First things first...

I left Columbia and got on Hwy 63N around 6 am. It wasn't bad traveling at that time of the morning, for hardly anyone was on it. I made good time getting to Kirksville in northern Missouri in about 1 1/2 or so.

I stayed on 63N into Iowa and made it up to Des Moines with no trouble, in 4 hrs. Not bad at all! Most of the hwy was 4 lane (which is good!) but there were parts that was 2 lane. No problems of getting behind grandpas and grandmas :P

From Des Moines on up was great. I-35 is a great Interstate. From Des Moines to Albert Lea, MN was 2 hrs. Remember I had to take the "Great Detour" from the Missouri River flooding on I-29, so I had to take the longer route. Anyways, Minnesota is not bad. It's true about the 10,000 lakes on their drivers plates. Everywhere you look, there was a small or large lake.

When I got into Albert Lea, it started to rain hard. But I found I-90 with a little detour of downtown Albert Lea. Ahhh....signs telling you where to go would be a great help, Minnosotains! :P

From Albert Lea westward on I-90 was long. It took me about 6 hrs or so to get to Murdo, so it was around 6 or 7 pm last night when I got to the motel. I was tired. My butt was not happy. Then the problem with the Internet connection happened, and it was a very grumpy evening.

But I went to bed and got some well rested sleep.

That was the end of Day One :)

Here's a short vid of Iowa.



Going into Minnesota in this vid:



Albert Lea rainstorm and I-90