Couldn't get Internet access, so this blog is yesterday's. :) Last night we made a plan to pack up the car and go in to Madison for breakfast and to see a little more of the city. First thing, Steve went for a run and spied a dog park where dogs didn't have to be on a lead - Quann Dog Park. Then we packed up and headed to the dog park to allow Ollie to run around at top speed chasing the ball. After he was quite exhausted we headed in to downtown, parked in a garage and set off to find Sunrise Cafe as recommended by someone yesterday evening: there we ate an overcooked omelet and drank indifferent cups of tea and coffee... so much for a local recommendation. If Madison wasn't in the mid-west it would certainly be on Our List if we were ever to consider moving back to a city, it was clean, full of young people and the they were really nice (once again, the weather was a beautiful sunny day which always helps.) The University was located centrally in the city so we drove around and saw the new students wandering aimlessly around - we obviously looked like locals as we were asked a couple of times if we knew where places were: The Agricultural Building for one - we had no idea.
Onwards to Sioux Falls. As we were heading out of the city we stopped at a Whole Foods, stocked up on some supplies, crammed it in to the truck - how we find room boggles us both, but we did. Our GPS lady, aka Serena took us out of Madison on Rte 12 which ran adjacent to I-90, it was a rolling road that took us through farm land and corn fields and provided us with some lovely views. As we crossed the Mississippi River into Minnesota the landscape changed to very rugged (briefly) then became flat once again. As we cruised along the Southern border of Minnesota and Iowa we realised that we might not make it to our campsite in Sioux Falls by night fall and as neither of us are fans of putting up a tent in the dark, we looked for a site a little closer. It seemed for the moment all we could find were KOA or Jellystone (!!) Park on the side of the Highway and even "Serena" had no idea as we were guided to a corn field that may have once been a park or campsite! So we went Old School and pulled out the map - Steve found Big Island State Park just outside Albert Lea, MN. We arrived there around 5.30pm and were allotted site #23 - it was wooded park on the edge of a huge lake a far cry from Jellystone (!). We saw a beautiful sunset on the glass like water, then Ollie ran in and splashed around... we started a fire, cooked up our sausages, Indiana corn and had a Madison, WI Spotted Cow beer.
After a very restful and peaceful night we had breakfast, a cup of tea and coffee and some cereal. Played Tetris with the truck and here we are now at a TA Truck Stop on our way to the Badlands, SD.
Vermont Plates Sighting: = 0
(one Mass. plate... we didn't wave)
No comments:
Post a Comment