Tuesday, May 20, 2008

A New One Day Distance Record: 495 miles!

Listening to the weatherman Monday night it sounded like we had planned well. Tuesday would be one of the very few days with very little wind.

We got up and on the road early, Tuesday.

Everyone was in the routine now and so with the driving easy without wind, we were averaging 60 mph, only stopping when Ken needed a bio-break a couple of times.

Ken and I had talked about wanting to stop at Lewis and Clark State Park someday along the southern edge of Iowa and so as we neared Sioux Falls we decided to head south and make that park our destination.

We pulled in to the state park late afternoon, having logged 495 miles in a little over 8 hours, a new one day mileage record for Ken and Baby!!

We were very pleased with what we found. Level, shaded sites, right on the water.



This park seems to be getting ongoing facelifts with this lodge in its last phases of construction. It already looks almost like a postcard!



The guys started a fire and decided the site’s brand new firepit/grates would work well for cooking over the open fire.

After supper, the boys did their workouts. I have been really impressed with how committed these guys have been to maintaining daily workouts while on the trip. They get creative on their workouts based on the terrain around them and space they have to work with. Ken got this picture of them doing their version of a ‘medicine ball’ workout. They took my exercise ball, removed the air and instead filled it with water. It took all I could do just to lift the thing off the ground but they did variations of throwing it as part of their strength routine.


Another part of this park the guys really enjoyed, was having nice clean, hot showers after their workout without having to take turn's in Baby's rather confined shower space.

We ended the evening sitting around the fire under with a full moon rising over the waters. Ken and I are sure this is a park where we'd like to spend many days if we had the time and so now it will be on our 'Future Destinations List' for a return trip.

We’ve decided since we like this park so much we’ll sleep in tomorrow and make it a short travel day just as far as the Amana Colonies.

Hugs, C

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