Day 11 -- Mitchell, SD

We are in Mitchell, South Dakota -- took us maybe 5-6 hours of driving from Minneapolis. Mostly, we had planned this as just a rest stop and quick jumping off spot for tomorrow's foray into Badlands National Park, but we found that Mitchell is not completely devoid of interest.

To begin with, it is home to the Mitchell Corn Palace. Frankly, it ain't much to be interested in, but it is kind of cool the way they use corn and other such items to construct the mosaic pictures that adorn the building.

Here's one of the pictures with this year's rodeo theme.

Of more interest to us was this doll museum, with over 5000 dolls. Laura, of course, loves old dolls. But I was surprised a month or two ago, when we went to the Doll House Museum in Delaware, to find how much I liked seeing them too.

Here, Laura examines some of the collection. It was pretty impressive, really, and huge.

Our road trip here was interesting -- we drove through a considerable lightning storm, with magnificent, if scary, large bolts of lightning. And, believe it or not, "A" and I had our first meals ever at a Subway. Not bad.

Oh yeah, in case you ever wanted to know, the world's best coffeehouse is in Mitchell, South Dakota, as this picture clearly states.

Mind you, we never went there, but it's stated clearly on their sign.

Minneapolis - Day 10

Yesterday was our last day in Minnesota and we just sort of did this and that. Laura helped Joanna a bit in the garden, "A" and I went for a last visit to some of her favorite nearby shops ("A" loves to shop, even if we don't buy anything), we went in Lake Calhoun.

In the evening, we went for Mongolian Barbecue. Steve, who has been working and unable to join us for many activities, came along, which was nice.


While we were driving, and after, there were the most magnificent cloud formations in the sky, as a storm was brewing.

In the second photo, is the face of God looking down upon us?

Once the storm actually arrived sometime later, we found it most unusual that there was a huge show of lightning, but nary a single sound of thunder. Guess we aren't in Kansas anymore -- wait a second, maybe I should choose a different expression -- we are actually kind of close to Kansas now.

We are having a birthday breakfast with Joanna (Happy Birthday, Joanna!) in a little while, then it is off on our drive once again. It has been nice to light here for awhile.

Darn... We missed it!

When we were passing through Wisconsin, we noticed it was time for the good ole annual Reedsburg Butter Festival.

Have you ever wondered just what goes on at a Butter Festival? Perhaps there's the Butter-Stick Eating Contest (followed immediately thereafter by the annual CPR contest).

Well, I've looked it up, and it's almost as strange as my fantasy. There's the "Draft Horse Pull" and the "Honey-Butter Bake-Off", but my clear favorite has to be the annual "Run for the Butter".

Here's a link to all the festivities: http://www.thedailypage.com/theguide/details.php?event=183272

Day 9 -- Minneapolis

Our penultimate (don't you love the rare opportunities to use that word!) full day in Minneapolis, and we all went berry-picking with Joanna's friend Erin and family, including Erin's mother, a farmer from Indiana, who told us about growing walnut trees for lumber. It was a beautiful day with the heatwave having broken to give way to a sunny and breezy day in the 70s.

After the picking we sat at a picnic table at the berry farm and had a lunch of make-your-own baba ganoush, hummus, tomato, chickpea salad and sprout sandwiches, with delicious white nectarine for dessert. More scrumptious food in Minnesota.

Here are Joanna and Laura picking, and the result of their labor. "A" preferred taking art photos with my help. She takes wonderful photos, but I am forbidden from posting them here without the artist's permission. These ones were taken by me, so I can post away:

Day 8 -- Minneapolis

Joanna had to do some work in the morning, so Laura, "A" and I just walked around the very nice shopping district near Joanna's house -- used and new book stores, thrift shops, a wonderful spice store.

Joanna lives in a terrific neighborhood, with this wonderful, eclectic collection of stores, restaurants and cafes just a few block walk away, then Lake Calhoun a couple blocks in the other direction. In the middle, where Joanna's house is are blocks of residential houses -- beautiful, older houses with character, architectural interest, charm and lovely gardens. It's a great area to live (if you can tolerate those darn MN winters!).

Around lunchtime, we picked Joanna up from her lab and went to lunch at a new Thai restaurant in her area -- excellent!

Then we walked around Lake Calhoun:

A walkway circles the lake, and if you look up from it, away from the lake, you see beautiful houses in a verdant setting:

Here are L, A, and J by the lake:

Some Catch-Up

Here are some pictures that never made it to the blog from previous days:

Here's "A" outside the theater in Chicago, waiting to see "Wicked"

Three of the Wisconsin cheese factory: the bins where cheese would have been being made if they weren't being cleaned instead, the tanks outside with their cow motif, and "A" and Laura eating cheese curds with the greenhouse in the background where they put the waste water from the cheese making process to excellent use.

