Last day of travel Iowa to Manitoba, Canada

8 am Iowa 22C
Mt Pleasant, Iowa to Boissevain, MB Canada
865 miles, approx. 13 hours driving time

Lots of painted quilts on barns!  So fun!
Holland, IA 14.497 @ $3.449 $50
pink skittles
Construction on the #218 so we took some side roads #20, #14, #8

We're seeing many little to large country farms.  Their rhubarb is already going to seed, ours isn't even popping up yet!

We noticed the thinning of traffic as we headed back north towards Canada.  The land is looking more "familiar" to us as it is has more farming.

Mei bought "Funyons" with great buyers remorse.  Then she saw some "Flamin' Hot Funyans!"  When we arrived back home, our friend from California told us how she had adored Funyans when she was a teen.  They were not our thing, but the chickens seemed to tolerate them.  Next time we'll stick with the gums, chocolate bars, cereal or sweet tea.

They still have very nice tourists stops, and we sure appreciated that while we were travelling.  So nice to get a bit a feel for a state when you are literally breezing through.

Iowa Pig Poop ?

Minneapolis.  Opened our bottle of "sweet tea"  All in favor. YUM!  We'll buy some more of that next time.

Of course I'm looking at the quilts!

Beautiful tourist booth, rest area for our picnic

We did notice some lack of landscaping around houses?

 Then we're getting more northern and the rest stops along the highway make you a little scared...

We're almost home, it's getting colder and less populated.  Colder, less traffic and we know we're almost home when we start seeing Bison Transport Semi's with Manitoba license plates.

I drove while Gregg got some sleep. Gas stations in Dunseith, ND were closed, so good that we had enough fuel to get home.  Reached the Peace Garden International Border Crossing at midnight.  We had all our receipts in hand, all written down and added up and categorized for them.  They asked the typical questions "How long", "where", "drugs", "alcohol", "weapons".  $847.93 declarable goods, plus the girls little purchases. We were waved through and arrived just after midnight to my folks near Boissevain, MB.  Ahhh sweet sleep!

A whirl wind trip and we arrived home to the grass just starting to get green and "the first hot days we've had".  Guess we hadn't missed anything while we were sunning ourselves in 30C weather :)  YEAH!

Girls are already plotting how to go back again next year.  So we told them, well, if you save up your portion of the costs, we'll go again.
**** Note to self **** Be careful what you promise, it looks like you'll have to come true on it!  Girls worked in the summer at a few different jobs and saved up their portion for the trip!  Now I'm scrambling to sell some more aprons, hats, etc to make up my portion :)

DISNEY WORLD 2015 trip is in the works! Stay tuned! May 1-15

Our journey begins... through North Dakota, Minnesota and into Wisconsin DAY 1

Saturday, April 26, 2014

We already mentioned some of North Dakota, but near Rugby ND is the Geographical center of North America.

6 pm we stopped at the Minnesota Travel Stop.  Little playground, pet area, nice bathrooms, info, etc.
Holiday feels like no other holiday we've been on ~ we're in a different country! Everyone is very relaxed, there is no turning back now...let's have some fun!

Watch out Minnesota ~ here come the Thiessens!

Well, we thought of the Blue Goose Cattle Co. manager when we saw this.

The Stamart finds!  Adapter for our electronics and Uncle Si cups!

Yup, y'all can buy you a sword too

Funyuns!  Mei ended up buying a small pack of these near the end of our trip ~ there were no onions in them.  Flavoring yes.  Gross, yes.  Sorry Sheri, they were not quite our idea of "FUN"

Now that was shocking!

Mei found this little toy gun in the discount bin with our Si mugs.  She held it and then pulled the trigger to see what it would do....well...it shocks!  Really shocks!  It is also a lighter.  We don't think it is supposed to shock, but that was a nice little side effect.  It was great fun passing it around to all the family members and laughing at their pained expressions.  (Yes, we did go back on the way home and purchase this lighter!  We gave it to my folks and have had more fun laughing at many relatives as they fling it into the air, jump, scream, drop their water, etc when it shocks them!)

The Travel Stops are all very nice.  This one had a little playground that we had fun remembering how much fun we used to have on these ~ guess the girls have grown a little!

There was also a pet area...which seems very normal for the travel stops along the way.

Showing green and a few pansies already end of April

Getting our exercise in while we can

Gregg has a workout routine he does that includes doing sets of push ups.  So as Gregg was finishing 1 set of push ups, a man walked by and went into the washrooms.  Gregg finished that set... took a break.  Gregg started in on another set and the same man walked out of the washroom.  The look of shock and disbelief on his face was priceless the girls said.  The man must have assumed that Gregg was doing push ups the 

whole time.  He looked very impressed!  

 Stopped at Albany MN to fill up at a Shell and there was a Subway and a Chicken place.  Kate got them to make her a salad at Subway for $5 and we got 1/2 price chicken bucket for $13.

Girls with their Orbit Gum for Kids and Kids Toothpaste from the hotel manager.

Found a Family Fresh Grocery down the road

Gregg also had the opportunity to apologize to our hotel manager at the Royal Inn in Hudson, MN.  The gentleman was of Indian decent and had an accent that we would associate with them.  Well, Gregg has the habit of developing accents.  We went up to the room to do our "flashlight-bed bug" check and then Gregg phoned down to tell them that we would take the room.  It would have been fine if Gregg hadn't developed the same accent as the manager.  The manager was acting confused on the phone and Gregg didn't understand my sign language of "stop talking different!".  So Gregg had to go down and apologize to the manager and they had a nice little bonding time and a good laugh.  Poor Gregg!

Pouring rain again while we unpacked and hiked our luggage up to the 2nd floor.  We spent $75 with the CAA discount.  Hudson is just East of Minneapolis.

No one wants to get up, but we'll wake them with the promise of a hot breakfast in the morning!

Through Dunseith, ND, took the #3 hwy to #2 hwy to Grand Forks, ND
#29 and #81 to Fargo
#52/#94 to Minneapolis, Minnesota
Dunseith Fuel $59.  Grand Forks Fuel $70 Albany MN Fuel $71

Driving through Chicago at Midnight on a Sunday DAY 2

2nd day Sunday April 27, 2014
Wisconsin is now showing green grass, unlike in Manitoba when we left.   5C.

It was still pouring buckets of rain down on us, so all we wanted was a nice hot breakfast.  We asked some nice elderly folk in the grocery store if they could point us in the direction of a good breakfast nook.  We ended up at Denny's Retro Diner in Hudson Wisconsin.  Sunday morning, it was full!

They didn't have much for selection on teas in the US but they did have HONEY

Busy diner

Waiting for our food at Denny's

Pam, our waitress extraordinaire! 

Oh Pam, we almost drove out of our way on the trip home ~ just to see you again!

 A tip for Pam

 It turned out to be a little cold for the slushies and the slushies themselves were a little runny.  Some buyers remorse going on ...

 Noticing that prices on chips were not that different.  Everywhere we went they were around $3 for a bag.

All the Barbie, Life in the Dreamhouse characters!!! EEEEEEE

Gregg couldn't get over how they sell guns in Wal Mart

Kate and Uncle Gordon ... opps, I mean Uncle Si

Jo and Midge

Driving through all the wind and rain was exhausting

Poor Gregg ~ so much wind!  Lots of tornado's to the South East of us

Paying tolls is not necessarily new to us, but we were getting it down pat!

Tolls were around $10 to get into Indiana on the I 94

Guacamole... in a tub, but in a bag inside.  Yup, kinda gross.

Travel stops with pinball machines made for a happy time!

A pumpkin Cheesecake cookie.  Only found in the US, but Made In Canada!  HA!

Travel stops were just the best!  We noticed later just how many of our memories and photos were taken in them.  Traveling with children would be easy.  We often got hot water and made our own tea as well.

There are also Fireworks stores everywhere and they are huge buildings with huge signs.

Gas stations have names like "Freedom" and "Tesero" and "Loves" and "BP" and "Holiday"

We are noticing Pro Life and Pro Fatherhood billboards a lot.  Something you don't see too much around Manitoba.

Chicago radio station report ~ "We have a report of a couch in the center lane.."

No pictures turned out of our drive through Chicago around midnight on a Sunday night.  It was stunning in it's own way.  Old buildings, run down areas and then sky scrapers and modern architecture.  I made sure Gregg was watching the road !  ha ha.

Chicago Skyway toll $4.

The temperature rose dramatically after Chicago from around 5 C to 15C. by 8:30 pm. We stayed at the Comfort Inn in Portage IA for $78 with a CAA discount.  We are traveling with a thermarest mattress for Mei to sleep on the floor.

They served a hot breakfast (continental style) but nothing really for Gluten Free.
 We're in biscuit and gravy areas now!

The quilts were so comfy!

The rain stopped just long enough for us to unpack into the motel and then it rained all night as well.

Steve and Bertha being interviewed by Oprah on their traveling tips

2nd day Sunday April 27
Family Fresh Groceries $84.14
Denny's Retro Diner $38.38
Tomah, WI Kwik Trip 20 L $75
Wal Mart groceries and trailer lock $19.48
I 94 Tolls to Chicago, $6.40
OH 6 Ohio Turnpike partial toll
Wisconsin is now green 5C raining
Skyway Chicago into Indiana $4.
Indiana tolls I 90 $1.80
Temperature rose dramatically up to 15C at 8:30 pm