07 July 2020

Made it to Wisconsin! Unfortunately I won't be able to stay long enough to experience what the cheese capital of the US (and the world?) has to offer. These first few days are pretty much just me cannonballing through the northern states to get to South Dakota and then Yellowstone. Tomorrow I am camping in Badlands National Park in South Dakota, which is another 8+ hour drive. The good news it that the trip will become much more interesting from tomorrow onward. This is also the last night I will be staying in a hotel until I start passing through Louisiana, since I will either be camping or staying with friends for the rest of this adventure. 

The Drive: Today's drive ended up being around 600 miles. We got a later start than planned due to a short run along a paved trail next to the hotel, and my ability to loose my keys, phone, room card, knife, and battery deactivation device sequentially as we were trying to leave. 

    The ride was uneventful until the heavens opened up. Maybe it's just because I have not done a tremendous amount of driving in the last four years, but I can not remember ever driving in rain as heavy as what we ran into today. Traffic that had been traveling at 80mph seconds before slowed to 20mph, and stayed there for the 20 minutes it took for the deluge to pass. I had issues seeing the taillights of the truck 40 feet in front of me, and was completely unable to make out the road markings/dashed lines. And let me tell you this: running into a 5+ inch deep 'puddle' in the middle of the highway is a terrifying experience. It pulled my completely over to the other lane before I could react! But whether moving at 20mph or 80mph, we kept moving throughout the whole day and pulled into our hotel right on time. 

    We also came across this awesome old bus towing a car! I'd love to know their story!

And the sunset on the cloudy sky was just beautiful!

The Cougar: She's performing well! She's the happiest when she is sitting right at 3000rpm (~78mph). It looks like she burns about a quart of oil every 500 miles at highway speeds, which is a lot but completely manageable as long as we check the level at every fillup. Hey, it's not perfect, but it's also not stopping the car. Air conditioning continues to be great, and pressure and temps haven't been a concern. It looks like the AC/PS v-belt has stretched (it was brand new at the start of the trip, so some stretch is to be expected), so I'm going to be tightening that tomorrow morning. The headlight covers are stuck in the up position because the actuator has sprung a leak, and I'd rather look a little funky than deal with all the complications of a vacuum leak.

The Future: Tomorrow is when we reach the first real stop of interest, and the end of the 'driving all day' days. Badlands National Park has been on my bucket list since I saw pictures of it when I was younger, and I ecstatic to be visiting it. I'm also going to be swinging by Mt. Rushmore. 

I won't be able to post anything tomorrow since I'll be camping in the Badlands, but I'll make up for it on the 9th!

Ken