Link Family Vacation - 2007: raceday

Vacation 2007

Who would have thought that I would come up with an idea like this? Camping!!! Me??? Well, when you consider the great opportunity for our family to be together, the whole camping idea just made more and more sense. Here's our schedule for the week. I'll be posting updates and pics daily. Good or bad, you will know how the week is going. Please email or post your comments. We'd love to hear from you. Sunday, June 3 - Depart Dubuque for Watertown, SD where we will meet our good friends, Earl and Sandy Benson. We'll be at the Casino Raceway that evening for the races. Earl owns the track. Monday, June 4 - The trip to the Black Hills now truly begins. We drive from Watertown to Piedmont, SD. Along the way, we have a stop scheduled at Wall Drug, the world's largest drug store. At Piedmont, we will be staying the night in the travel trailer we've rented. Tuesday, June 5 - Travel from Piedmont, SD to Hill City, SD. After being checked out by the rental company mechanics that our Suburban is okay for hauling, we will drive the 45 miles to the Mt. Rushmore KOA. The day will be exploring the KOA and perhaps seeing the evening lighting of Mt. Rushmore. Wednesday, June 6 - No real plans. More to come. Thursday, June 7 - Ditto Friday, June 8 - Reservations on the 1880 Train that runs from Hill City to Hayward, SD. Chaz is really excited about this. Saturday, June 9 - No plans Sunday, June 10 - No plans. Monday, June 11 - Return the trailer to Piedmont and drive to Sioux City, IA. Tuesday, June 12 - Day trips around the Sioux City area. Lewis and Clarke will be a main topic of discussion. Spend time with our good friend Ann and her kids. Wednesday, June 13 - After a visit to the Jolly Time popcorn factory, we depart Sioux City for Dubuque, IA with a brief stop at Loring Hospital in Sac City, IA to see our good friends there.

Monday, June 4, 2007

Day 1 - Off to South Dakota

Sunday, June 3 and we are off to South Dakota. My plan was to leave by 9. At 10, we pulled out of the driveway...that was okay, because in order to put the pod on top of the Suburban, I had to pull it out of the garage and it was raining until about 9:45.

Here's Chaz ready to drive the trip himself.

Anyways, after a quick stop at a nearby convenience store for coffee, donuts, breakfast pizza, candy and juice, we were off.

The trip to Watertown was very uneventful. We did hit some serious rainstorms along the way, but I took the cruise control off and slowed to 60 so we were completely safe. :-)

If you ever stop in Blue Earth, MN you will see this 80 foot statue of the Jolly Green Giant. Also, the Country Kitchen is pretty good there too.

We arrived in Watertown, SD about 6:20 pm. Total distance from Dubuque - 490 miles. Gas is $3.24/gal here. Cheapest gas I saw along the way was $2.99 at a truckstop just as you cross into Minnesota from Iowa.

We are staying at the Holiday Inn Express here in Watertown. This is were I stay on business and its nice plus they also have an indoor waterpark. As we unpacked, we realized that the pod isn't completely waterproof, so as Teri took wet clothing to the drier, I took the kids for a quick romp in the waterpark. Happy to report that nobody was seriously injured while I was in charge.

Then it was off to the Casino Speedway for races for the night. What a great time we had!

Earl Benson and his wife Sandy own the "world headquarters of speed" and they do a great job.

Here's some scenes from the night at the track:

Me and Earl

Chaz checks out the action from Tower Terrace.

Here they come! Around turn 4!

Me and the kidsTeri and the kids...Noah's new buddy Garret is on the left.

The races ended at 10:30. If you have never been to a dirt track raceway, you really need to go. The noise of the cars, the action and the driving are awesome, especially with the modifieds and the late models...Wow! Teri's comment to me was "We are now official race fans." She loved it and wants to go the Dubuque Fairgrounds when we get back.

We all crashed when we got back to our room at the hotel. Tomorrow, we head for "the hills."