July 5
Number of miles traveled: 492 After another repeat breakfast at McDonald's down to the orders, we're off to Bloomington and the Mall of America. I first went there in 1993 a year after it had opened, at which point it was pretty much just a normal mall, just very, very large. However, most travelers don't come from miles around to shop in a larger Gap, so over the last ten years it has transformed into more of a place where you would find touristy-type stores or repeat stores. There's two locations for Lids, six different Mall of America Gift stores, etc. As Craig had noticed, shopping has now gone full circle, as QVC had a store in the mall. I sampled Trix on a stick from the General Mills concession, and per most of the trip, bought nothing. |
 Measure yourself in "Kelloggs" (the S.I. unit of cereal) |
 Dwight hangs out with the Lego-version of Boba Fett. |
 Find your soulmate on an I-90 rest stop in Des Moines Lake, MN or at CountrySingles.com. |
Our journeys then took us to South Dakota, to a visit to the Sioux Falls Storm of the National Indoor Football League. The Storm won the game 44-27 over the Bismarck Rough Riders, thanks mainly to the running of former Ball State Cardinal/Murray State Racer/Johnstown J-Dog/Winstom-Salem Energy back Justin Bivins. The NIFL is taken a little more seriously in the West than the East, as there were a busload of fans from Bismark, the players got full introductions, the National Anthem was sung very well and the game presentation was at a much higher level than either Ohio Valley or Myrtle Beach. An interesting addition was the use of a Bingo card in the free game program, with each square represented by an advertiser. If the ball carrier hit a board with the advertising, you were supposed to mark-off that box. However, it seemed to be forgotten by the third quarter, as they stopped making announcements of what advertisers were hit. There was only one truly fraught play when a fumble and about five holds led to a Sioux Falls safety.
 The Sioux Falls Convention Center, home of your 1996 CBA champion Sky Force. |
 NIFL action. It's fantastic (and blurry). |
 Dave and Craig work their mascot mojo with Blizzard. |
The night ended after a lovely drive through a typical Plains thunderstorm, which only look more spectacular than a normal one because you can see all of the lightning for 10 miles around you. Also had the weird sight of driving by cities fireworks shows, seeing as many as three different ones. We stopped at another Super 8, this time in North Sioux City, South Dakota. For those of you scoring at home, Sioux City is in Iowa, while South Sioux City is in Nebraska.