June 22nd - Day 10
Today, we reached 2,000 miles. I don’t know if that is much of a milestone given that we’ll drive somewhere around 12,000 miles over the summer, but none the less, it has been a fair bit of driving.
With my grandmother joining us for this section, one of our primary destinations was Big Stone Lake, which is where we are staying for the next couple of nights. During the depression, in the 1930’s, my Grandmother lived in a cabin on this lake one winter. Her father had owned a automotive repair shop prior to 1929, but after the big crash, very few people had the means to have their cars repaired and he had to close his shop. For several years following this, he worked any and every odd job he could in order to keep food on the table. At one point, there was a person that owed him a fair bit of money, but did not have the cash to pay. However, the person did own a cabin on Big Stone Lake, and my Grandmother’s family needed a place to live that winter. She has always spoken very fondly of this time living on the lake and when we placed a pin here on the map when we were trip planning, I soon found a cabin for us to rent on the lake for a few days.
A few highlights of the day:
We started the day in Interior, SD. With only being able to quickly drive through the Badlands National Park the previous evening, we went back to the park to spend a little more time exploring.
Ilena and Obadiah became Junior Rangers, once again… (for the 4th time now on the trip). They are going to be quickly filling up their Junior Ranger vests with all of the badges they are collecting.
Since my sister rented a car for her and my Grandmother to drive while adventuring with us, our kids were able to take turns riding with them. Given that we drove about 400 miles today, it was great to be able to further split up the kids at times.
As mentioned above, we ended the day at a cabin on Big Stone Lake, just north of Ortonville, MN. This is the 5th different state so far on our journey with many more to go.
A few pictures from the day:
