Day 7

Friday, 13th June

Jasmine and the Mississippi

Time to get wheels!! The two cities of New York and Chicago had been great, but our road trip was about to begin and that was always magic! We go up at around 7:00am and had breakfast, which was the usual, plus pancakes! We then loaded up our luggage and ordered a taxi to the Alamo depot at La Salle for 9:00am. It wasn't very far - just over the river - but we had a lot of luggage to transport. We had a choice between a red Toyota and a greyish coloured other vehicle, with a miserable face. Of course, I chose the red Toyota - not just because it was red, but because it looked happy! We named her Jasmine!

Getting out of Chicago was not too painful - we took Interstate 90, which ran alongside the Lake. It was so good to be on the road! We stopped at the Belvidere Oasis for lunch and to have a good look at the car!

We had planned to turn off at Rockford and continue to Dubuque, Iowa, before taking the River Road up to La Crosse, Wisconsin. However, the weather in the MidWest had been atrocious over the last few days. Cedar Rapids, Iowa had been badly flooded - Lake Delton, Wisconsin had completely disappeared - and there had been several tornadoes, one of which killed several boy scouts at camp, in Iowa. There was no way of completely avoiding the areas of flooding, or to be certain that we would dodge tornadoes, but we thought it safer to stick with the interstate. All was well, continuing through Illinois and into Wisconsin. Until we got to Madison, where there was a huge detour as I-90 was flooded. We followed streams of cars until a turning, where we got lost and had to ask directions at a McDonalds! We certainly weren't the only folk who had to do this, as they had maps ready!! So, we crawled along, for a couple of (not unpleasant) hours through the charming towns of Waunakee and Baraboo, back to the (unflooded part of the) interstate, for the last part of our journey.

where are we?

The rest of the journey was uneventful and we were soon entering Coulee Country!

at a rest stop

We arrived in La Crosse in the dark, but didn't have too much trouble finding our hotel, the Marriott Courtyard. Our room was pleasant, with a king bed, jacuzzi and sofa bed. It was on the first floor (that's the ground floor in American), with a nice view of the Mississippi River. It was a shame that we couldn't open the French doors which would've led us outside to the grass by the riverbank. Tired and hungry, we ordered room service fromPiggy's across the road. It was luvverly stuff - especially the cheesecake! Piggy, piggy, piggy!

view of the Mississippi from our room

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[ Day 18 ] [ Day 19 ] [ Day 20 ] [ Day 21 ] [ Day 22 ] [ Day 23 ] [ Day 24 ] [ Day 25 ] [ Day 26 ]

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