There isn’t really very much to say about today. We basically spent the whole day in the car, which was good… because that meant we stuck to our plan.
We got a late start… that’s been pretty typical so far on this trip, but I like that we aren’t in a rush each morning. It has been nice to start each day at a leisurely, enjoyable pace. Also, we haul a ridiculous amount of stuff into the hotel each night. I’ll admit that most of the crap is mine. Generally, I’m a pretty decent packer, but that was not the case when I was getting ready for this trip back in Salt Lake. The result is, I have stuff I need everyday in about 4 different bags/suitcases. Rather than spend the time on the road repacking all the things I need in one place, I just haul all these bags in each night. On top of that, we have food and beverages and my bike and bike rack, etc etc. Needless to say, loading up the car each morning is a chore that typically takes about 20 minutes, because, and this will suprise no one who knows me well, I’m a little OCD about certain things. Two that likely fall near the top of that list are 1) my car, and 2) my desire, no need, for things to be organized. Each morning I have to load everything into the car in a certain way so that it all fits in the least amount of space (which, lets be honest here, still means my car is packed to the gills, but at least it looks a little neater).
So back to today… we left the hotel about 10 am, and headed to Falls Park, which is a little park in Sioux Falls next to the waterfalls that the city is named after. The falls are small, but very cool. We spent about 30 minutes there taking way too many pictures of the falls from every conceivable angle.
Sioux Falls
Ruins of an old flour factory next to the falls.
We finally hit the road around 11, with me driving. I took us all the way across Minnesota, stopping only for one quick bathroom break. I have imagined, many times in my life, that Minnesota is a beautiful state that I would like to spend some time getting to know. Let me just say for the record, the beautiful part of the state is NOT the area adjacent to I-90. Another long, boring stretch of highway. When we started out this morning I asked Pops to look on the map and see if there was anywhere worth stopping along the way. I have this philosphy/creed that unless I actually stop and do something noteworthy in a state, I can’t officially claim to have been there. For this reason, spending 4 hours driving across Minnesota does not count. I decided relatively soon into the drive that I would gladly come back and spend some time in other parts of the state at a later date (Mall of America anyone?) but today all I cared about was getting out of there.
We made it to Madison, WI at about 5:30. I immediately dragged Pops into a cheese store before it closed at 6:00 where I proceeded to pay the most money I have EVER spent on a 1/4 lb. of cheese. The cheesemonger did let me sample it, and a few others, first. I ended up buying 2 different kinds of cheese, both on the pricey side, but both amazingly delicious and both produced by small Wisconsin artisanal dairies. Also, I figured, who goes to Wisconsin and doesn’t buy cheese? Am I right? As an added bonus, I asked the cheesemonger if he could recommend a good Italian restaurant in the area and he sent us off to a fantastic place around the corner called Osterio Papavero. I’ve decided to begin cultivating a love of mushrooms, so I ordered a pasta dish with peas and mushrooms which was amazingly delicious. It went a long way towards helping me not only tolerate, but actually enjoy them. Kirk and Anne, don’t get too excited. I’m still not a huge fan of button mushrooms… but I’m making progress on the other kinds.
The Wisconsin state capital in Madison.
The cheese shop where I spent too much money on a hunk of cheddar, Fromagination.
The display of cheeses from Wisconsin.
My appetizer... I think it was called braesola. So tasty! Even Dad heartily approved. I was a little sceptical about the fruit (orange and grapefruit segments) but it totally worked.
My pasta dish. Apparently the name of this pasta in Italian means, "Strangling the priest."
After dinner we drove down to the main shopping drag, wandered there briefly, and then hopped in the car and drove on to Indiana. We made it across the border, past Gary, and then crashed at the first hotel we came to. We have another three hours to go in the morning to make it to Ann Arbor. I can’t wait. Tomorrow is the day I have been excited about since we began our little journey. Zingermans, at long last! I’ll be sure to let you know tomorrow night if it is as great as I have often imagined it would be. I’ll also provide a detailed list of everything we eat and everything I buy there. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. And on that note, its about 1 am and time for this little chick to go to bed.
A few final pictures:
State Street: Madison's version of the college hang out/shopping district that exists in every college town in America (with the exception of Salt Lake of course).
Did you know The Onion started in Madison?
And a few final thoughts…
- I was without T-Mobile service for a full 3 days. I never once had T-Mobile service in all the time I spent in Wyoming and South Dakota.
- Signs I wish I could have photographed if I had not been driving or my father had not been asleep:
- On a number of the “Adopt-a-Highway” signs in Minnesota, in the space where it usually has an individual or an organization’s name, “Sentenced to Serve”. Hmmmmm.
- Signs for the Spam museum. Honestly, if we didn’t have so much distance to cover today, I would have been tempted to stop.
- A number of anti-abortion signs. I didn’t really expect that in the north. In the south, yes. But it surprised me to find so many in Minnesota.
- As soon as we entered Wisconsin we passed a Panera (yay!) and in Madison we passed two Potbellys (double yay!).
Shan,
Love the bloggin’ on your journey, travel safe -
Aaron & the White fam
Oh my gosh. Strangling the Priest? That’s awesome!