Hilton Madison Monona Terrace

... 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........

We rode for 630km today .... a bit more really because we did a few detours trying to find a place for a deep-pan pizza lunch (very difficult since most places are closed on Sundays, which we didn't know - or expect!) and at around the 200 km mark on my odometer, we found ourselves on the Chicago Sky route (this narrow highway 'bridge' with no shoulder) and so we had to turn off quickly to try and find any gas station or risk me running ...

Just got housing information for Valladolid. Looks like everyone is right in the middle of the city. Downtown area. The university isn't too far from where I'm staying...judging by Google Earth. This is a screenshot of the area I'll be in:
http://i29.tinypic.com/2cigois.j pg

Nothing else really. Just preparing for this whole thing. :)

... among the Fulbrighters on the caste system in India, namely concerning whether people in the lowest castes have the opportunity to better their lot by pursuing more distinguished career paths. I was fascinated when the lecturer, a professor from India, attempted to explain the caste system by drawing a parallel with racism in America- I could hear 16 American teachers suck ...

I'm running on no sleep after a long first day in Madison, but I wasn't too beat to see early 4th of July fireworks lakeside on the University of Wisconsin campus- had to try out the "fireworks" setting on my new camera! Madison is beautiful, and the weather is lovely DC spring. All the Fulbrighters met today, enjoyed 45 minutes of Hindi 101, and watched a performance of classical Indian music after dinner.

Off to bed with me!

... in Australia for the first time and we've stayed in contact since then, so now it's my turn to see his hometown and see what there is to see in his home country. It was good timing that I got here when I did because there is a free world music festival going on at the moment with bands coming and playing from around the world, hence the 'world' music festival. So far I've ...

It's hard to make a first blog entry, perhaps even harder when there is so much background that came before our brand spanking new travel blog. Hope you're willing to suffer through the first few posts... My wife and I like to travel. Well, we think we like to travel. We've done a few road trips and low key vacations together, but neither of us has ever really traveled. You know - like without hotel reservations or tour ...

Whisked off to the airport by Kimby in the dark, I didn't even look back at the house! An easy flight to rainy Chicago where Andrea picked me up. Off to the Wyndham, and later, Brigette!! We wandered to Millenium park, which was great at night. the "bean" sculpture was cool in the rain. I love that park! Dinner at the Park Grill, then a sad goodbye to B. Tuesday we headed north to Madison. This time I get ...

... me to say good bye to the guys. Sunday went to lunch with Tonya and Megan and said our good byes. Attend a super bowl party at my cousins and said good bye to all my relatives. Didn't watch much of the game. Tonight I will be going to Imperial Gardens for dinner with the whole family and saying good bye to my older siblings. I don't see it to be a problem since in 7 weeks they will be all over in Australia visiting me for two weeks.

... of Washington, DC that I've been to. I did some sketches of the animals and I might scan some of them to add but they are a little disorganized. As I remember my two favorites were the kangaroos and the orangutans that had a scale in the cage and you could see their weight when they got on it. Also the ...