The boys had their final swim lesson and we ran a couple of quick, errands,
most importantly dropping the garage door opener with our dog and house sitting
friend, Darcie. Once home we all got to work on the final prparations for the
trip. We even managed another visit from Dominic, the heating and cooling guy,
to replace the AC fan that broke right after he left earlier this week.
Pat thought we'd leave midday. I thought we'd leave mid-afternoon. So when
Darcie arrived between 6 and 7 PM, she was surprised to see us all at home --
showered and ready to hit the road. We were finally
ready to leave so we did. In the station wagon. The five of us went to dinner.at
Smashburger. Seems we had forgotten all about lunch. Grumpy, tired and hungry is no way to start a trip.
After a quick gas tank top off at Costco, we left Bloomfield at 8:20 PM - the
perfect compromise between midday and mid-afternoon. donchathnk?
We stopped just before 10PM to get custard at a Culvers and tucked the boys in
the bed over the cab. Liam and Gray looked out of the
forward window in the cab bed until they fell alseep. Pat and I drove and stopped for gas and paid tolls until
we were both exhausted. At an oasis NW of Chicago, we parked,closed the curtains
and took a nap.
Pat's nap was shorter than mine so when I woke up, we were on the road.
Northern Illinois is beautiful on cool summer mornings -- so quiet and
peaceful at 5 o'clock. We pulled into Galena a little after 7AM. We had
to wake Liam up to see the U.S. Grant home and took pictures.
Down the hill from the Grant home is a newish restaurant - Otto's, named for the
ghost of a man who had attemped to open a restaurant on the same spot
generations earlier. Liam got cinnamon swirl french toast, Gray had the egg
special, I had a bacon broccoli cheddar omlet and Pat had egg tacos- green
onion, goat cheese and just a touch of 'chicken sauce' (Siracha). The food was amazing and
we were hungry and tired - all resulting in the perfect storm of foodness. I actually caught Gray licking his plate.
We left Galena and headed to Dyersville, Iowa to the movie set of The
Field Of Dreams. After driving down lots of gravel roads through lots of farmland we
saw the familiar farmhouse and field complete with lights. The boys and Pat
grabbed gloves and a ball and we headed for left field to play catch and walk in
the corn field. Neither of the boys has seen the movie yet but perhaps one day
they will see pictures of them playing catch with each other and Pat and get
as choked up as I did photographing them. After all, this is the purpose of this
trip - to build a lifetime of memories for them.
Gray jumped in the pick up game that inevitably takes place here and scored
twice while the entire population of the stand cheered him on. It was the best
pickup game ever.
Austin, Minnesota was our next stop. Hormel has their Spam museum there. It
was awesome - kitchy, informative and fun. We'd go back in a heartbeat. Not
surprisingly a uniformed worker walks around the museum with chucks of fried
spam speared with pretzel sticks. We tried hickory smoked and bacon. The gift
shop is as good as it gets. Spam logo-ed everything.
Our final stop of the day was Blue Earth, Minnesota to take pictures with the Jolly Green Giant
statue. Ho, ho, ho Green Giant orginally was at the rest area where I-90 had it's 'golden spike' --connecting Boston and Seattle.
We checked into the nearby Welcome campground in Welcome, Minnesota for the night.
We had Hickory Smoked SPAM sandwiches donchaknow and I went
to bed. Pat and the boys stayed up and built a campfire then crashed.
We slept late and had homemade egg mcmuffins for breakfast, took showers
and got ready for the day.