And some sheep and a llama we saw while driving in Wisconsin

Day 7 -- Minneapolis

Yesterday, we went to White Bear Lake, one of Minnesota's huge number of lakes. Although Joanna lives a short walk from Lake Calhoun, we chose White Bear because you could windsurf on it. And it was a nice warm windy day -- a good day for windsurfing.

Okay, I could go on trying to trick you into thinking we windsurfed, but surely you know us better than that. It was Steve who was the windsurfer and he had a fun and exhausting time doing so while the rest of us strolled and swam at the lake. Then, we barbecued and picnicked.

The weather for our whole trip has been quite hot, with every day in the 90s. Today, though, the heatwave is supposed to break and the high is only supposed to be in the 70s.

In the evening, we took about a 2-mile walk down to and along the Mississippi River.

Perhaps the most interesting part of our day was in the morning when Laura and I went to the cafe across from Steve's apartment, where we are staying. We struck up a conversation with a fellow, James, who was clearly a grown-up hippie. We talked for a while, chatting about how we were moving cross-country and him reminiscing about his time spent in San Francisco during the "Summer of Love".

After a while, we asked him what he did in Minneapolis. He told us he was a "common laborer, and an inventor". We, of course, asked the next question -- what did he invent?

At first he was fairly coy. He said he held a patent on an invention that related to one of the world's most well-known icons. For a minute, we thought he was going to make us play "Guess the Icon", and it's a good thing he didn't since my guess was going to be the golden arches of McDonalds.

But, after a moment, he revealed that the icon was the yin and yang symbol. He spent the next fifteen minutes going on and on about hidden diamonds, circles within circles, God, the Big Bang, and I don't know just what else. We made a rather hasty retreat from that cafe, but I certainly will think of James whenever I see the yin/yang symbol in the future.

Day 6 -- Minneapolis

We made it to Minneapolis around 3:00 and it is great being here.

"A" is staying with Joanna, and Laura and I are staying in the soon to be vacated apartment of Joanna's boyfriend, Steve. I think both "A" and we are happy to have less than 24/7 being spent in direct contact.

The first order of business was to completely unload our trunk so we could get out the things we had brought cross-country for Joanna. It was unbelievable to look at the huge array of items we had been carrying in our car -- for both us and Joanna.

For us there is:

-- a box of "A"'s clothes
-- a box of Laura's clothes
-- a box of my clothes (the idea with these boxes is that we each select what we want each day and just bring those in a separate small duffel bag into hotels with us -- it's worked pretty well, but has been a bit hard to get at our clothes)
-- 3 small boxes of things we didn't want movers to transport
-- a carrying bag of medical/apothecary type needs
-- a box with activities "A" can choose from for entertainment while driving
-- a backpack of electronics (headphones, portable dvd player, dvds, etc.)
-- a daypack
--the equivalent of 3 bags of groceries (food that we took plus food my mother sweetly gave us for journey)
-- 2 rat cages -- one large and one small (for when we need to "sneak" into hotel rooms)
-- a cooler
-- a bucket filled with personal items (shampoo, sunscreen, etc.)
-- a sleeping bag
-- 3 pillows
-- 6 coats of various types (9 if you count fleeces)
-- a laptop computer
-- 3 purses/messenger bags
-- a travel lap-table for "A"
-- a dirty laundry bag
-- several other small items (books, hairdryer, etc.)

I think that's it, but I might be missing some stuff.

Now, what we had for Joanna:

-- six (mostly large -- averaging say 2 1/2 by 4 foot) framed pieces of artwork
-- an arcade-type amusement game
-- cross-country skis, poles, shoes

We had to remove everyting from the trunk to get at Joanna's things which were at the bottom. It looked like we were moving in!

I took some pride in how I had carefully planned each inch of car packing space for efficient use during the trip. Well, pride truly does go before a fall. We were barely into the trip when my system started to break down and our things became somewhat of a confusing jumble. I have some hope that with Joanna's things now out of the car, we can have a bit more space and order. But I won't hold my breath.

Last night we went to the Dakota Jazz club in Minneapolis. We had a wonderful dinner and heard some great live music (Nachito Herrera). It was in celebration of Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Steve's and Joanna's Birthdays. Very nice. Here's their website: http://www.dakotacooks.com/

Today, we are hoping to spend at one of MN's wonderful lakes.

Sorry for the lack of pictures again. I have the laptop and "A" has the camera at Joanna's. We'll get it together at some point and I'll play catch up.

