Day 24: An I-90 Love Story

All four Amigos managed to arise early in order to catch an authentic Badlands sunrise.  We had been informed by LT2 that sunrise was at 5:07am.  None of us, however, had accounted for the fact that the jagged and often high-peaked terrain of the Badlands might delay this.  We sat for about 20 minutes in the brisk morning air until the sandstone peaks behind us first began to light up. Whiskers took this opportunity to document every single second on camera.  Shortly thereafter the first rays of sun began to warm our faces.  It was a very pleasant way to start what would be one of our longer days of the trip.

We soon had camp broken down and were ready to hit the road following one of the Ocho's most impressive examples of efficient packing yet.

Our 14 hour, 850 mile drive would feature the amazing diversity that only the US interstate system could provide: 13.5 hours and 830 miles on I-90.  Oh what a road.  

After jumping on just outside of Badlands National Park, I-90 took us on a whirlwind tour from the rolling fields of South Dakota, to the rolling fields of southern Minnesota, to somewhat rolling fields of Wisconsin, to Illinois, where the Chicago skyline finally began to provide something new.  LT2 described the experience as "driving on a treadmill."  In one day we achieved much however, as the car crossed the 170,000 mile mark, the trip odometer tipped 8,000 miles, and we went from our 24th state all the way to our 27th.

  

We could not met a better sight at the end of our very full day on the road than Ocho's sister Tres excitedly greeting us.  She was soon ushering us toward her apartment complete with luxurious couches, hot showers, and a fridge fully-stocked with liquid refreshments.  After making ourselves presentable with the hot showers and affable with the contents of the fridge, conversation flowed as we prepared and proceeded to devour some home-made pizzas.  The four Amigos were soon drifting off to a comfortable sleep, secure in the knowledge that they were in good hands for the next two days.