Road Trip – Day 4 Leaving S.D, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois

We were on the road again today at just before 6am.  I was exhausted and went back to sleep until around 7am.  Dad tried to wake me up to take a picture of sunrise, but I coudn’t keep my eyes open.  We were still buffalo hunting on our way out of S. Dakota, but we left without a confirmed sighting, which had us both bummed. 

As we rolled into Minnesota we grabbed some breakfast at a Country Kitchen (not Perkins again thankfully!) and I settled in behind the wheel for a while.  We were excited to try and find adventures in MN, but there wasn’t much to explore (at least off of 90E).  There was the 60ft tall Jolly Green Giant, but we coudln’t see which exit number the sign said, and by the time we figured it out, we had already gone past the exit.  We hoped to find something more just down the road, but all we got was corn fields.  Miles and miles of corn fields. 

So Minnesota was a slight dissapointment.  Lucikly as we headed into Wisconsin the landscape changed and the rolling hills began again.  We headed over the Mississippi River, and throug the Dells which was very pretty.  I really wanted to find something cheese related in WI, and luckily we saw a sign for a Cheese Factory, so we pulled over.  It was a small roadside store for the award winning Carr Valley Cheese.  We picked up some assorated fun cheesec and were on our way.

Initally we were supposed to stop in Madison Wisconsin for the night, but we would have arrived there around 3-4pm.  My Aunt and Uncle live  just across the border into Illinois, and getting there only added another 2-3 hours of driving to our trip for the day, so we decided to drive on.  Dad’s new GPS came in handy to find us the fastest way into Lake Forest and with no trouble at all (and no real traffic) we arrived in IL at my family’s house around 6:15pm central time.

So we’re here in IL for a few days now.  I have a wedding to go to in Quincy, IL (a few hours south of Chicago) and Dad gets to catch up with the family and relax.  We’re back on the road Sunday.

Until then, here are Day 4 Pics.  Have a good weekend!