Category: Trip Log
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Little House
As Donna correctly answered, Mitchell is the town famous for the Corn Palace. Turns out we decided to go to De Smet instead. De Smet is the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little Town on the Prairie. They had lovely exhibits there, including a re-creation of the home that the Ingalls family built there. The…
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Across Minnesota
Today, we ventured across the entire state of Minnesota, with only a couple of stops. We stopped at a Dairy Queen in the late morning for a treat, then for gas later in the afternoon. We covered a lot of ground today, and the kids held up well. Tomorrow also promises to be a long…
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On Alaska?
After the water park, we didn’t want to have too long a day of driving, so we only drove as far as Onalaska, WI. Upon arrival, we realized we might have felt better if we had driven a few more miles over the Mississippi into Minnesota. This Comfort Inn is essentially in a little shopping…
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Water, Water Everywhere
Today, we hit one of the major attractions of our trip — the largest water park in America, Noah’s Ark Water Park. We arrived at around 11:00, and had a nice picnic lunch on the tables outside, then enjoyed about 4 hours of wet fun!
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A Plague of Mosquitoes
This morning we are in Madison, WI, at another Comfort Inn. After Whitewater, we drove for a little over an hour and ended up here. When we got out of the car to go into the hotel, we were greeted by a cloud of hungry mosquitoes. Some followed us into the hotel, and a few…
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Whitewater
From about age two to four, my family lived in a town called Whitewater, Wisconsin, where my dad taught at the University of Wisconsin there. My mom couldn’t remember our address, but as we had decided to head north from Illinois, I thought it would be fun to take a brief detour into the town.…
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My Heritage
Today, we made a visit to Heritage Manor, the nursing home where my grandmother (Nonna — Italian for grandmother) lives. Seven years ago, when we were last out this way, Tyler was an infant and Nonna was (at age 91) still living in the home that her husband built for them. Nonna looks pretty good…
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Peruvian Monolith
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World’s Most Finicky Town
This morning finds us awakening in Morris, IL at the Comfort Inn. Morris is home to the Dresden Nuclear Generating Plant, and I did a little research to see how far away from us it is, but it would take about half an hour to get there. Would love to drive by and at least…
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Ann Arbor to Morris
Today, we drove from Ann Arbor, MI to Morrtis, IL, en route to Peru to visit with my 98 year old grandmother. We flew out to IL about five years ago to visit, and she was still in her own home in Oglesby back then, but the morning before we arrived to visit, she had…