Super 8 Motel - Madison

... Wisconsin, we proudly donned some cheese heads and Sammy got his picture made with the giant farmer holding cheese and a sausage. You'd have to be there to understand. Minnesota has really taken on environmental issues with hundreds of huge windmills. The last stop of the day was dinner in Sioux Falls, SD. We ate at Bob's made famous in the Roadfood book. It was as described. We love it and the owners. Time for bed. On to Mt Rushmore........

... 2009 Pug Hug. I also walked up State St and took photos of people. I enjoyed these photos so posted them here too.

This is the end of this section of the blog. I plan on continuing to travel, in fact I'm writing this from Ashland OR where I have not taken my camera out of it's bag yet...hmmmm.

1 year, 40,000 miles, improved physical health, lots of adventures, visits to beautiful place, and connecting with new and old friends.

... the side of the road. We don’t know if it was a shot or a car or whatever. The three guys on the street thought it was hilarious that everyone was so startled but we just wanted to get out of there.

We go past more depressing housing areas and umpteenth road works and decide we have had enough of Chicago we then get of the freeway and head out of town.

We have not booked a place to stay tonight so we pull off the highway at Janesville and park in the car park of ...

... another. All names to me before this trip, but I'm
slowly piecing together the gigantic puzzle of this country. I find it interesting to see all the various license plates and notice where they're coming from. The furthest so far iIve seen is Colorado and New York. No BC plates yet!

At around 6pm (we crossed a time zone after having passed Chicago, so we gained another hour!) we stopped for dinner just before Rockford. Michigan ...

We arrived in Madison about suppertime last night after a full day of driving the length of Illinois, and I have a new understanding of the old phrase "too wet to plow".  We've seen unplowed fields all through southern Indiana and Illinois.    Today we're off to the Bratfest downtown!  The weather is beautiful: sunny but cool (low 60s) with low humidity, a pleasant ...

... iced over for the hardy fisher people. I reconnected with my friends at line dance and actually remembered some of the dances.

Stayed in Madison for 2 weeks while I caught up on doctor appointments. I was reminded why I left as the weather was damp and cold and my body responded with pain. Oh well.

... today. we had one hill in particular that seemingly went straight up, and even in my bottom gear, i was standing on my pedals the whole way up and only pushing uphill at 3 or 4 mph. we later ran into a guy who was training for the madison iron man, and he told us that it's notorious for having the most difficult bike route because of all the hills. it's not all bad, though, because we could really get zooming on some of the downhill portions. after 35 miles or ...

Lots of corn, although it looks really dry. Poor corn. Pretty scenery. Wasn't able to take any pictures of the cows or any scenery since we were zooming by... Here's a picture of the road. Exciting. :P

... by Girum in his recent response. One fortunate thing... the US dollar goes approximately 4-times farther in buying-power in Ethiopia! However, supplies are limited and therefore cost more due to problems with distribution and availability. For example, I can eat for $5 a day- but a plastic chair might cost $40 (remember... there are no Targets or Wal-Marts in Addis). I hope that posting these for you will keep you up-to-date and informed about my approaching ...

... cold. So yeah... I will upload photos here for my Aussie and other friends to check out what it's like back in Wisconsin... and as I said then I will repeat now, if for any reason you decide to come to Wisconsin... look me up cuz I'd be happy to show you around:-) Thanks for reading my travellog and email or make comments anytime. I'd love to hear from you. Nicole