Venturing West, Part 2

This part of our trip took us through Wisconsin on I-90 and then I-94 to Minneapolis to visit my Dad, sister, and my mom who had already made the trip out the day before. We rolled out of Long Grove at 10 am sharp and saw "Welcome to Wisconsin" at 11:36. Wisconsin has lots of pretty, green farmland. And here's Simon driving:

Below is my favorite picture of Wisconsin though, which I took about an hour after we stopped for lunch in Mauston. We ate at a Culver's and enjoyed their rich frozen custard. It continuously slides down a ramp from the machine in thick slabs, like Playdoh. It's neat to watch the servers cut off a section only to have more ooze out. It reminded me of being a kid. Our turtle sundae was delicious, and soon we were back on the road to more farmland as we travelled through the Dells of Wisconsin along the Wisconsin River...

We hit the Minnesota border at 4:29 ("Minnesota Welcomes You") and arrived at my Dad's apartment at 4:50, making good time and clocking 677.2 miles on the trip odometer. My parents were just returning from helping my sister Emily move out of her dorm room, and in a short bit Simon and I went with them to dinner at Rock Bottom Brewery in Minneapolis.

Rock Bottom is a small chain with 33 locations in 15 states (including 5 in Colorado) but there are none in Michigan, and Simon hadn't been before although I had been previously with my family. Each restaurant has an on-site brewery where they brew beers unique to the location. I liked my Itasca Extra Pale Ale which had a refreshing and unique orange-grapefruit flavor, as described (click Lagers & Ales), and Simon enjoyed Erik the Red. The other highlight of dinner was our yummy appetizer of two huge Ballpark Pretzels with spicy spinach cheese dip. They come served in a special wrought iron holder, and they're fun to see and eat!

Here's us outside the restaurant on our way out:

After dinner we headed over to see Em at her new summer sublet while my parents brought more of her stuff. She has a nice room and was already busy enjoying the convenience of having a kitchen as she baked desserts for an upcoming event.

A good first day in Minnesota, to be followed by 3 more in our stop there.