13 Things From My Mini-cation

Last week we helped a friend move to Iowa. I know, why would anyone want to move to Iowa? Well, in his defense, it really wasn't optional unless he wanted to be unemployed like me. The movers did all the hard work, we just had to be there when the truck arrived and play traffic cop for which boxes went to which room.

Sooooooo, since we were making a road trip anyway, and I'm willing to call about anything a vacation, we took an extra day coming home so we could drive up through the southern tip of Minnesota and through Wisconsin before heading back home. Much of my motivation for this had to do with my dream/goal to see all 50 states before I turned 50. It seemed like an attainable goal, but, alas, I failed. So I've reset the goal as a "before I die", aka "bucket list" item. Therefore, this trip allowed me to mark off two, count them two, more states. This leaves me with only 16 states to go. Yeah!

All that to say, here are 13 observations from my mini vacation:

1. Semi drivers should NEVER, NEVER, NEVER be texting unhless the are not in their truck!

2. We need to find a use for goldenrod - as a food, or a fuel - something because it grows anywhere and everywhere.

3. Windmills-wind turbines technically-are way cooler in person than in pictures. (See previous two posts for more about this.)



4. Never try to eat an Arby's Market Fresh Chicken Salad sandwich in the car.

5. Our hotel (a Hampton Inn) had really great black and white photos everywhere. For instance, there was a different one on each room number sign.

6. Dubuque is very hilly. I always thought of Iowa as being flat.



7. We visited the "Field of Dreams" and it was great fun.













8. One evening for dinner we drove across the river to Galena, Illinois. It is a quaint little town that I'd like to go back and see more of sometime. So where exactly do you keep your horse in a small town? Apparently you rent it an apartment!



9. When we left Dubuque we drove along the Mississippi River north into Minnesota. I was amazed at how close to the river they build things. In one are we drove on a road that was parallel to railroad tracks that ran about 3 feet from the edge or the road. Then there was 8 foot or less of grass to the edge of the river!

10. There were still a lot of gravel roads in Iowa and Minnesota.

11. We decided to eat lunch just after we crossed the river into Wisconsin at a place we'd read about called Huck Finn's on the Water. Easier said than done. We called for directions and received them from a girl who didn't know north from south. We called back and got directions from someone else and still coudn't find it. After giving up we started to head on out of town and then saw some of the landmarks that had been mentioned in the directions. I'm glad to say that once we found it , it was a very nice place with good food.



12. We headed to the Wisconsin Dells to see some sights and try a seafood buffet we'd read about (yes, many of our travel destinations involve food - Hubby loves to cook, I love to eat, it's all good). We arrived to find that the sidewalks are rolled up until after Memorial Day (two days later) and NOTHING was open.

13. The silver lining was that there was a Sinclair gas station. We hadn't seen one in years and my husband was excited because it was the kind of station his grandfather had owned.



Overall it was a good trip - and did I mention that I got to mark off TWO more states!


(as always you can click on the pictures to "biggify")