Day 6 -- On To Joanna in MN

Well, I barely have any internet access, so no pictures of yesterday in WI. We made it to 2 of 3 venues -- Cheese Factory and the Dells.

Unfortunately, when we arrived at the cheese factory at 1 PM, they had shut down production for the day and were just cleaning. Still a bit of fun and we loved our lunch of cheese, crackers, carrots, etc. I'll try to post pictures when I can.

Then we went to the Wisconsin Dells -- a ridiculously honytonk town of t-shirt shops, waterslides, amusement parks, etc. I had gone to the Dells while in college and enjoyed none of that stuff, but instead loved the geology and natural beauty behind all the glitz. I really loved going on a boat ride on the Wisconsin river and seeing the beautiful rock formations that were cut through when the river formed. At one point, you get off the boat and walk through narrow, craggy, path of Witch's Gulch, with rock formations on either side of you, and the temperature dropping 15 degrees. It's really beautiful.

So, we did that. Laura and I thought it was really beautiful -- "A" thought it was nice too, but disliked the tour guide and his silly comments ("This is Indian's Headdress" -- assigning names to the various formations). The pilot of the boat, a perky college girl had the most squeeky minnie-mouse voice you ever heard -- we tried not to laugh.

After that, we went on the scariest rollercoaster I have ever been on -- "A" enjoyed it far more than me! Laura sat out -- good choice!

By this time it was heading toward bedtime and we hadn't eaten, so it was more crackers and cheese, and a can of soup. It was better than it sounds!

This morning, we are eager to head off to Joanna's where we'll stay for 5 nights. It will be great to see Joanna, and great to have a break from driving!

Day 5 -- Wisconsin

I noticed that I'm already losing track of time -- Chicago was day 4 not 3 as I posted. Anyway, if A" ever wakes up this morning, we plan to head off for Wisconsin. We have three things on the WI agenda (2 at the suggestion of the Litwacks -- thanks).

Here are the websites of where we hope to be, though I wonder if we'll get to all of them:

http://thehouseontherock.com/HOTR_AttractionMain.htm

http://www.cedargrovecheese.com/

http://www.dells.com/display.php?id=359

We may not have internet access for the next day or two, so don't worry if there are no new posts.

Chicago Update

Very unlike us -- we went to see "Wicked" tonight on the spur of the moment, getting crane-your-neck-to-see seats at the very front. It was a blast, and "A" loved it. She lucked out with a T-shirt too!

Now it's darn near the wee hours for us wimps. Goodnight.

Day 3 -- Chicago is our kind of town...

We made it to Chicago by 11 AM (counting the extra hour back due to time change), and our lovely hotel (Hotel Monaco in downtown) was nice enough to give us our room early.

We were hungry and ate at a nice little mexican restaurant near the hotel then walked around (and walked and walked and walked around) the city.

First we went to Millenium park which every one has said is so nice. It was a fine city park with lots of open spaces and sculptures, performing venues, etc., but it didn't knock our socks off (perhaps because it was quite hot and little shade is available). The signature feature of the park is the Bean:

It was fun to see. So were the people we saw riding segues around town, including this cop:

Then we went walking all over the loop and the "Magnificent Mile" -- upscale department and chain stores.

We had lots of fun, and Chicago is clearly a bustling city, but perhaps we just didn't know where the cool, individually owned, funky stores, cafes, etc are.

We figured if we headed to Greektown we might succeed and indeed we might have, but we aborted our walk there when we saw too few pedestrians and too many checkcashing stores for our comfort level.

Again, I have to stress that despite the less than perfect experience I'm describing, we had fun and are enjoying the city.

Tomorrow we will go back on the road to face more of what "A" has termed the "Weapons of Mass Construction" (The Ohio Turnpike, for instance, seemed to be more under construction than not!).

Day 3 -- Fremont, IN

Today was low key. Got to our hotel in Fremont, IN by midday and just hung out -- pool, computer, "A" taking photos, Laura with the first nap in days(!), etc. We're about to watch Little Miss Sunshine on the laptop.

"A" slept for a good part of the drive (just 4 hours today) and Laura did too. Luckily, I did not.

Tomorrow is Chicago and we have just a short drive of 3 hours, so we can spend lots of time there.

Day 2

We set off for Fallingwater at about 9 a.m. (would have left sooner, but "A" seemed like she could just sleep and sleep!).

"A" is basically a good road traveler, and this was no exception. But though she had reluctantly agreed to it in advance, the impending reality of a tour at Fallingwater caught up to her and there was little peace for the last hour of our drive to Fallingwater.

Once there, she tolerated the tour, which Laura and I really liked, but the equilibrium of our day was never quite right again. Well, "tomorrow is another day".

