The Watertown Quality Inn was awesome!

Even though Matt's stomach was still bothering him, we got the best nights sleep we'd had since we left home. Check out time was 11 so we didn't bother to set an alarm. Instead, we relied on my internal clock. Of course, I got up kinda early and was in the shower by 8:30. I'm pretty sure my shower lasted over thirty minutes.

It was so nice to not be rushing, but we missed the free breakfast. While I was drying my hair, Matt got his shower. Before we left our room, I sent Matt Link a text,

"Good Morning Matt!!! Just checking in to see how things are looking for today? Is 3 PM still a go?  I slept with my fingers crossed and put my underwear on backwards for luck :)"

I gathered up the trash from inside the car while Matt walked over to the P & L convenience store to see if they had bagels. I was surprised when he came back empty handed. No worries - There was a McDonald's right in front of the hotel. We ordered fruit and yogurt parfaits along with our usual drinks.  

By 10, we were on the road. Matt programmed Google Maps to take us to the drop zone. We were only 124 miles away (1 hr 40 mins). With some extra time on our hands, we decided to stop at the welcome center to check out potential landing areas. Just before crossing the South Dakota border and entering Minnesota, there was a Minnesota welcome center.  We were both a little confused.

When we got off the exit, Matt went inside to use the bathroom and I spent some time looking around. There were plenty of flat green places to land, but this was a Minnesota welcome center - not South Dakota.  When he came back, Matt told me that he had talked to the woman at the information desk. Apparently, the Minnesota state government purchased the property from South Dakota to build this welcome center. We were surrounded by South Dakota, but we were standing on Minnesota property.

On the opposite side of the highway, there was a South Dakota welcome center. We drove down the highway about a mile, got off an exit, and turned around and drove back up 90 West.

The South Dakota welcome center had it's share of obstacles including a 50 foot tall concrete tee-pee!  Matt and I spent about 15 minutes walking around and trying to figure out the best place to land. While we were there, three grounds keepers were doing lawn maintenance. Most likely, they'd be long gone when we landed. After we surveyed the property, we decided that it would be best to land on the far end (pictured below).

Since the winds were coming out of the south at about 40 knots, we'd need to get out south of the Minnesota welcome center, fly over the highway, and do a final approach over a corn field, and land facing south.  Piece of cake!

After we were in the car, we looped around and got back on 90 East. When we got off the highway in Luverne, we stopped at the first restaurant we saw - Papa's. I checked my phone and Matt L. had not replied to my text so I gave him a call to let him know we had reached Luverne and asked him to confirm we were on track for 3:00 PM.

At 1:15, I got a text from Matt L. "Well, our pilot that we were planning on is no longer able to fly today...I am looking for a new pilot for this evening, but I don't have anyone else that can jump tonight either..."

UGH!!! Now what???

Trip Mileage: 1,788