed at how FLAT Iowa is, we were all mesmerized by the large number of wind farms that went on for miles. I tried taking a picture while the car was moving but it doesn't do it justice. We made it to Mitchell, South Dakota, home of the Corn Palace, a building made out of corn -- who thinks of these things? Auguste saw a herd of bison shortly after we crossed the state line -- a big thrill. About a 3 hour drive to the Badlands tomorrow, our first real destination!



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