The Great American Road Trip 2019, Day One

The Great American Road trip, who’s down America!

I’m chunking this up in 1 or 2 Day increments because as usual: I have way too many pictures and verbal diarrhea to share with you.

We initially started planning a trip out East with a few days in the Smoky Mountains, but scrapped that because let’s be honest, late August in the US Southeast is hot and humid and that doesn’t exactly scream “vacation fun times”.

So westward we went instead, gimme that dry heat. I did a rough sketch of driving times vs. vacation days allotted and decided we’d head out to Utah, spend some time in Colorado, then loop back home. And then suddenly work got nuts and all our weekends were booked solid and I found myself with very little time to plan our trip. I booked a few motels/airbnbs for the first half of the trip, looked at a few possible stops/attractions when I had a couple of free evenings to plan, and that was it.

Planning a road trip can be seriously time-consuming, because you not only have to map out driving times, search attractions, book accommodations or campsites, etc. etc. You also have to make packing lists, have meal plans figured out, compile car distractions, what to bring vs. what to buy as needed on the road, all that jazz. So when my planning time felt the squeeze, I focused on what to pack instead of what we were actually going to do.

(As a sidenote I did this Thing where, on especially stressful workdays, I’d go to a nearby grocery store over my lunch hour and just slowly peruse the aisles, poring over all the shelf-stable goods I’ve never given a passing glance in the past but that would potentially work for easy meals on our trip. I ended up picking up bits here and there and I’m gonna give some reviews on some of these babies in every post too, so GET EXCITED. Like only a frugal middle-aged white person can get excited.)

And then suddenly it was Vacation Time, and I felt completely ill prepared. When we left I was expecting a nightmare trip, to be honest. I downloaded a roadtrip app and a few Spotify playlists and prayed for the best.

In the end? It was perfectly fine. Frankly, it probably went better than if I planned all the details. We just kinda kept an eye out for wacky stuff, stopped where we wanted, and took it all in. America, bring it. We’re ready.

Day One: Wisconsin >> Austin, Minnesota >> Sioux Falls, South Dakota (440 miles)

And away we go.

And oh joy, it was rainy.

And it’s summer, which also means: nonstop roadwork.

But honestly it wasn’t the worst, and we were all in a great mood because NO PLANS JUST DRIVING AND HANGING OUT FOR THE NEXT 12 DAYS, BRING IT. Also Pete found this bitchin’ MUR-KA themed Mountain Dew.

Even with the rain and road construction: we hit Minnesota within a few hours.

Aaaaaand: bathroom stop #2 (we took frequent stops, yo). This little rest area had a playground and a garden! I made off with a nice tomato.

We had three or four monster driving days on our schedule, and this was the first one – 7 hours total. The kids did pretty well, thank the lord for magnetic play boards. They played with those things for extended periods of time and played with them every single day. Of all the distractions we brought along, they saw the most use for sure. I mean, aside from their tablets. And screaming. Screaming was by far their favorite car-time distraction.

One of the few things I actually planned was a stop in Austin, Minnesota. It was a good stopping point to take a break and stretch our legs a bit, at about 3 hours into our drive.

First up: some lunch. When digging around online, The Tendermaid came highly recommended. So off we went.

Bask in the glory of the giant loose meat bin in the center of the place.

The staff here was SUPER friendly, by the time we left they knew all the plans for our roadtrip and we knew all about Austin, MN. Also we learned a ton about this restaurant: it’s over 80 years old, family owned and run, and they are famous for their loose meat sandwiches. And for good reason – they are delicious. They give you a spoon with your sandwich and while I thought at first it was just a goofy prop ha ha well: uh no, you’re gonna need it.

When we were finished they sent us off with happy-travel wishes and a handful of Tootsie Rolls for the boys. I am in love with this place.

After lunch we hit the town.

And found the museum of our dreams. Yes, ladies and gentlemen: Austin is the proud home of SPAM, and the one and only SPAM Museum.

(that picture below is the “SPAM Train” and it is a moving train of SPAM that snakes around the building)

The museum is sectioned into various rooms. There’s a playhouse area for the kiddos. And there’s a SPAM history area!

