Day one started with a 0615 departure from Avon Lake.  900 miles and 14 hours later we stopped in Sioux Falls, SD.  I am able to add the states of Iowa and South Dakota to the list of states I have visited.  The good thing about traveling on a Sunday was the fact that there was not a lot of traffic on the road.  We drove west on interstate 80 to just east of Omaha.  Then we traveled north on interstate 29.  For the most part of the day the weather was pretty good.  For about 50 miles around Des Moines there was moderate snow showers.  There were a number of cars spun out off the highway and some facing the wrong way on the side of the road.  Maybe since the winter has been so mild some people are out of practice driving in winter conditions.  West of Des Moines the snow stopped and then high winds started.  It felt like some of the wind gusts were almost 40 mph as I had to hold tight to the steering wheel to keep the truck on the road.  In the area of high winds was the town of Adair, Iowa.  Along the highway was at least 100 wind mills.  The high winds were generating a lot of electricity on this Sunday afternoon.

One funny story from the day, our first stop was about half way through Indiana.  There were a group of men hanging out inside the rest stop and outside the side door smoking.  As we were eating a Burger King breakfast, a Greyhound bus drove around the building and was exiting the parking lot.  All of a sudden a guy starts running out of the rest stop trying to flag down the bus driver.   Unfortunately, the guy was unsuccessful in his attempt to catch the bus.  Then he starts asking people in the parking lot if he can hitch a ride.  The last we saw, he was knocking on the doors of semi trucks still looking for a ride.

The first mile stone of the day was crossing the Mississippi river into Iowa.

Along the way, Titan, my truck dog was rocking to AC DC's Highway to Hell

We saw a great sun set as we drove north through Sioux City, Iowa.  As we drove past the Sioux City airport, I remembered that this was where the crippled United DC-10 attempted a landing which resulted in fatalities and thankfully many survivors.

We arrived safely in Sioux Falls to rest up for day 2 which takes us to Rapid City and all the senic sights that area has.