As for Fallingwater, Laura and I both were really impressed, despite the fact that neither of us have been Frank Lloyd Wright fans (so, of course, we went and bought a house in Berkeley that uses many of his elements of design!).

Canfield, OH is not much to write home about -- sprawl and more sprawl. To give you a sense of how delightful it is, our dinner was eaten at a chain restaurant (we did have our pick of chain restaurants, mind you) and the evening's entertainment was walking around a Michael's Crafts store.

It is 7:20 a.m. on Wednesday and we are going to take a dip in the hotel's pool, then it's off to beautiful Fremont, IN. It is only a four hour drive and that is a relief. When I wrote at the beginning of the blog that we are wimps about long driving days, I wasn't kidding -- yesterday's 7 hours was more than we were comfortable with.

And Here We Go....

Well, I wouldn't say it was exactly a smooth start to our journey. I know that there will be bumps along the way, but they could have at least waited until we were actually on the way!

Getaway day started perfectly. The movers arrived at about 8 a.m. We had been told that they would probably take 6-8 hours to load the van, so we figured we would be on our way by about 2-4 p.m., which was good because we had reservations at 7:00 p.m. to have dinner with my mother and stepfather in Lancaster -- a farewell meal.

And then the movers moved throughout the day at the following pace: crawl, steady, crawl, crawl slower. By this time it was 4:00 and they still had a good bit to go. We were still hopeful that we would get out in time to make dinner when the main mover-guy sprung this one on us -- he couldn't disassemble our Thomas Moser bed -- it required a special tool! He asked, "You wouldn't consider leaving it behind?"

Well, if you know about Thomas Moser furniture, then you know it is heirloom quality very expensive furniture -- not the type of thing to leave behind. So we called Thomas Moser to ask their advice. They confirmed that, indeed, there was a special wrench socket that would fit the bed -- They would be glad to send one out and we should have it in 2 days!

All this is taking place now late in the day, actually later than the latest time we had expected to leave. Well, to make a long story short, we did eventually get the bed disassembled. Laura tracked down a suitable socket at a local hardware store. But by then it was 5:00, the latest time we could comfortably leave to make our reservation.

Around this time, it started to thunder and lightning, and rain and wind started to kick up. I guess that was a good thing, because it kicked the movers into high gear! After being snails all day, they rabbited their way through the rest of our items and by 5:30 we were on our way. Surprisingly, traffic wasn't bad, and we pulled in to the restaurant at exactly 7:00!

We did have a lovely meal with my Mom and Barney, who have been so gracious even though I know they can not be happy about us leaving. It was good to see them and we are so happy that they will be visiting us next month in Berkeley, and we will, of course, be back to visit them. Anyway, I so appreciate their grace.

So here we are, in the first hotel, in Denver, PA. Laura and "A" are sleeping in the room while I work on this in the early hours in the lobby. We were in such a rush at the very end, that all my good efforts at organizing our car/trunk sort of went to hell in a hand-basket. So we'll straighten that out, take a little time to reframe ourselves and then it's off to Fallingwater where we have a 1:00 tour time (guess we better not take too much time before we set off this morning!).

On a Sweeter Note...

Here are pictures from "A's" graduation:

Alas Poor Tenby...

It's nearly 5:00 and....

They're still here :(

They shoot horses, don't they?

These Movers Might Be Just A Bit Too Diligent!

So, Anthony, the moving man, might be just a bit too gung-ho in his packing. He was only supposed to pack breakables, but he just packed up a bunch of stuff we were planning on taking in our car.

I found this out when he came in with our clipboard which holds our trip itinerary and confirmations, etc, as well as our travel guide book and asked "Were these supposed to get packed too?" At first I thought he was kidding, but there was no smile on his face. I told him no, we needed those things and he said, "well I hope you didn't need those other things that were near them". He has no idea which box they are in.

It really isn't a big deal -- they were mostly some little antique items we were going to have eBayed by a guy my Mom has used, so they really can come with us, but I guess we better watch them a bit more carefully or next thing we know, we may not be brushing our teeth for awhile!

When Will They Finish????

Anthony and Brian are here from the moving company, packing our fragile items -- finally!!! It seems like a long time coming. They have been here for almost 5 hours, though, and they still have a lot to go! I'll be happy when they're gone and we can get our own stuff done, though we still do have tomorrow as well.

"A" is staying at her friend Julia's house for the duration, and we haven't even spoken to her today (it's almost 2:00 now). We wanted her out of the house because we thought it would be easier for us and the movers to get things done, but also because we felt it would be hard for her to see the house sort of stop being our home (not to mention that she no longer has a bed to sleep in!).