Portage, WI

Well, as usual, our plans changed slightly from what we originally were going to do.  When we left West Fargo this morning, our plan was to go to Lacrosse, WI, get there early, play golf and check out the city which we really love to visit.  As we were nearing Minneapolis, the heavens opened up and the rain came down - no golf!  We continued our plan to go to Lacrosse, but go on a little further and put a few more miles in before we stopped for the evening.  South of Minneapolis, we took the Great American River Highway along the Mississippi.  It's probably pretty, but with the rain, clouds, etc., it wasn't very scenic.

This morning didn't start out well anyway.  When we got up and I was loading the car, I left the door to the house open and guess who decided to check out his newfound freedom.  I found out why Adrian and Michelle named their dog Chase.  That's what I did all over the neighborhood - Chase running and me chasing, trying to stop traffic so he didn't get hit.  One woman yelled at me to "Keep your dog on a leash" - oh, if only I had.  With the help of a jogger (very attractive young woman), we managed to chase him back toward the house and he ran into the garage.  I had tried calling Vi and Michelle, but no one was answering their phone.  So I got my aerobic exercise in early this morning - unplanned, but stimulating.

Nice drive down.  As we crossed the Red River and left North Dakota, the countryside changed almost immediately from flat farmland to rolling farmland with lots of trees.  As we got further down I-94, there were more lakes (remember MN is the Land of 10,000 Lakes).  Lots of traffic and the rain didn't seem to slow down the construction (or at least the barriers and lane changes). 

Now for your history lesson of the day.  Portage, WI is so-named because back in the mid 1600's, trappers discovered that you could portage from the Fox River to the Wisconsin River at this location and thus find a trail which connected the Great Lakes to the Mississippi.  Interesting, eh!  Just before we got to the intersection of I-94 and I-90, we passed through Wisconsin Dells - a huge recreation area.  I think Tom and Carolyn came through here when they were headed out West in Bucky years ago. 

Tomorrow our main goal is get through the Chicago area - probably head a little further south than actually going through Chicago and see if there's a blue road* which heads east. Not sure how long we'll be on the road before we get to Tim and Kathy's in Rochester, but we're thinking either Thursday or Friday.


*Blue roads are the non-interstate roads, so-called because they are blue on the road maps