Two days and 800 miles from home

We started this adventure of a lifetime right on schedule, Wednesday morning at about 8:30.  It was raining and there was a thick fog.  I tried to tell Matthew and Beth that rain at the start of a trip is a sign of good luck.  Ha!  Actually, it rained much of Wednesday and about half of Thursday.  At least we don't have sun in our eyes!

We drove through Indianapolis, Indiana on the way to Huntley, Illinois (outside of Chicago).  We have this idea of taking pictures of state capital buildings, since alot of our driving will include state capitals.  This is kind of "dirve-by" shooting, from the car window, sometimes in heavy traffic, but we thought it might help us remmber the trip.

So, here's the capitol building for the state of Indiana.

The rain had stopped and we found a nice park on the outskirts of Indianapolis for a picnic lunch.

In northern Indiana, about 100 miles outside of Chicago, we encounted a farm of a different sort, a windmill farm.  There were hundreds of windmills, on either side of the road, stretching off to the horizon.  Some pictures:

I guess this is a "green enengy" project, located in lots of green farm fields.

We visited with Matthew's cousins Faith and Andrew and had a great pizza dinner with them and their folks.

We stayed in Rockford, IL on Wednesday night.  Thursday was to be a day of new states for Matthew!  We quickly got to Wisconsin and made it to Madison (a state capital!) for lunch.

This was in a nice park, across from the main part of Madison.

Is it fair to judge a state by it's public restrooms?  The restroom in the park in Indiana had a pool of water on the floor and hundreds of spiders.  The one in Wisonsin was immaculate.  Oh, Madision is a very bike friendly town, with lots of bike paths and people using them. 

As we left Madison, Matthew serenaded us.  You can see that the car is full to the ceiling!

Driving through Wisconsin was interesting.  There were many dairy farms but also some varied terrain with mini-mountains and rock formations along the way.  We never had time to stop and sample the cheese!

We arrived in St. Paul/Minneapolis in the early eavning.  Just enough light to get a picture of the capitol building!

We ended the day at that sanctuary of capitalism, the Mall of America.  This is a huge place, with four floors of stores and an enclosed amusement park in the center.  Of course, we had to partake of all the delights - food, shopping, and a bumper car ride.

Tomorrow promises to be a long day - driving across North Dakota!