Sonya's Blog - Day 11 - Driving to Kansas City

Sonya’s Blog - Day 11 - July 3rd - Driving from Sioux Falls to Kansas City

Well we got up early and made breakfast then got the kids up so we could go to the Falls, but still get a decent start on the road - it is another 6 hour road trip. We made it to the Falls for 8. It was a foggy morning so I wasn’t sure how clear the falls would be, but it wasn’t so foggy around the Falls. The kids really liked them, as did Kizmet, so we hung around there for a bit and got some pictures. We headed over to the Falls Overlook Cafe hoping to grab a Latte, but they were not open until 11. There was also a ruined building that overlooked the Falls and we went to investigate. I thought it may be the remnants of a fort, but it was from an old mill that was built on the Sioux River. It was state of the art, but things didn’t go as planned and it only lasted 2 years. Various people bought it after that, but could never turn a profit and it fell into ruin and then burnt down. They left the remnants there as a reminder of the determination of the original founders.

We got on the road by 9:15 and I started off the driving. I thought we just had to head out on the I-90 again, but I was wrong. We didn’t figure this out until I was already on the road. Kansas City is South of Sioux Falls, not East. Instead of turning around and heading for the main interstate we took some secondary highways to make our way south. We went through some really pretty country and managed to cross over into Minnesota as well. Today we will be in 6 States, due to my unplanned detour. We started in South Dakota, then Minnesota, then Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas and finally Missouri. Kansas City is on the border of Missouri and Kansas City, but we are staying on the Missouri side. We took a small detour when we got to Omaha, Nebraska as well. Blake wanted to get a picture in front of Warren Buffets house so off we went into the heart of Omaha looking for his house pulling the 5th wheel. Everything was fine until we had to pull off onto a side street which was super narrow and had very large trees growing on either side. That is all fine, except the trees were so big they had made a canopy over the street and it was not high enough for our 5th wheel to clear. We heard the first tree scrape the top of the 5th Wheel and Blake said, “Oh, maybe not such a good plan!” It was a funny corner so we were able to turn around and Blake went through the lights, but all the streets on that side were the same, had to do another U-turn, which took our 5th wheel up on the curb and we got out of there. There was nowhere to park on the main street and walk in so we couldn’t get the picture. Blake was sad:( We found our way out of Omaha and headed back on the highway to Kansas City. 3 more hours to go.

Blake got road weary pretty quick after Omaha, couldn’t take the disappointment of not getting his picture I guess! We turned off and found a gas station and I took over the driving after that. We had 2 more hours to go and I was going to drive one hour and then Blake was going to drive us into Kansas City as our campground was on the East side, not the west which meant we would have to drive through it. Blake really wanted Dairy Queen, so we were looking for one of those, but then decided it was getting too late and we should just go to the campground. By this time I had passed the last rest stop and we were in Kansas City and there was still an hour to go (we are camping in Oak Grove, outside of Kansas City). So there I am pulling Smaug at 5 PM on a Friday heading into a pretty big city. The best part was all the road construction on the bridges and the lanes being super narrow and jogging everytime we went over a bridge, in rush hour! So good. I managed not to scrape anything or hit any cars, so that was a huge relief. We went over a pretty cool bridge:

Picture of the Kit Bond Bridge:

There was really no where to stop so I just kept on driving all the way to the campground. The rush hour was not so bad and when we got to the campground we found out it is because the Friday was a holiday for a lot of people so the traffic was lighter. Well thank goodness for that because it was stressful enough. I would really like to plan our trips better so that we are not arriving in large centres at rush hour, arriving no later than 3 would be preferable. My kids already think we get out too early, but let me tell you that lots of people pack up and are out of their campgrounds by 6 to 7 AM, so we are hardly Speedy Gonzales!

The campground is nice, but is off the I-70 so we can here the traffic. We have the fans going, so that muffles it a bit. There are no fireworks allowed in the campground, so hopefully the 4th of July will be okay for Kizmet. However, there is residential all around us so I am sure there will be fireworks close by. Poor Kizzy, so scared of the loud noises. Isaac had to race to the bathroom when we arrived so I had to wait around for him while Blake and Natasha went to the campsite - at all the KOA’s in the States someone escorts you to your site and he was ready to go. When Isaac and I arrived we found out about the drama that happened. There is a family in the next campsite with a pitbull that charged at our escort guy and bit his hand. The lady was holding the dogs leash and the dog pulled her right off the bench and she scraped up the whole side of her arm. The escort guy was not hurt, but shaken up and he gave them a stern warning about their dog - not allowed to be out of the camper except to go to the bathroom and on a 2 foot leash only. Not very excited about it, let me tell you. The lady talked to Blake later about the dog and said “he is usually not so aggressive”, well aggressive enough for us, thanks all the same! The are heading to Georgia, from Washington, to see their son who is in the military, so they will probably be gone in the morning. That will probably be for the best.

We managed to get supper and go to DQ for Blake’s ice cream fix. The DQ is just across the interstate, so really easy to get to. It is in a massive truck stop, I have never seen so many semi’s in one area. There is a store there and it is stocked with stuff for professional drivers. It was fun to walk around and look at all the stuff, the big steering wheels, organizers and lots of stuff to make their drive more comfortable. They had a games room and a movie theatre up stairs for the drivers. They also had all 7 of the Smoky and the Bandit movies, Blake was tempted to buy them. I didn’t know there were 7 of them, I thought there were 2 - tops! The guy in front of us when we were in line for the DQ told Tash that the double brownie delight, or something like that, blizzard was the best and that was what he was here to buy. Then he corrected and said it was great in Virginia, so should be here. He was a truck driver so we were talking to him a bit. He was on his way to Portland, Oregon so he still had a long way to go. He said he didn’t really get to see the country as he just drove it and you don’t really get to see much when you have schedules to keep. Natasha took his advice and got the brownie blizzard and was happy, it was very tasty.

That is about it for our adventures on July 3rd. Independence Day tomorrow, should be interesting.

Sonya