Our plan was to drive through the night to arrive at our destination in Mission, South Dakota. We loaded the vans and got ready for the 18 hour, 1100 mile drive. Back to my roots of my beloved high school ride I'm back in a white mini-van -- trading up a few model years, but unfortunately this time without the masculine pink pinstripes.
Precious glimpses of the 1991 Pontiac Transport -- Classic
This van (below) quickly gained and earned the name White Stallion. Wikipedia describes a stallion as a protector of the herd from predators and as retaining an aggressive nature. In our case the predators happened to be wild dogs and the aggressiveness was heard through the exhaust note from the straining engine of the Kia Sodena LX through the majestic Black Hills of South Dakota.
We made a few stops for gas and snacks, but we were hoping for a more wholesome meal at a Panera Bread so we continued driving. Sadly, we realized this was a pipe dream as we were driving across Iowa on I-80. After our failed search we ended at a Country Kitchen in the middle of nowhere around 11:30 PM. One of the reasons I was hoping for a Panera Bread is that I decided on trying a vegetarian diet during my ASB. I've always wanted to attempt this and found this was a perfect opportunity as I would have the advice and support of current veggie eaters on my trip -- Paul, Dan Na, Alice, and Emily. I hoped that just being another vegetarian on the trip would make it easy to simply choose the option when it came to meal time.
Accordingly, the Country Kitchen didn't have many veggie-friendly dishes. In fact, if I recall correctly all of the salads and omelets had some type of meat in them! Since it was so late and we were beginning to feel the effects of the long drive many of us made our own menu with a dish of two eggs, some hashbrowns and toast. I ordered mine over easy, which I have come to love courtesy of the marvelous Miss Mitten.
We ended the night on this note and most of us tried to get some shut eye. I always have an awful time sleeping on car trips, but I didn't have to drive any leg of the journey to South Dakota so I did try!
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