Day 3 Aug. 31

Woke up to a cloudy day in Baldwin, Wisconsin but with a forecast for clearing weather.  Started out about 9:00 a.m.  Stopped at the town of Tomah to look at a cheese place and to wander through an Antique Shop.  Wisconsin seems to be the "land of cheese".  Probably explains why the Green Bay Packer fans are called "Cheese Heads".

 Lots of beautiful farms and rolling hills with forests in this state.  Entered Illinois at Rockford and followed Hwy.  39 to Hwy. 88 E to Chicago.  Stopped for the day at a suburb of Chicago called Downers Grove.  We will be here for three days. Our plan is to go into the core of Chicago tomorrow.

This picture is for Rick Rappel who is the world's greatest lover of cheese. 

Day 2 Aug 30/11

Well after our first day adventure the second day was pretty uneventful.  We didn't leave Bismarck ND until close to noon since we travelled so late the day before.  It was cloudy and drizzling when we left and the weather didn't change all that much during the day except to change from drizzle to fairly heavy rain back to drizzle every half hour.  We travelled to Fargo and on to Minneapolis in Minnesota.  You can tell by looking at the landscape that they have had a lot of rain this summer.  Rivers and streams are still swollen and lots of water everywhere.  We entered Wisconsin about 7:00 p.m. and are staying at the small town of Baldwin Wisconsin.  Minnesota is a beautiful state and Wisconsin appears to be similarly green and forested.  I'm including a couple of photos of Vicky and the corvette in our driveway before we left Calgary.

Tomorrow should bring us close to Chicago and we hope to spend a few days in that area before starting down Route 66.

Vicky and Mr. McSmurf who is travelling with us.

 Vicky is wondering how fast she can get the Corvette to go on the freeways.

Day1 Monday Aug 30/11

Well our first day of the trip was extremely interesting.  Ended up driving over 800 miles-not because we wanted to but because of some interesting things going on in some states of the U.S.  First of all there is an amazing oil boom going on in North Dakota.  Who would of thought????   Secondly they have had severe flooding this year that has displaced over 11,000 people.  These two things add up to an extreme lack of hotel and motel accommodation.  We had decided to stay in Williston North Dakota and when we arrived in the evening we found that everything is booked due to the oil boom.  We head 120 miles or so south of Williston and find the same problem at every town we stop in.  Finally at 2:30 a.m. we end up in Bismarck ND and find a Comfort Suites with a cancellation and we are overjoyed.  Not only that but they cut the rate substantially considering the time of day.  There are small wonders occasionally.
Anyways, it is Tuesday morning and raining but we are rested since checkout time wasn't until noon.  We will continue our journey east in hope that we reach some sunny weather and plenty of available accommodation.