West of the Mississippi

T and I have finally crossed over the Mississippi River!  We started out from Madison this morning and took beautiful route 12 through miles of dairy farms.  T saw his first truck full of pigs with their snouts sticking out of the holes on the sides of the trailer (cute and funny, but we try not to think about where they may be heading).  Of course, we stopped to buy cheese and a Wisconsin micro brew that we had at UW last night.  

We crossed into Minnesota (and over the Mississippi) around lunch time.  There are so many fields of corn, it's no wonder the gas here is 10% ethanol!  The scenery is absolutely beautiful. We also drove past a few wind farms with massive wind turbines as far as the eye can see.  

Shortly after getting into South Dakota, T and I could not resist following the billboards boasting the world's only Corn Palace!  It is, literally, a huge building made of corn (at least the facade)!  I say again...we're not in Boston any more!  Unfortunately, it was closed (since it was after 5), but we were still glad to get off the highway to see it!  LOL.  After dinner, we drove a couple of hours further into Murdo, SD, where we're staying tonight.  We clocked about 650 miles today, thanks largely to the 70-75 mph speed limits!  The last 50-or-so miles were done at night, and the stars were brighter than we've ever seen them.

Update: the weather dips into the low 40's this time of year, so we have avoided camping (we didn't bring any items to get through cold nights).  I'm hoping that it's a bit warmer as we head south so that we can camp at some point.  T has pretty much thrown in the camping towel, but I am still pushing to camp before we get to Phoenix!

Tomorrow we will go to Mt. Rushmore in the morning and then head into Wyoming.  Our aggressive goal is to make it to Denver tomorrow night.  At the least, we hope to make it to Cheyenne.

On the road again

After spending the weekend in the Detroit area with friends (the wedding was wonderful!) and family (catching up, boating on the lake, talking about Mustangs), we are back on the road.  T and I decided to continue on our original northern route and, so far, we're still on track after day one.  We drove from Eastern Michigan to Madison, Wisconsin today (through northern Indiana and Chicago).  Luckily we found a hotel - apparently there is some sort of dairy conference in Madison this week.  T overheard one guy talking about a cow recently that sold for $1M.  We're not in Boston anymore.  

Tonight we had dinner near UW Madison at State Street Brats -- tried the Wisconsin favorite, cheese curds (similar to mozz cheese sticks, but in nuggets), had some local beers (SO good), and red brats with sauerkraut -- such a great college town -- we love it!  

Tomorrow we will cross Minnesota and head into South Dakota.  We have our work cut out for us!  

Lunch in Buffalo, coffee in Canada, dinner in Detroit

Yesterday morning, we went to a Ford dealership in Rochester to have the squeaking investigated.  While we waited, we walked through the lot to look at the new cars.  It took some added convincing to talk T out of trading in our car right then and there for an electric blue, Roush Mustang they had on the lot.  After the mechanics told us there wasn't anything wrong with our car, we headed back out on the road.

We were thrilled to make it to Buffalo around lunchtime so that we could have roast beef on weck (A kummelweck, or sometimes kimmelweck or even kümmelweck, is a salty roll that is popular in Western New York. It is similar to a Kaiser roll, but topped with pretzel salt and caraway seeds. Kummelweck is commonly shortened to “weck" (pronounced "wick"), and often served in the Buffalo metropolitan area with roast beef and horseradish to form a sandwich known colloquially as "beef on weck." Along with wings, beef on weck is one of the two most distinct dishes of the region.) at McPartlan's!  Yummy!!  Then it was off to the Canada border crossing...

After the border agent checked our passports (so weird that you have to use a passport to get into Canada now!), he asked us all the typical border questions including where we were from -- this was a difficult question to answer for T and me, since we're kind of in between right now.  So we explained to the agent that we were in the process of moving from Boston to Phoenix -- fyi: don't give the agent tons of extra information like this -- they don't really care.  After disclosing our Yuengling and Nashoba Valley wine, he sent us on our way (but with a definite look of crazy/stupid Americans).

The (long) drive through Ontario was mostly uneventful except for my detour off the highway in search of coffee at Tim Horton's (fyi: Tim Horton's is to Ontario what Dunks is to Massachusetts -- one at every corner).  I don't think our GPS unit was too familiar with Canada and started taking us in weird circles to get us back on the highway, luckily, I had my road atlas (when in doubt, paper trumps technology!) to get us back on track.

We made it to Detroit around 6 pm.  The officials at US Customs are very thorough -- the agent even wanted to see the invitation to my friends' wedding on Saturday to corroborate our story!  They don't mess around!  He was very nice, but definitely doing his job!

After checking into our hotel (on the 60th floor, overlooking the Detroit River), we went to dinner (and sat outside, since the weather's beautiful!) at a fantastic, Italian restaurant right along the river.  After dinner we took a walk along the river with music from Caesars Palace (across the river in Canada) in the background.  

We are still debating our route from Detroit to Phoenix -- we would like to take the Northern route through South Dakota and into Wyoming, but we're not sure we have enough time...

In search of Yuengling

We are officially on the road!  We wound up leaving around 1 pm today (much later than we had planned, but oh well).  It was our tentative plan to stop by the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, but by the time we were near Cooperstown, it was 4:45 pm and the HOF closes at 5 pm this time of year.  Bummer, but it did allow us to make up some time.  We stopped in Canajoharie, NY for dinner and also swung by Price Chopper to pick up some Yuengling beer!  Yuengling Lager, to be specific - and it's not available in MA, which makes it even more tasty!  Thanks to Bob F. for turning us on to that!!

We planned to do some camping along the way, weather permitting.  Tonight, though, we ended up in a Residence Inn in Rochester - the polar opposite of camping with its kitchen, living room, and ESPN!

Tomorrow we're off to Detriot.  Hopefully that squeaking noise we heard from the engine today (a belt, I think) won't be a problem...

Oh, yikes...

So...we're supposed to be driving out of MA tomorrow morning (on the early side) and we have yet to pack one item into our car. We've barely even set anything aside that needs to go into the car. I'm predicting that we don't pull out of the driveway any time before noon tomorrow. LOL.

Beginning a new chapter

On Septemeber 24th, my husband, T, and I are embarking on a new adventure...we are moving from Boston to Phoenix! I grew up in the Phoenix area and my husband was brought up just north of Boston. Twelve years ago, I moved to Boston to attend college and had every intention of moving back home as soon as I received my degree. In my final year of college I met T and he convinced me to stick around the area for a bit longer (haha! 8 more years?!). Well, after numerous winters, we are finally ready for some serious sunshine! All of our stuff was moved to our new home in Phoenix almost 4 weeks ago, T sold his car, and we've both figured out a way to work remotely at our Boston jobs...now all that's left is to say our goodbyes (I will miss you too, BC! -- see pic) and drive my Mustang out West!