"Hey Tom, this is the most west you've ever been..."

A to B was Friday.  B to C was Saturday.



So today was a 680-ish mile trip from Toledo, Ohio to Sioux Falls, South Dakota.  Not really much to say - the day was all driving!  We got on the road around 9:00am.  We passed by a lot of farms, open space, farms, some more open space, some open space, and some farms.  There was a huge steel plant in Indiana, and that was about it until we got to Chicago.

Although it would have been cool, we didn't stop in Chicago, we just drove by it.  It was foggy, as you can see, but I still managed to get an ok shot of the Chicago skyline featuring the Sears Tower as we drove by.

Then we passed through the rest of Illinois.  We stopped at a Cabelas briefly to stretch our legs, and get some gas nearby.  We didn't buy anything, because we decided to get our sleeping bags and tent for cheap at a Walmart somewhere else along the way.  Did I mention the plan?

 

We got as far as we could the first two days so we could take our time the rest of the trip and see some of the country along the way.  It turns out that tomorrow, we'll be spending some time at Mt. Rushmore.  Then pass through whatever national forests we happen to pass through on the way to YELLOWSTONE!  AHHHH!  Needless to say I'm excited.  I've never been west of Ohio before, and now I'm going to see two big deal western landmarks on my way to the Pacific Coast to see the most elite Field and track the country has to offer.  It doesn't get much better than that.

After Cabelas, we went through Wisconson.  The Wisconson-Minnesota border turns out to be the Mississippi river, which we drove over:

A bit anti-climactic, I know, I couldn't get a good picture.  Still kind of cool though.



The only other thing worth mentioning is endless fields of windmill power stations throughout Minnesota farms:



Things I've never seen before/never knew:

*Wisconson really is that obsessed with cheese.  At a mini-mall area right off an exit, there was a store called "Gifts, Liquor, Cheese".  Bumper stickers saying "got cheese".  Signs for "Cheese farms."  At least along I-90, the cheese stereotype is all but confirmed.

*Indiana, Wisconson, and Minnesota are not nearly as developed as I thought they were.  LOTS of farms and not much else all throughout those states.  I guess the only place there wasn't farms was where it got too mountinous for there to be good farmland.  Otherwise, I was very surprised to see a LOT of farms, long, straight highways, and not much else.

*I am clearly not from the Midwest.  Here's the best way I can describe it...my mom, a child of Irish immigrants, has always told me I don't look very Irish - so I assumed that meant I looked German, since my dad is almost 100% German.  Yet when I went to Berlin two years ago, I realized I don't look that German either.  I felt like I just looked different - anyone who has been to Europe knows what I'm talking about, I'm not really sure how else to describe it.  After coming home from Berlin, I figured I just look American.

Well, I got a similar feeling when Coach and I went into a "Pizza Ranch" restaurant in Minnesota.  The way everyone dressed, the way they looked - just felt "different" again!  I guess I look like a Northeastern American?

 

Coach's Quotes of the day:

*We were driving somewhere in Wisconson, I think, on I-90 west bound, and this came out of nowhere:

Coach: "Hey Tom, this is the furthest west you've ever been!"...5 seconds later - "Hey Tom, this is the furthest west you've ever been!"...5 seconds later - "Hey Tom, THIS is the furthest west you've ever been!!"  And repeat a few more times...

*After mentioning my younger is entering his last year at Marist:

Coach: "Is he having a good career?"

Me: "Yeah, he's majoring in Sports com and has an internship this summer with the New Jersey Jackals."

Coach: "Oh yeah? Is he doing broadcasting?"

Me: "Yeah, a little bit of color commentary and play-by-play.  Its only internet radio, but its still broadcast experience.  I mean, how many people are going to listen to minor league baseball on internet radio?"

Coach: "Six."

*Quotes you'll just have to ask me about:  Blondie at Belmont Park, and The Toll Booth Incident (thats a really good one...)