Back to back is brutal

Yesterday was a pretty tough day in the car.  We have front loaded the first two days of the trip with the two longest driving days.  Between Sunday and Monday we have logged over 1650 miles, the first time I have ever gone that far in that short of a time.  The Missouri portion of the drive was the worst, it seemed like we were stuck in the state the majority of the day.

The day was filled almost exclusively with endless road lines.  The highlights were the few times we got to get out of the car. We stopped at a very pretty rest stop in Kentucky that was housed on an old historic site.

Our final destination yesterday was Omaha.  We did not get in until about 8PM local time.  It was so late we just stopped at a Paneras on the way in and got a to go order which we ate in our room.

Both Cindy and I were beat from two days of marathon driving.  Your body does not enjoy being in the seated position for double digit hours at a time.  Each time I get out of the car I walk like an 80 year old as my tight IT band refuses to release.

The place we stayed at last night was a renovated and rebranded Hampton Inn.  The place was clean, nice and priced very reasonably. The only negative was water pressure that felt like light rain. Since hotel accommodations are going to by far be the biggest expense of the trip, we are looking to score bargains wherever possible without having to dip into the bottom tier of hotel providers (Econolodge, America Best Value, Microtel, etc…)

Today our destination is Rapid City in South Dakota, our staging point for our visit to Mt Rushmore tomorrow.  On the way there we will be stopping at Wall Drug, one of the biggest tourist traps in the midwest.  Now that we have the two worst driving days out of the way we are looking forward to getting more opportunity to enjoy the new surroundings.