I wake up tired. Tired of driving, tried of the heat and tired of new routines. Thankfully it really is Friday.

Hawkeye Point on the Merrill Sterler farm.

The shower and coffee hardly help; they get me out the door and on the road. What I need is a relaxing break, a chance to do nothing.

A week ago I left work early, drove to Chicago only to suffer a broken alternator on I-90 in rush hour traffic. Somehow the car starts again after multiple tries and I limp to my brother's place. Amazingly, the mechanics have the parts on hand and can get me back on the road by 1pm Saturday. Wondering what else will go wrong as I head further away from anyone I know I eventually reach Teddy Roosevelt National Park and spend over 2 days hiking and sweating in the North Dakota Badlands. Then I turn south and reach White Butte, drive to South Dakota, hike up Bear Butte, reach the summit of Odakota Mountain and the highest point in Wind Cave National Park, all in one day. The next morning I haul myself up Harney Peak into the clouds and sweat some more in Badlands National Park, then avoid the tourist kitsch that dominates across South Dakota.

And so I wake up tired in Luverne, Minnesota. My only goals today are to reach the top of two grassy bumps among Iowa farmland and join a family reunion near Minneapolis where my vacation from my vacation can begin.

Both grassy knobs are easy to find, and thankfully, easy to ascend. First up is Ocheyedan Mound, a glacial kame (a mound composed of gravel and sand left by retreating glaciers). Long thought to be Iowa's highest point it still remains a much more impressive bump than Hawkeye Point.

Hawkeye Point is the end of an old feeding trough on the Merrill Sterler farm. It is a significant milestone for me due to two reasons. First, it completes the Midwest highpoints. Everything left is a "real" mountain: Mount Washington, Katahdin, Rainier, Whitney, Denali, and others less well known but far from hills or farm land. Secondly, Hawkeye Point is the last of the privately owned highpoints I need to ascend to collect all 50. Now I have only to worry about lightening and snow storms, altitude sickness and technical challenges. I do not have to worry about a landowner banning all visitation to their property.

Hawkeye Point sign on the old feeding trough.

I signed the register, took a commemorative keychain and took in the cloudless blue-sky morning above the soybeans.

I don't often stay long at the actual highpoint of a state. However, today I was thankful to the Sterler's for the bench they provided and the chance to relax.