Travel day today. We knew we had a pretty long drive today (about 300 miles) but noted that almost all of it was going to be westbound on I-90. When we woke up it was clear but quickly clouded up and drizzled occasionally on us as we drove west through Wisconsin. The wind picked up as we went west and by the time we drove through Rochester, Minnesota, it began to have a pretty substantial effect on driving. The Invader is a 6 ton billboard we drag around and, like all billboards, it tends to sway in the breeze.
There were many times when the wind-blown truck and trailer would suddenly decide that we should be travelling in another lane and would try to implement the change in a very sudden fashion. I fought the wheel for about a hundred miles but the wind finally dropped down below about 25 knots and we were able to continue down our normally-straight path. Upwind sections had high fuel consumption rates.
We pulled into Welcome, Minnesota, at about 4:30 PM and, by that time, the wind was down to a nice breeze and the skies were clear. It is very green around this part of the world with corn and soybean fields that stretch out to the horizon. The terrain is gently rolling hills.
Our campsite for the next two days will be Checker’s Welcome RV Park and it is located in a large triangle bounded by a fairly busy state highway, I-90 and a railroad track. Since there is almost no humans near here, the train engineer has no qualms about sounding his 2 longs, a short and a long train horn blasts as he passes over the local grade crossings. Nevertheless, the scenery is very nice and the park has all the stuff we need. The guy at the park desk indicated we had “basic Cable” which is actually not cable TV at all. The park owner has installed a big aerial and re-broadcasts the signal he doesn’t get to the park tenants. The wi-fi works well and the park has full hookups.
We arrived after our long drive and set up, popped into the trailer and served drinks. We had barbecued steak for dinner. This traveling after retirement is tough.