We are at our friends house in Kitchener Ontario. We have obviously not had internet access for the last few days, thus the lack of posts. I had kept a daily journal so I could remember what day we were where, which I have posted below.
Thursday August 12, 2010
We woke up in the KOA in Butte Montana this morning with the intention of driving to Bismarck North Dakota. We didn’t make it that far though, as we were driving at the edge of a huge storm, and we were also warned against driving at night in North Dakota, as apparently the deer like to jump into headlights without warning. So once it started to get dark (we witnessed a stunning sunset) we started to look for a place to sleep. We pulled over onto a dirt road amongst farmers feilds just after Dickinson ND. We could see lighting on three sides of the van, but weren’t sure if the storm was going to pass us by or not, as we seem to miss it most of the day. North Dakota has a cool landscape of what looks like camel humps and canyons. Quite breathtaking to drive through.
Friday August 13, 2010
We woke up in a farmers field in North Dakota today. No one slept very much because of the huge storm that hit last night, and hung around for at least a couple of hours. It started around 10:30, and we had to pull the kids down from the bed up top as the wind was so strong the pop top was acting like a sail. Once we closed the pop top, the van didn’t move as much, but when I closed my eyes it felt like being on a boat in the ocean, as we were rocking this way or that depending on the gusts of wind. The lighting and thunder was impressive and it topped the storm we had in Saskatchewan on our way to BC.
Kelly was excited to try to get to Minnesota today because we decided to try to catch a Twins game, as the Chicago red sox weren’t going to be in town when we were. He got up, walked the dogs and then poked and prodded the rest of us until we were up and packed and on the road. We drove straight through to Minnesota and managed to get to the game just as they were singing the anthem. We splurged and all bought twins attire :).
Saturday August 14, 2010
We woke up in a truck stop in Wisconsin this morning. It was scorching hot, and we were worried that we would be driving in hot temperatures all day, but so far there has been cloud cover on and off, so it hasn’t been too bad, so far anyway. Today our goal is Chicago, Illinios, and tomorrow we are planning to drive to Detroit’s border crossing, and then visit Jay and Lisa in Kitchener, Ontario.
While driving through Wisconsin we passed all kinds of CHEESE signs, which I was curious about – highway pull-offs selling cheese?? But also all kinds of water slide parks. The kids begged to stop – but we were strong and managed to keep driving – though the cool water was tempting.
We arrived in Chicago around 6pm. Later than we thought, but so it goes. We were all hot and sweaty from driving with the heat on full to keep the van from overheating, and we were on day three on no showers. We found a parking lot close to Memorial Park, and walked to the fountain and the "bean". We all went in the fountain fully clothed (felt amazing) which is why were are all soaking wet in the photo at the bean. I couldn't take more photos at the fountain, as shortly after I took the one photo a security guard informed us that no dogs are allowed in the park, thus one of us had to stand on the sidewalk with the dogs while the other ran in the fountain.
After the park we walked back to the van, changed and went out for deep dish pizza and ribs. Driving out in the evening we had fireworks as the white sox had just won. We tried to find a campsite in Indiana, but after finding one that seemed a bit sketchy we ended up sleeping at a truck scale again. In the morning we let the dogs run off leash and they rolled in something disgusting, so we stopped at the first gas station and used a hose to wash them off as much as possible.
We crossed the border in Detroit, Michigan, and drove to Kitchener where we were able to finally shower and do laundry (Thanks Jay and Lisa!!).
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