And SPAM around the world!

And you can measure yourself in SPAM!

And you can even pretend you work in the factory, packaging your own SPAM!

They also have people walking around handing out “SPAMples” of their different flavored SPAM on a pretzel stick.

This museum was honestly one of my most favorite that we visited on this trip, I fell in love with SPAM and I spent a good chunk in the gift shop. Shirts, tanks, stress squeezies, plushies, bring it. On top of every possible SPAM-logo’d thing a gift shop could sell, they also sold all their many flavors. We bought several cans of the special Hawaii Portuguese-style SPAM only sold in Hawaii, and a few products only sold in Spain (including a chopped SPAM sandwich spread, a ballsy move yes).

Also it was here that Pete’s obsession with pressed pennies began.

After spending a few hours in Austin, we were ready to hit the road again. And we made it all the way to the giant Jolly Green Giant statue and museum before having to make a bathroom stop.

Real talk, someone left a can of green beans at his feet like some sort of Jolly Green Giant religious offering.

We mostly just used the bathrooms and barely touched the museum portion, bummed I didn’t at least buy one of their enamel pins in the gift shop though. We also found this painted rock, which was kind of the bane of my existence because we excitedly took it with us and kept forgetting to actually LEAVE it somewhere new. Took it all the way back to Wisconsin, in fact. Oops.

One last potty stop at a Minnesota gas station, then it was time to jet the rest of the way to South Dakota.

(and the weirdest thing happened around the time we crossed the state line, the weather went from rainy and overcast to sunny with puffy clouds. huh.)

Finally we made it to Sioux Falls. Got to the hotel, dragged our basket out of the car, and checked in.

Side note: we used baskets instead of luggage and had just one basket (BASKET 1) that came into cabins/motels with us, there were PJs/swimwear/toiletry bags in there and we’d toss a change of clothes from the “clean clothes” basket in there, too (BASKET 2). Grab in your dinner of choice (BASKET 3), and we’re ready to go. The kids each had a backpack with their books, a toy, blanket, and stuffie. No luggage needed!

I had another basket (BASKET 4) we tossed our dirty clothes in before heading off to our next adventure. So: 4 small baskets, a cooler, a few other random items (water shoes, picnic blanket, beach towels, etc.). This left us with lots of room to spare in the trunk. For once, Packing Success.

ANYWAY. That’s enough about my mommy basket organization. We got to our room, settled in, and then Moose and I headed down to the motel lobby to heat up our dinners. We watched Sponge Bob, enjoyed our food, and relaxed. Then off to sleep because: our 2nd big day of driving awaited us the next day.

Nighty night, Sioux Falls.

Day One Stats:Lunch:The Tendermaid –  a Mom n’ Pop stop. The staff was super friendly. Loose-meat sandwiches are a huge mess but man, they are also tasty. Museum Count: Two – (i) SPAM Museum : FIVE STARS, the crown jewel of Austin Minnesota. (ii) Jolly Green Giant monument: nice monument, sweet and tiny museum manned by sweet and tiny old ladies,a  good bathroom stop on the road. Roadside Attractions Count: none, wompPeter’s Penny Count: One (SPAM museum) Moose’s Dab Count: Zero, don’t even ask, this shit is coming thoughDwellings:Super 8 by Wyndham Sioux Falls | a straightforward, budget motel. Cheap, clean, smells slightly, vaguely of mildew (?) but certainly not a deal breaker, and there is a microwave in the lobby where we could heat up our dinners. Decent morning breakfast buffet (I stole lots of butter/pbutter/jam off the buffet sorrrrreh not sorrrrreh). Motel Dinner Madness: Peter had your classic cup-o-soup ramen using hot water from the motel lobby coffeemaker, Linus had microwave mac n’ cheese. Scottie and I had Indian burritos cobbled together from Tastybite veggie tikka masala, microwave Jasmine rice, and cheap tortillas. OMG HEAVEN. That plus a cold beer did a lot to heal the human soul. Thumbs up all around.