the drive

Well, we covered a lot of miles in Colorado, and then Nebraska, and then South Dakota before we stopped for the night on day one.  I think if you added up the populations of every community we drove through you wouldn't find as many people as live in our complex in China.

Here we are at a brief pit stop in North Platte, Nebraska.  One of our favorite read-alouds from the past year was Bound for Oregon, and we were familiar with the Platte River.

From North Platte we left I-80 and headed north east for I-90.  It was gorgeous.  Mostly state highway, some county roads.  Nobody, and I mean NOBODY else was there.

Just south of the South Dakota state line we stopped for a little stretch break.  The nice thing about these long lonely back roads is we can stop just about anywhere the road widens enough to give us a spot to pull over :) [I'm pretty sure this is the head of the driveway for whoever lives in that farmhouse in the distance.]

We stopped for the night in Mitchell, South Dakota (no time for the corn palace, maybe next trip....) and woke ready to roll again!

Just a few hundred miles and we were crossing the line into Home Sweet North Dakota.

Seriously.  After 13 years married to a North Dakotan, I can say this feels a bit like home.  And the picture doesn't do it justice.

What a drive!  It's been fun times and happy reunions since we arrived...