Fact: Day Twenty-One

We started today at Laura's house in Monona, Wisconsin and ended up in Mitchell, South Dakota.

It was 580-ish miles on our trip through 4 states. Well, not ALL the way through--we still have half of South Dakota still to get through. We had a nice, relaxing morning at Laura's chatting and wondering why we live so far apart--and about 10am we were all loaded up (minus Will's flip flops which we finally just gave up finding). We saw lots of fun stuff while we drove.

Like this:
WHERE ARE THE CHICKENS GOING?? This is an enormous truck full of chickens. I can't imagine a scenario wherein it is required to relocate live chickens like this. But it was highly entertaining nonetheless.



We crossed the Mississippi River and found...Minnesota! The weather was beautiful, it was really green, and we learned a few facts at the Welcome Center.
We are no longer embarrassed by the fact that Arizona has a State Balladeer. Thanks, Minnesota for having a state muffin. And a state mushroom that I did not get a photo of.
Watching the boats. That's a bunch of barges lashed together being pushed by a tugboat on the left.
This tugboat to be precise.
We swooped down into Iowa so we wouldn't miss it. Friendly sign, wouldn't you say?
This shows the scale of how flat Iowa is.
Saw this listed on the map so we decided to pull over and check it out. It's the highest point in Iowa.

At a breath-taking 1670 feet-above-sea-level, this is the view.Phoenix, AZ lies at about 1100 feet elevation. Someone has built this up really nicely--it was such a fun place. We stood on this spot and felt like King of the World. It was (not) SO high up!

The view in the other direction.
We got to sign in and leave a message--and buy a "Hawkeye Point" keychain.
They had this awesome collection of license plates from every state--the first is Iowa that says "HIGH PT", then it starts Alabama and continues to the right and ends with Washington, DC bringing up the rear (in case you want to sing the "50 Nifty United States" song with the handy license plate prompts like we did).

Because of our detour through Iowa, we didn't come into South Dakota on a road that had a welcome sign. So we have no photographic remembrance of South Dakota...yet. We'll get that tomorrow.

When we stopped for dinner, we saw that the Holiday Inn advertised "Water Slide" and we were hooked. So we got a room and the kids played for 2 hours until the life guard went off duty. Could be the best hotel indoor pool we've ever seen.

Matt at the lion.
Indooor/Outdoor water slide
Will at the top.
Matt jumping backward into the pool (I think--that doesn't look natural, whatever he's doing).
Tomorrow we go to Mt. Rushmore and the kids are VERY excited to relive a college experience that Jim had about 17 years ago. I'll tell the whole story tomorrow.

For tonight, I have one last anecdote:

Matt and I once again shared the middle bench for a leg of the trip today. We were playing with the Legos I got at the Dive and Dash and having a great time. At one point he sighed contentedly, leaned over and put his head on my shoulder, patted my arm in a reassuring manner, and said "I liked it when you were my mom. I wish you still were." A bit confused, I reminded him that I AM still his mom and he answered "Yeah, but when you're dead, I'll wish it. So I thought I'd say it now."

Fact: Day Twenty

This is the Day of Laura.

The day I was looking forward to as much as anything on this trip.

And it was just as fabulous as I could have hoped. Her kids are super, her house was awesome, the weather was perfect here in Madison, WI.

But who cares--it was all about me and Laura. We talked and laughed and talked and ate and talked and shopped. The shopping happened at the most amazing thrift store Madison has to offer...we'll call it the "Dive and Dash" (Laura--wouldn't that be a better name?! bawhahahah!) to protect its anonymity. You see, we don't want everyone showing up and taking all the good stuff. Here's how good it is: You dive into enormous 4-ft deep cardboard barrels to find all kinds of amazingness. While you're hunting and sorting and rearranging, the employees bring pallets of more boxes of more stuff and dump it on top of what's already there. Then when you're sufficiently drunk and overstimulated and you have as many treasures as possible, you drive your cart onto a huge scale and then pay. By the pound. Thirty-five cents per pound, to be exact.

Jamie, get your washing machine ready--I found some summer things for Jane. I also got 2 pair of pants for me, a pair of shorts for Jim, a shirt for me, a tub of legos for the kids, a plastic nativity from the 1950s, 4 old-time records with kid pictures for my preschool, and 2 transformers. For $5. I think I'm in love.

I can only say by way of rumor what everyone else did all day...but my kids said they wanted to move in to Laura's house, too. She has 2 cats (one slept right on Will's stomach--his dream come true), every bike and scooter in the world, a basement, and an awesome park right around the corner. Also, Rowan and Nathan are experts on every interesting computer game that my boys have not yet heard of.

Jim got to ride a recumbant bike. Which may have been the highlight of HIS trip.

Which means we think we're staying in Madison. Can someone please forward our mail?

Before I make it sound like there is nothing but rainbows and music in Madison, Rachel DID declare that she has never seen so many bugs in one place in her life. Spoilsport.

And the pictures for the day.

This morning before driving to Laura's...this is how it basically goes in our hotel room every night. Rachel, Jourdan, and Will have a complicated ballet for bed space (don't you think there'd be enough room if they all just laid side by side???)
And Matt's the smart one who takes the floor and sleeps like a log.
I have proven to be horrid at taking pictures when we're with friends on this trip. Here is the ONLY photo in the state of Wisconsin. Which goes to prove that number of pictures has no correlation on enjoyment in a state...

We're having a sleepover at Laura's and then heading tomorrow morning to South Dakota...hope Mt Rushmore is ready for us!